Jimmy Wilde, a tough little Welsh boxer, only 5feet 2 inches tall became the first official World Flyweight Champion on December 18th 1916. Nicknamed ‘The Mighty Atom,’ and ‘The Tylorstown Terror’, he fought in boxing booths in fairgrounds, and he gained the reputation for knocking out much bigger men than himself.
Jimmy was born in 1892 in Treharris, Merthyr Tydfil and he followed his father into the coal pits. He was so tiny that he could crawl into the smallest of shafts and dig the coal out. He started boxing for money when he was sixteen years old, and the crowds were amazed when he started knocking out grown men who were much bigger and heavier than himself. He gained experience against opponents of all sizes over the next eight years and when war was raging with Germany, he joined the army. He was sent to Aldershot as a Physical Training Instructor.
Jimmy’s official record shows that his first fight was against Les Williams on 26th December 1910. The result was a draw. Then a few days later he fought Ted Roberts on 1 January 1911, and knocked him out in the third round. He was on his way to becoming a champion and being undefeated in 103 fights. On 31st December 1912 he won the British 7 stone (98lbs), championship beating Bill Padden with a knockout in the eighteenth-round. He lost his undefeated record when he fought Tancy Lee for the vacant British and European flyweight title on 15 January 1915 in London. Jimmy was knocked out in the seventeenth round of a scheduled twenty round battle.
In those early days of his career there was no resting and relaxing for monthe before starting training again, the bouts came thick and fast. For example during 1920 he had ten fights. On 14th February 1916, he won the British Flyweight title, beating Joe Symonds by a knockout in round twelve and on 24th April 1916 he knocked out Johnny Rosner in the eleventh round to win the IBU world flyweight title. This next is something no boxer of today would even think about: on 13 May he had two fights on the same day in London, the first against against Darkey Saunders and the second against Joe Magnus. He won them both by knockout. Jimmy then got his revenge on Tancy Lee with an eleventh-round knockout on 26th June. On 18th December Jimmy became officially recognised as the first World Flyweight Champion (the IBU title was only recognised in Europe) when he defeated Young Zulu Kid of the United States, at Holborn Stadium. The Kid’s seconds threw in the towel during the eleventh round of the fight.
For the next six years Jimmy defended his titles fighting in dozens of venues. Then in June 1923 he was matched against Pancho Villa of the Phillipines, and Jimmy was knocked out in the seventh round.
It was time to call it a day and he retired. Jimmy Wilde moved to my home town of Barry, to a house across the road from my school where he lived out his life.
He died in 1969 and is buried in Barry Cemetery.