Frank Klaus boxer

Frank Klaus (December 30, 1887 in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania – February 8, 1948) was an American boxer from 1904 to 1918. Klaus claimed the vacant World Middleweight Championship in 1913 and was elected to the Ring Boxing Hall of Fame in 1974. Gifted with a strong punch, he lost exceptionally few fights in his nine-year career, and was knocked out only once. Nat Fleischer ranked Klaus as the #6 All-Time Middleweight. His manager was George Engel.Frank Klaus was born on December 30, 1887 to German-American parents in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. He worked as a young man at the Westinghouse Machine Shop, and also mined coal with his father. He started boxing training early and after winning an amateur tournament at East Pittsburgh's Wilmerding Athletic Club was recognized to have boxing promise by local boxing mentor George Engel. He started his amateur career as early as 1904, and in February 1905 had three round wins on points in Pittsburgh against Frank Walton, and James Harris.On October 18, 1911, Klaus defeated the great contender Leo Houck in a newspaper win by both the Philadelphia Item and the Philadelphia Record. In his career, the Pennsylvania born middleweight fought some of the greatest welter, middle, and light heavyweights of his era, including Jack Dillon, Battling Levinsky, Mike Gibbons, Harry Greb, and Al McCoy.Klaus claimed the World Middleweight Title a few years after it became vacant upon the death of Stanley Ketchel in October 1910. Several contenders competed for the title. Accounts vary as to when Klaus was officially champion, but Klaus himself first claimed the title after defeating Sailor Ed Petrosky in a 20-round points decision in San Francisco on February 22, 1912. His victories over Jack Dillon, and later fellow claimant Georges Carpentier and former champion Billy Papke in France, cemented his claim to the title. He was officially recognized as champion by sanctioning bodies on March 5, 1913.In his historic title bout against Georges Carpentier on June 24, 1912 in Dieppe, France, Klaus won on a nineteenth round disqualification when Carpentier's manager entered the ring to protest his boxer being elbowed repeatedly by Klaus. Carpentier's manager tried to pull his fighter from the ring by his waist, but the boxer's second had already thrown in the towel.On September 9, 1912, Klaus defeated Marcel Moreau in Savoie, France as the result of a low blow foul in the fourth of fifteen rounds.