Tommy Farr pugile

Thomas George Farr (12 March 1913 – 1 March 1986) was a Welsh boxer from Clydach Vale, Rhondda, nicknamed "the Tonypandy Terror". Prior to 1936, Farr boxed in the light heavyweight division, in which he was the Welsh champion. He became British and Empire heavyweight champion on 15 March 1937. He challenged for the world title against Joe Louis in the same year and gave Louis one of the toughest fights of his career, hurting him numerous times and lasting the full 15 rounds on his way to a wide unanimous decision loss, with the referee awarding Louis the fight thirteen rounds to one, while the judges scored the fight eight to five and nine to six, both in Louis's favour. The decision was booed by spectators. Farr is considered to be one of the greatest British heavyweight fighters ever. Farr was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.In his early career he didn't have much success. He garnered some wins but losses specked his record every two or three wins. Most of his losses were against unknowns. He soon started improving, with a win over top contender Tommy Loughran in 1936. In 1937 he bested ex-champion Max Baer and earned a title shot against Joe Louis.On 30 August 1937, Farr fought world heavyweight champion Joe Louis at the height of his career at Yankee Stadium, New York City. He earned respect despite losing a controversial points decision after 15 rounds. Louis had knocked out eight of his previous nine opponents and proceeded to knock out his next seven, but was attacked and hurt by Farr. The 50,000 crowd booed when Louis won. Referee Arthur Donovan, Sr. had seemingly raised Farr's glove in victory, causing controversy. Seven years later, in his published account of the fight, Donovan apologised for the 'mistake', claiming he had meant to shake Farr's hand to congratulate him for what he saw as an impressive fight. "Mistakes" hardly ended there, however. Donovan's own scorecard, had 13 rounds going to Louis.Though mixed accounts say Louis deserved the nod, 13 frames out of 15 prompted these words from a British sportswriter: "The verdict is that of a man either blindly partisan or afflicted with astigmatism. It is a verdict that justifies the beliefs that nothing short of the annihilation of Louis would have given Farr victory. That Louis won may not be disputed, but as I read the fight, there was only a fractional difference in his favour at the finish." However, In Donovan's account, he stands by his scoring of the fight, claiming that while Farr's punches may have appeared to have done more damage than Louis's from the crowd's point of view, from his perspective and that of the ringside judges the opposite was true.