Punchers from the Past: Dave Sands
By Eric Armit
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 12 Jul 2023
DAVE SANDS
Born Kempsey, Australia February 4 1926
Died August 11 1952 Age 26
Turned Pro: August 16 1941
Record: 100 fights, won 87 wins (52) 10 losses 1 draw, 2 No Decisions
Won Australia middleweight title May 1946
Won Australian light heavyweight title August 1946
Won Empire (forerunner of Commonwealth) Middleweight title September 1949
Won Australia heavyweight title September 1950 (held all three Australian titles simultaneously)
Beat: Alex Buxton, Robert Villemain, Dick Turpin, Bobo Olson (twice)-the second fight in Chicago in 1951 was the first televised coast-to-coast in the USA.
Lost to: Yolande Pompey, Tommy Yarosz (other losses were domestic fights early in his career).
-Born David Ritchie in a mission in New South Wales he was the first indigenous (Aborigine) boxer to rise to fame
- Fifth of eight children to George Ritchie and his Aborigine wife Mabel
-His maternal great-uncle was a bare knuckle fighter, his father boxed as did five of his brothers
-Following his success in Australia and with a 67-9-1 record he fought in England and defeated Robert Villeman, who had lost a controversial decision against Jake LaMotta. After losing to Sands in July 1949 Villeman went on to beat LaMotta later in the same year.
-After his first victory over Bobo Olson he was rated No 2 middleweight by Ring Magazine behind Randolph Turpin. Attempts were made to get Sands a fight with Sugar Ray Robinson but Turpin landed the title chance and outpointed Robinson with Sands having to settle for winning a ten round fight on the undercard.
-Fresh efforts were made after he beat Olson in 1951but a loss against Yolande Pompey in November 1951 was a big blow and after returning to Australia and winning four fights attempts were again being made to get a fight with Robinson who had regained the title in September 1951 but on 11 August 1952 a truck Sands was driving overturned and he died that evening at the too young age of 26. Who can say how much more he could have achieved
Many Australians (and others) believe that Sands is the beat boxer ever produced by Australia and that he would have beaten Robinson if he could have landed a fight against Sugar Ray in 1951. He was inducted into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009 and is generally recognised as one of the greatest fighters never to have won a world title
About the Author
Born in Scotland, Eric Armit started working with Boxing News magazine in the UK in the late 1960’s initially doing records for their Boxing News Annual and compiling World, European and Commonwealth ratings for the magazine. He wrote his first feature article for Boxing News in 1973 and wrote a “World Scene” weekly column for the magazine from the late 1970’s until 2004. Armit wrote a monthly column for Boxing Digest in the USA and contributed pieces to magazines in Mexico, Italy, Australia, Spain, Argentina and other countries. Armit now writes a Weekly Report covering every major fight around the world and a bi-weekly Snips & Snipes column plus occasional general interest articles with these being taken up by boxing sites around the world. He was a member of the inaugural WBC Ratings Committee and a technical advisor to the EBU Ratings Committee and was consulted by John McCain’s research team when they were drafting the Ali Act. He is a Director and former Chairman of the Commonwealth Boxing Council. Armit has been nominated to the International Boxing Hall of Fame the past two years (2019 and 2020) to which he said, “Being on the list is an unbelievably huge honour.”
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eric Armit.
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