Edward Patrick "Mickey" Walker (July 13, 1903 (some sources indicate 1901) – April 28, 1981) was an American professional boxer who held both the Undisputed World Welterweight and Undisputed World Middleweight Championships at different points in his career. Born in

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

er and would later be recognized as a renowned artist. Walker is widely considered one of the greatest fighters ever, with

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

ranking him 17th on their list of the 50 Greatest Boxers of All-Time and boxing historian

Bert Sugar Herbert Randolph Sugar (June 7, 1936 – March 25, 2012) was an American sportswriter known for his work covering boxing and baseball. As the author of over 80 books, ''The New York Times'' called Sugar an "accomplished raconteur with a bottom ...

placing him 11th in his Top 100 Fighters catalogue. Statistical website

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 ...

rates Walker as the 6th best boxer to have ended his career at middleweight, while ''

The Ring Magazine ''The Ring'' (often called ''The Ring'' magazine or ''Ring'' magazine) is an American boxing magazine that was first published in 1922 as a boxing and wrestling magazine. As the sporting legitimacy of professional wrestling came more into questio ...

'' founder

Nat Fleischer Nathaniel Stanley Fleischer (November 3, 1887 – June 25, 1972) was a noted American boxing writer and collector. Career Fleischer was born in New York City. After he graduated from City College of New York in 1908, Fleischer worked for the ''N ...

placed him at No. 4 among greatest middleweights of all time. The International Boxing Research Organization ranked Walker as the No. 4 middleweight and the No. 16 pound-for-pound fighter of all-time. Walker was inducted into the Ring magazine Hall of Fame in 1957 and the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, right next to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected on ballots cre ...

as a first-class member in 1990.Cyber Boxing Encyclopedia – Mickey Walker
CyberBoxingZone.com. Retrieved 30 April 2014

Professional career

Career beginnings

Walker boxed professionally for the first time on February 10, 1919, fighting Dominic Orsini to a four-round no-decision in his hometown of

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Newark. On April 29, 1919, he was defeated by

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

in round one by Phil Delmontt, suffering his first defeat. In 1920, he boxed twelve times, winning two and participating in ten no-decisions. Once again, all his bouts were held in New Jersey, which was, at the time, one of the areas where scoring systems had not been instituted in boxing. Each fight that lasted the scheduled distance was automatically declared a no-decision, regardless of who the better boxer had been.

World welterweight champion

Walker boxed sixteen times in 1921, winning six, losing one and having nine no-decisions. By then,

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

had become one of the areas where decisions from points scoring had been legislated and this attracted Walker. He lost on a disqualification to Joe Stenafik his first time there, but earned his first decision win in twelve rounds against Kid Green the second time around. He also met world champion boxer Jack Britton in a no-decision in New Jersey and beat Nate Siegal in

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 ...

. In 1922, Walker went 3–4–4 before getting a world title shot. He lost to Jock Malone that year. However, on November 1, 1922, he fought for the world welterweight title against Britton, the reigning champion. Walker outpointed Britton over fifteen rounds to take the title.

Walker vs. Greb

Walker had thirteen fights in 1923, winning 11, having one no-decision and one no contest. He defended the title twice, against Pete Latzo and Jimmy Jones. Nine bouts followed in 1924, Walker winning six and having three no decisions. He defeated Lew Tendler and Bobby Barrett in defense of his world title and had two of his three no-decisions that year against Jock Malone. After winning two fights to start 1925, he went up in division to challenge world

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 Harry Greb on July 2 but failed to win the middleweight crown at that time, losing a fifteen-round decision to the division champion. He went back to the welterweight division, defending his title against Dave Shade and retaining it by decision. He won three bouts, lost one and had three no-decisions that year.

World middleweight champion

On May 20, 1926, Walker lost the world welterweight title in a rematch with Pete Latzo. It seemed Walker, now in his 20s, had physically matured out the welterweight division, though many might also point to his extra-curricular activities. Whatever the reasons, Walker then began concentrating on winning the world middleweight championship. On November 22, he finally was able to beat Jock Malone. On December 3, he claimed the world middleweight title with a controversial ten-round decision over world champion

Tiger Flowers Theodore "Tiger" Flowers (February 14, 1895 – November 16, 1927) was an American professional boxer. Nicknamed "The Georgia Deacon", he rose to prominence in the early 20th century, becoming the first African-American World Middleweight Box ...

. He kept that title for five years, defending it three times. He beat

Mike McTigue "Bold" Mike McTigue (November 26, 1892 – August 12, 1966) was the light heavyweight boxing champion of the world from 1923 to 1925. Early years Michael Francis McTigue (Mike McTigue) was born in Lickaun, Kilnamona, in County Clare, Ireland, ...

and former world champion Paul Berlenbach. On March 28, 1929, he tried to become a member of the exclusive group of boxers who have been world champions in three different weight divisions, but lost a close ten-round decision to world

light heavyweight Light heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight. The light heavyweight class has ...

champion Tommy Loughran. On June 19, 1931, Walker decided to vacate his world middleweight title and move up to the

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

division.

Later career

Walker's debut as a heavyweight on July 22 against former world heavyweight champion Jack Sharkey ended with a fifteen-round draw (tie). In 1932, he went 5–1, beating such fighters as

King Levinsky King Levinsky (10 September 1910 – 30 September 1991), also known as Kingfish Levinsky, was an American heavyweight boxer who fought during the 1930s. He was born as Harris Kraków and was a member of the Kraków fish-selling family of Maxwel ...

and Paulino Uzcudun before facing former world heavyweight champion

Max Schmeling Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling (, ; 28 September 1905 – 2 February 2005) was a German boxing, boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cul ...

, who knocked Walker out in round eight. He went down in weight again, to the light heavyweight division in 1933, when he lost a fifteen-round decision to Maxie Rosenbloom for the world title. The next year, Walker fought Rosenbloom again and was awarded a decision win. Unfortunately for Walker, Rosenbloom remained the champion, having taken Walker on in a non-title fight. Undaunted, Walker kept campaigning in that division until 1935, when he retired after losing to Eric Seelig by a seven-round technical knockout.

Retirement and death

After retiring from boxing, Walker opened a New York City restaurant that became a popular landmark. He became an accomplished painter, with many of his works exhibited at New York and London art galleries. During his boxing career, he found golf to be a suitable distraction to his

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

regimen and he often dragged his manager, Doc Kearns, and his kids to golf courses to play golf. Walker said on the January 13, 1955 "

You Bet Your Life ''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radioParkinson's Syndrome Parkinsonism is a clinical syndrome characterized by tremor, bradykinesia (slowed movements), Rigidity (neurology), rigidity, and balance disorder, postural instability. Both hypokinetic features (bradykinesia and akinesia) and hyperkinetic f ...

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis, literally meaning "hardening of the arteries", is an umbrella term for a vascular disorder characterized by abnormal thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries; this process gradually restricts th ...

and

anemia Anemia (also spelt anaemia in British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin availabl ...

. He was admitted to Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital for treatment. He died on April 28, 1981, in Freehold.

Professional boxing record

All information in this section is derived from

, 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

* NYSAC

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

champion (147 lbs) (2×) * NBA (WBA) welterweight champion (147 lbs) * NYSAC

champion (160 lbs) * NBA (WBA) middleweight champion (160 lbs)

''The Ring'' magazine titles

* ''The Ring'' welterweight champion (147 lbs) * ''The Ring'' middleweight champion (160 lbs)

Undisputed titles

* Undisputed welterweight champion (2×) * Undisputed middleweight champion

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

*
Walker at Cyber Boxing ZoneMickey Walker at The Boxing Magazine
* https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Middleweight--1920s * https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Middleweight--1930s * https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Welterweight--1920s * https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Light_Heavyweight--1920s * https://titlehistories.com/boxing/wba/wba-world-lh.html * https://titlehistories.com/boxing/wba/wba-world-m.html * https://titlehistories.com/boxing/wba/wba-world-wl.html * https://titlehistories.com/boxing/na/usa/ny/nysac-lh.html * https://titlehistories.com/boxing/na/usa/ny/nysac-m.html * https://titlehistories.com/boxing/na/usa/ny/nysac-wl.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Mickey 1900s births 1981 deaths American male boxers Boxers from New Jersey Deaths from Parkinson's disease in New Jersey International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Middleweight boxers Sportspeople from Elizabeth, New Jersey Welterweight boxers