On This Day: November 30th
1956: Dublin welterweight Fred Tiedt guaranteed silver at the Melbourne Olympics with a points win over home favourite Kevin Hogarth. In the previous rouns the Trinity College fighter had beaten Pole Tadeusz Walasek and American Pearce Lane.
Tiedt would contraversially lose in the final, via split decision, to Romanian Nicolae Linca. The South Eastern European was awarded a 3-2 verdict which was met with a cacophony of jeers at the West Melbourne Stadium.
Such was the controversy, an official Olympic dispatch specifically mentioned the fight, reading “Probably the most unlucky boxer was Tiedt (Ireland) who lost a close final to Linca (Romania) after he had come through three very hard fights in his division against Aeleskra (Poland), Lane (USA) and Hogarth (Australia).”
1998: Eamonn Magee fought for the vacant Commonwealth light welterweight title at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester, and fel victim to a hugely controversial final referee’s scorecard that saw him losing to Paul Burke by a point (114:115). Most felt the Ardoyne man had done enough to win handily, and The Terminator was given another chance the following September, this time leaving nothing to chance and stopping Burke in the sixth.
1933: Jackie Flynn outpointed Jack Garland over twelve at St Mary’s Hall in Belfast to take the vacant Irish lightweight title. The Belfast man would lose the belt in his first defence, falling to Billy Gilmore in Windsor Park the following year.
1949: There were two Belfast derbies at the Kings Hall for BBBoC Northern Irish titles. Southpaw Tommy Armour outpointed Jackie King over twelve to take the welterweight belt, while Mickey O’Neill stopped Gerry Smythe in the ninth to take the lightweight belt.
