Philly Boxing History

APRIL 21, 1954

JONES REPEATS VICTORY OVER TURNER

On this day in 1954, Bobby Jones, the California middleweight who defeated Gil Turner by ten round decision one month before, repeated the feat and went one better by scoring a last minute TKO over the Philly battler. The KO loss was only the second time Gil couldn't finish a fight, the first being his glorious title try against Kid Gavilan in 1952.

The rematch between Jones and Tuner was a close fight up to the time of the stoppage. In a curious note, the free swinging whirlwind style that made Gil Turner such a fan favorite (and effective competitor) was put on the shelf for this fight in favor of a laid back counter-punching strategy. It wasn't the best plan. Throughout the bout, Gil laid back on the ropes and waited for openings. This must have been a sight to see and probably had fans wondering if they were really watching Turner.

The end of the fight came suddenly in round ten when Jones nailed Turner with a rocket right hand. Turner staggered back against the ropes and Jones fired away with a volley of punches until referee Zack Clayton jumped in to stop it.

The loss dropped Turner's record to 42-6 with 29 KOs and finally made him rethink his move up to the middleweight division. Before long, he would be back fighting at a more comfortable 147 pounds.

  1954 - Henry 'Toothpick' Brown TKO8 Boland Abrams at the Arena in West Philly

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