Johnny Wilson was born Giovanni Francesco Panica on March 23, 1893 in
Harlem, New York City. He was a professional boxer who fought from 1911 until 1926. The highlight of Wilson's career came when he captured the world middleweight championship by defeating
Mike O'Dowd by decision over 12 rounds on May 6, 1920. Wilson held the crown until he was outpointed over 15 rounds by the all-time great
Harry Greb.
After retiring from the ring, Wilson was involved in the ownership/management of several successful nightclubs in New York and
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. Wilson died on December 8, 1985.
Cameo
In 1970 Wilson had a short appearing in Michelangelo Antonioni's
Zabriskie Point movie (at 00:42' in Italian edition), when he was 77.
Professional boxing record
All information in this section is derived from
BoxRec
BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopedia of boxing.
The objective of the site is to document every profess ...
,
unless otherwise stated.
Official record
All
newspaper decisions are officially regarded as “no decision” bouts and are not counted in the win/loss/draw column.
Unofficial record
Record with the inclusion of
newspaper decisions in the win/loss/draw column.
Titles in boxing
Major world titles
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NYSAC middleweight
Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports.
Boxing Professional
In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to .
Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...
champion (160 lbs) (2×)
*
NBA (WBA) middleweight champion (160 lbs)
Undisputed titles
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Undisputed middleweight champion(2×)
See also
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List of middleweight boxing champions Championship recognition
1884–1910
Champions were recognized by public acclamation. A champion in that era was a fighter who had a notable win over another fighter and kept winning afterward. Retirements or disputed results could lead to a cha ...
Notes and references
Notes
References
External links
Cyber Boxing Zone
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Johnny
1893 births
1985 deaths
People from Harlem
Sportspeople from Manhattan
Middleweight boxers
American people of Italian descent
American male boxers