Cleveland Arena: Ohio’s Professional Boxing Mecca, 1937-1973

Book excerpt: Cleveland Arena featured professional boxing from 1937 to 1973 and left a lasting legacy that can never be duplicated. Many Cleveland boxers fought there during those years, including Jimmy Bivins, Joey Maxim, Chuck Hunter, Georgie Pace, and Carmen Barth. These men all came out of the Cleveland Golden Gloves. Cleveland Arena was the mecca of Ohio boxing with appearances from 50 fighters who at one time held recognition as world champions. Those fighters include such names as Henry Armstrong, Jake LaMotta, George Foreman, Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe Walcott, and Sonny Liston. Each of the arena's 162 fight shows--feature bouts, undercards, and all results--appear here together for the first time in print, accompanied by great stories and rare photographs. Jerry Fitch started following boxing in the 1950s. His love of the sport began while watching televised fights and eventually attending the World Welterweight Championship match between Carmen Basilio and Johnny Saxton at Cleveland Arena on February 22, 1957. He was only 10 years old. Fitch has since participated in many boxing activities; the one that has stayed with him is writing. He has written hundreds of articles for major boxing magazines and authored six books, including Arcadia's Cleveland's Greatest Fighters of All Time. This latest continues his journey.