BOXING LEGEND: JIMMY CARRUTHERS
By Ray Dunbar
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 19 Jun 2026
Jimmy Carruthers was born in Sydney, Australia in 1929 and represented Australia at the 1948 London Olympic Games.
He won the World bantamweight title from Vic Toweel of South Africa with a first round knockout in Johannesburg
in 2 minutes and 19 seconds in 1952. Carruthers landed 147 punches and Toweel did NOT land a single punch.
Carruthers being the only fighter to win the world crown without ever being hit. He was the first Australian boxer to be
universally recognised as the world champion. He defeated Toweel in a return contest with a ten round knockout.
In his next contest he defended his world bantamweight title against American challenger Pappy Gault at the Sydney
Sports Ground in 1953 before a record Australian crowd of 35,000 patrons and this attendance was broken in July 2017
at the Suncorp Stadium when Manny Pacquiao met Jeff Horn with a record crowd of 51,000.
During this time Carruthers had a health problem, his manager was a Medical Practitioner Dr. John McGir who had Jimmy admitted to a Sydney hospital where it was diagnosed that he had a tape worm, it was removed from his body and it was 29 feet long, they
called it "Charlie the Python".
In his last fight in May, 1954 at the National Stadium in Bangkok in front of a crowd of 69,815 he defended his world bantamweight title for the third time against Thailand challenger Chamren Songkitrat.
There was an electric storm with gale force wind and driving rain it was a torrential downpour. Both fighters fought in
bare feet and several times during the contest the light bulbs exploded showering the fighters with glass. This was the
only time that a world title fight was contested with both fighters in bare feet.
The sole judge was Australian referee Bill Heneberry who scored the fight 7 rounds to five, this result was supported by US Ring magazine editor Nat Fleischer who covered the fight for his publication. Jimmy Carruthers retired undefeated after 19 fights with 14 knockout wins.
He was a tall southpaw, extremely tough with a hard punch with outstanding speed, he had trouble with eye tissues and was often
cut around his eyebrows. He won the world title in his 14th fight and made three successful defences.
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