Jack Carroll was the greatest attraction in the history of Australian boxing, and one of Australia's most popular sportsmen during The Great Depression. Fighting over 100 times in a 16-year career, Carroll was the Australian welterweight champion, the uncrowned Australian middleweight champion and a top contender for the world welterweight title in the 1930s. However, he is rarely mentioned among Australia's greatest ever boxers.
Jack Carroll and The Rise of Australian Boxing recounts Carroll's boxing career, from his days as a preliminary fighter to his struggle to secure recognition as Australia's leading boxer, to his record-breaking contests with top contenders Bep van Klaveren, Jimmy Leto, Izzy Jannazzo, Wesley Ramey, Jack Portney, Willard Brown and Tod Morgan.
Also featured is the golden period of Australian middleweight boxing that made boxing one of the most popular sports in Australia. Jack Carroll's contests with Australian middleweight champion Fred Henneberry and the great Aboriginal boxer Ron Richards were among the biggest fights in Australian boxing history. The story of the heated ten-fight rivalry between Fred Henneberry and Ron Richards as well as the savage trilogy between Jack Haines and Ambrose Palmer are told in detail for the first time in this book.
With detailed fight descriptions and rare interviews sourced from newspapers, Jack Carroll and the rise of Australian boxing is the first extensive career biography of one of Australia's forgotten sporting heroes and is a must-read for Australian sports fans.
Industry Reviews
"These years of Australian boxing history and one of its greatest champions is vividly brought to life and one is engulfed to the degree of feeling you are part of his life and excitedly waiting to read of his next contest. It is a fascinating account of the development of a sport that was in its day one of the most followed, popular and supported sports in this country’s history. The author is himself a professional boxer and as such he brings an understanding of the sport and an incite that exposes so many of the fascinating twists and turns of this golden era in boxing and indeed in Australia’s sporting history.
- JOHN McDOUGALL OAM (Former ANBF President )
"Australia’s boxing history is amongst the richest in the world and Paul Cupitt’s book is another celebration of that. Paul’s research takes the reader back to a fascinating era of pugilism in this country and details a journey well worth discovering."
- BEN DAMON (Boxing Commentator)
"Boxing historian Paul Cupitt’s biography of Australian welterweight champion Jack Carroll 84-10-4 (39 KOs) captures the sights, sounds and remarkable record of one of the antipodes’ greatest ever boxers. Carroll was one of the greatest drawcards in Australian boxing history, but his story has been largely untold – until now. One of the biggest names in boxing in his day, Carroll’s sublime pugilistic skill and drawing power is vividly recreated in Cupitt’s compelling biography."
- ANTHONY COCKS (Boxing Writer)
"One of the best Australian Biography books of all time"
- BookAuthority
