1. Pete Herman was one of the all-time great bantamweight world champions.
46 Facts About Pete Herman
1. 2.
An American of Italian heritage and descent, Herman was born Peter Gulotta in New Orleans, Louisiana, and fought from 1912 until 1927.
3.
Pete Herman retired with a record of 69 wins, 11 losses, 8 draws and 61 no-decisions in 149 bouts.
4.
Pete Herman's managers were Jerome Gargano, Doc Cutch, Sammy Goldman and Red Walsh.
5.
Pete Herman was born on February 12,1896, in Convent, Louisiana, to a family of Italian descent.
6.
Pete Herman fought his first professional fight around 1912 at age 16.
7.
Pete Herman was a smooth boxer and great body puncher, particularly skilled at inside fighting.
8.
Pete Herman defeated San Franciscan Eddie Campi on September 13,1914, in a twenty-round points decision in New Orleans.
9.
Pete Herman later drew on his loss to Fisse on September 29,1913, fighting him again in Memphis, Tennessee, and making Fisse his most frequent career opponent.
10.
On December 13,1915, Pete Herman defeated fellow New Orleans boxer Eddie Coulon in a fourth-round knockout in New Orleans.
11.
Pete Herman had faced Coulon twice in his early career on September 30, and October 21,1912, in two six-round draws in New Orleans.
12.
Pete Herman defeated Coulon on September 1,1913, in Memphis, Tennessee, in an eight-round points decision.
13.
Pete Herman lost to the great New York Jewish boxer Lew Tendler on February 28,1916, at the Olympia Club in Philadelphia in a six-round newspaper decision.
14.
Pete Herman had drawn with Brown three months earlier in Baltimore in another fifteen round bout.
15.
On May 14,1917, Pete Herman defeated Johnny Coulon in a third-round technical knockout at Lakeside Auditorium in Racine, Wisconsin.
16.
Pete Herman had a nine-pound weight advantage, and a two-inch reach advantage.
17.
Pete Herman was scheduled to have reported for service in the US Army after the bout.
18.
Pete Herman did not have great difficulty amassing enough points to win the bout.
19.
Pete Herman previously suffered a thirteenth-round technical knockout from burns in November 1914 in the same city.
20.
Pete Herman did not box from late December until May 1918, and may have been in military training.
21.
On December 14,1917, Pete Herman won with a third-round technical knockout against Frankie Mason, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
22.
Pete Herman defeated Chicago bantamweight Johnny Ritchie on January 7,1920, in an eighth-round technical knockout at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
23.
Only a day after the bout, Pete Herman sailed for London to face Jimmy Wilde.
24.
The Wilde-Pete Herman fight was staged on January 13,1921, at Royal Albert Hall in London, and resulted in a seventeenth-round technical knockout for Pete Herman.
25.
Pete Herman hurt Wilde in the 15th when the fighting was fierce against the ropes, and knocked him through the ropes three times in the 17th round to end the fight.
26.
On July 11,1921, Pete Herman defeated British Bantamweight Champion Jim Higgins in an eleventh-round knockout at the Highland Park Ring in London.
27.
Pete Herman won every round but the eighth, when Higgins delivered a blow to the chin of Pete Herman.
28.
Pete Herman took the match with a right hook to the jaw of Higgins, after which, according to one source, Higgins was down for a full five minutes.
29.
On July 25,1921, Pete Herman fought Joe Lynch in a rematch for the World bantamweight title in New York's storied Ebbets Field.
30.
Pete Herman forced the fighting, taking the lead from the opening bell using both left and right effectively.
31.
At the time, Pete Herman was one of the few fighters ever to regain a lost title.
32.
On September 5,1921, Pete Herman defeated French boxer Charles LeDoux at Louisiana Stadium in New Orleans in a tenth-round newspaper decision.
33.
Pete Herman lost the World Bantamweight Championship for the second time on September 23,1921, when he was outpointed by Johnny Buff in a fifteen-round title match at Madison Square Garden.
34.
Pete Herman put Buff on the canvas only once very briefly in the fourth round with a right to the jaw.
35.
For most of the bout, Pete Herman had trouble using his often powerful right effectively.
36.
Buff was fighting at nearly thirty while Pete Herman was only 25.
37.
Pete Herman had begun losing sight in one eye, and he claimed to have been nearly blind in that eye by April 1921, well before he fought Buff.
38.
Pete Herman fought five more times, knocking out number one contender Packy O'Gatty in one round at the Rink Sporting Club in Brooklyn, on December 9,1921.
39.
Pete Herman previously landed a strong right uppercut to the jaw of O'Gatty that had rattled him earlier in the round.
40.
Pete Herman claimed after the bout he hoped to get a title match again with Johnny Buff, but that Buff would not consent to meet him.
41.
Pete Herman retired in 1922 after winning a ten-round bout on points with Roy Moore in Boston on April 24.
42.
Pete Herman was appointed to an honorary position with the New Orleans Boxing Commission in the 1920s.
43.
Pete Herman appeared as himself in one movie, New Orleans Uncensored.
44.
Pete Herman was elected into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1959.
45.
Pete Herman was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.
46.
Pete Herman was a member of the Louisiana and New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame.