Battling Bartender Lee Savold: Doctor’s Office Mystery Photo Solved
Recently, at my doctor’s office in New Jersey, this reporter was confronted with a please ‘solve the mystery’ of the boxing photo on the wall, as in who was the other fighter in the photo with Joe Louis, ‘The Brown Bomber’ who held the world heavyweight title and defended it 25 times. Mystery solved. The other fighter in the photo, Lee Savold, also called ‘The Battling Bartender’, was on the cover of the August 1940 issue of Ring Magazine. The photo shows the weigh-in on June 14, 1951, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Savold, the champ, weighed 190 pounds, while ex-champ Joe Louis, on the scales, weighed in at 211 ¼ pounds. The smiling official at the weigh-in was referee Ruby Goldstein.
The Battling Bartender, Lee Savold, who held the obscure British BBBC version of the world heavyweight title until he lost it to Joe Louis, fought professionally from 1933 to 1951, with a pro record of 98 wins, 41 losses, and three draws, with 72 knockouts. Savold lost a 12 round decision to world light heavyweight champion Billy Conn in 1940, Savold scored an upset eighth-round stoppage of Lou Nova in 1942, and knocked out Nova n two rounds in a 1943 rematch. Savold eventually reached the number one heavyweight contender position. Savold held the original record at The Garden for fastest knockout when he knocked out Gino Buonvino in 54 seconds on March 19, 1948. Savold subbed on 48 hours of notice for Joe Baksi, who pulled out with an ankle injury. The Garden fastest knockout record held until 2007 when Sultan Ibragimov kayoed Javier Mora in 48 seconds.
On June 15, 1951, Louis knocked out a bloody and broken nosed Lee Savold with a left hook at 2:29 of the sixth round at Madison Square Garden. Rising Rocky Marciano then knocked out Louis in the eighth round at The Garden October 26, 1951 and retired him. February 13, 1952, Marciano stopped Savold in six rounds at Convention Hall Philadelphia and retired Savold. Three fights later, Marciano was world heavyweight champion. After Savold lost to Louis, the BBB of C later decided to recognize Ezzard Charles as champion.
As a youngster, Savold broke horses and herded cattle on his family ranch in Minnesota.
At one time or another, Savold, worked a bartender, bouncer, road laborer, and stockyard worker. In 1943, Savold joined the United States Merchant Marine and took part in several convoys to Murmansk. After retiring from boxing, Savold worked for Local 825 of the International Union of Operating Engineers in Springfield Township, New Jersey,where the picture was found. Savold passed away in Neptune, New Jersey in relative obscurity at age 57 in 1972. In an amazing irony, Savold trained for the Marciano bout in Upstate New York at Pines Hotel in the author’s childhood hometown of South Fallsburg, New York. The Joe Louis versus Lee Savold heavyweight bout is an eleven minutes black and white film highlight reel and can be seen on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR9zg7B-4p8
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