Billy Defoe fought during an era of American boxing when certain fighters across the nation had nicknames that preceded their first names or replaced them altogether.
Nicknames such as Young, KO, Crafty, Battling.
Defoe himself twice defeated a fighter of some note with the first name Peanuts. That’s right. Peanuts Schieberl was 36-2-2 when Defoe won a newspaper decision over him in Hudson, Wisconsin on October 9, 1914.
The next time they met, five months later, Defoe came out throwing jabs, hooks, uppercuts and lead right hands. He shelled the Peanut, scoring a technical knockout over a man considered a salty opponent by some in the boxing world until he encountered the indefatigable DeFoe, whose quick hands left no doubt about the outcome in their re-engagement.
DeFoe was born in Minneapolis but not unlike those in other professions – actors, novelists, businessmen – his job rendered him a citizen of the nation, a man who lived where he found work.
For DeFoe that meant, in large part, the East Coast and points between his place of birth and the cities directly on the coast or even a bit inland, where large populations were enamored of the Sweet Science. Defoe fought for 17 years after debuting on October 30, 1913 with a kayo of one Otto Witske in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. By the time he finished, he had roamed from one coast to the next, taking several fights in various California cities in the last years of his career.
He seldom returned to his home state. He split two fights with Ernie Fliegel of Minneapolis in Minneapolis, losing a newspaper decision and then winning by disqualification. Perhaps his reluctance or distaste for “hometown” fights was seeded during the thirteenth fight of his lengthy career. He won a newspaper decision over Bobby Ward on August 20, 1915 at the St. Paul Auditorium. Two weeks later Matt Brock knocked him out in a fight held in Minneapolis.
Those fights were conducted during the early stages of DeFoe’s career. The traveling featherweight/lightweight did not fight again in his home state until February 4, 1927 when he lost a newspaper decision to Minneapolitan Ernie Fliegel. In a rematch two months later, again in Minneapolis, DeFoe was declared the winner by disqualification.
Defoe never fought again in the place of his birth, completing his career, for the most part, on the West Coast, where he took fights in Santa Monica, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland among other cities.
The year of 1928 was unatisfying to DeFoe, at least in terms of the results. He fought eight times in California, and on four occasions came away with a draw.
DeFoe had 33 fights that were decided by newspaper decision, another 21 were declared no contest, no decision or disqualification, meaning his total bouts approached 150.
The BoxRec website, from which statistics are acquired by the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame, lists the following definition for newspaper decision:
Unheard of these days, but common during the early 20th century, a ‘newspaper decision’ might be made after a no decision bout had ended. A ‘no-decision bout occurred when – by law or by prearrangement of the fighters – if both boxers were still standing at the fight’s conclusion (no knockout), then no official decision was to be rendered and neither boxer was to be declared the winner.
But this did not prevent the pool of ringside reporters from getting together, trying to find some agreement and declaring a consensus result among themselves, which then found print in their respective publications. (Sometimes a hometown boxer got a hometown newspaper decision.)
Boxing in DeFoe’s time was certainly a great deal different than it is today throughout the United States, but it was a great deal different as well than boxing even after the second world war.
Boxing, particularly in the large cities on the two coasts and nearby, was conducted in a multitude of small intimate clubs. Fighters who frequented those clubs, who trained and fought in them, were well known by the citizens who lived nearby. They were neighbors in many cases and were sometimes on a first name basis.
Fighters were members of a given neighborhood and were cheered on by everyone who knew them and even those in the area who identified with a given fighter because of where he lived.
It is quite likely that even someone such as DeFoe, who fought and trained wherever it was he landed for any period of time, would have attracted those who had witnessed him train or who had run into him on the New York City street of a given neighbor. Those fans would have backed him against whomever it was he fought on a given occasion.
DeFoe fought often and just about everywhere fight cards were offered, and it is likely that he had a fan base of some sort in the many places that he called home, regardless of the length of time he lived there.
Now, at long last, Billy DeFoe, born in Minneapolis and a citizen of the world when he fought, has found a permanent home in the Minnesota Boxing Hall of Fame.
