WHO THE HELL IS LEN WICKWAR?

He was a lightweight journeyman from Leicester in the UK. Never defeated anyone of note, never fought outside the UK or for more than a regional title. He did get KO'd by Jack Kid Berg once.

Why do I bring him up? Here are some numbers 465, 337 and 3962.

Those are not numbers one normally associates with boxing. What are they? Fights, wins and rounds boxed respectively.

To put those in perspective the Ring p4p top ten have a total of just over 500 fights among them and BHOP has fought 420 professional rounds.

But it's even more amazing to note that Wickwar did this in only a dozen years.

So over a dozen years he AVERAGED a fight EVERY NINE DAYS! In those fights he fought an average of 8.5 rounds. In other words in 18 months he fought more rounds than BHOP has in 22 years!

There is footage of him. http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=24270

He fought three times in one night and the longest break between fights I could find was four months. He was 28 when WWII effectively ended his career. I did a cursory web search and have found no reference to his death. Is it possible Len Wickwar is 99 years old and still with us?

I think the most telling thing about these numbers is they show the sheer number of boxing shows that were going on in the UK prior to WWII. To fight this many times means he had the opportunity to fight this many times which meant promoters created cards and people showed up this many times.

that is plain sick. Imagine one's brain matter after fighting 3962 rounds

4 month break the SHORTEST....crazy how different the sport is today when fighters consider that a short period to rest or even to come back and fight again!

captainanddew wrote:

that is plain sick. Imagine one's brain matter after fighting 3962 rounds

The numbers are so far out in left field it's hard to know what, if anything, to make of them. He was KO'd 37 times for God's sake.

Knocked out 37 times but he loved fighting. He had to in order to fight this much. The passion this guy had must've been unreal. I'm interested in his service in WWII but I know that info is probably impossible to come by. What an exciting life.

Marble I found one website that lists this about wickwar but I dont know where they got the info.

He died on April or may 1980, aged 69 years

soonermark890 wrote:

Marble I found one website that lists this about wickwar but I dont know where they got the info.

He died on April or may 1980, aged 69 years

Thanks!

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

Marble I found one website that lists this about wickwar but I dont know where they got the info.

He died on April or may 1980, aged 69 years

Thanks!

I still have not figured out were that guy got the into though. I have looked and looked. No luck.

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

Marble I found one website that lists this about wickwar but I dont know where they got the info.

He died on April or may 1980, aged 69 years

Thanks!

I still have not figured out were that guy got the into though. I have looked and looked. No luck.

It sounds more likely than a guy being KO'd 37 times living to be 100

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

marbleheadmaui wrote:

soonermark890 wrote:

Marble I found one website that lists this about wickwar but I dont know where they got the info.

He died on April or may 1980, aged 69 years

Thanks!

I still have not figured out were that guy got the into though. I have looked and looked. No luck.

It sounds more likely than a guy being KO'd 37 times living to be 100

LOL yeah thats true.

4445Frank wrote:

Knocked out 37 times but he loved fighting. He had to in order to fight this much. The passion this guy had must've been unreal. I'm interested in his service in WWII but I know that info is probably impossible to come by. What an exciting life.

I'll do some digging and see if I can find anything.

marbleheadmaui wrote:

4445Frank wrote:

Knocked out 37 times but he loved fighting. He had to in order to fight this much. The passion this guy had must've been unreal. I'm interested in his service in WWII but I know that info is probably impossible to come by. What an exciting life.

I'll do some digging and see if I can find anything.

I bet we can find it. If we can just find out his rank and what division you can find out anything at that point.

Len Wickwar was a distant relative and he died in 1980. Here is what we have on him in our family database:

Name: Len Wickwar
Career Record: won 337 (KO 93) + lost 85 (KO 37) + drawn 42 = 465
Nationality: British
Hometown: Leicester
Born: 1911-03-11
Manager: George Biddles

Wickwar is believed to have had more bouts than any boxer in history (465). At the very least he has more than any boxer in the BoxRec database. With 337 wins, he has more victories than any boxer that can be found in the database as well.

Retrieved from "http://www.boxrec.com/media/index.php/Len_Wickwar"

Well, to cut a very long story very short, my Mother in law Alice Muriel CHAPMAN, mentioned that there was a “Champion Boxer” WICKWAR in the family. She seemed to recall that he was probably a cousin of her mother. After research, helped by a friendly and very helpful Boxing Historian, I have ascertained that there was a boxing link in the WICKWAR story. In brief, this is what I have found....

Leonard WICKWAR (Len) was born on March 11th 1911 in the Leicester area. He died on April or May 1980, aged 69 years. He was married to Phyllis, had a son named Leon, who was born approx. 1940, and a daughter named Pearl, who was born about 1942. In 1965 he was working as a machine packer for an Engineering Company in Leicester.

Onto his Boxing career:
By 1965 he had completed “nearly 500 bouts”.
From 1926 to 1947 he had amassed a total of 467 contests, beating the best at his weight.
From the “Boxing News” of June 20th 1980, Leonard was described by his Manager George Biddles, as “The Greatest Boxer who never won a major title”.

However he did win many worthwhile contests:

He became the featherweight Champion of the Midlands in 1933, winning a purse of £100, and “The Ted Salmon’s Gold Championship Belt”, (which was, unfortunately, later stolen from a Leicester Pub, where it was on display). His final Professional Boxing match was on Feb 6th 1947, when he was beaten by Danny Cunningham of Methill, in a fight at St. James’s Hill, Newcastle-upon-Tyne”.

(I hope that you will have found the photocopy of a Boxing Newspaper picture of Len WICKWAR). He must have been quite a man!

You may have now realised that I have now got quite a lot of information on Len WICKWAR.

However, I also understand that there is another boxing connection between another WICKWAR and the Leicester area, however details on him are much sketchier! Apparently there was also a Tom WICKWAR in Leicester, who was active in Boxing in the period 1890- early 1900’s. He was believed to be a top Lightweight Boxer in his day, and possibly Len’s Uncle.

Rick Wickwire (spelling of surname is different but still same family, named from a little village named Wickwar in Gloucestershire, England).

Very interesting Rickwick. Thank you for your help.

geez thats inhuman...marble lol i guess if he was fighting today he would fight only 3 times a year..lol..yeah right.it may be unexplainable outside of fighters like pep greb robinson moore this guy and others activity and fighting was not only in there mindset it was in there blood and dna..althought perhaps a second or more likely a third tier fighter wickwar had to have fought hundreds of fights that were at his level of competion..what a name wickwar short for wicked warrior for sure.....talk about feats in sports that will never be broken this one has to be at the top or very near to it.....now some clown will say this guy only had 3 day training camps..

this again is a perfect example of learning something new in this forum...great find..and a clear example why this group of posters left espn board..it was to establish one of the finest if not the finest message-forum board avalible on boxing..great topics great information and excellent to the point disgussions and for the most part intelligent differences of opinions at times..congrats to marble ali bird frank captain sooner and everyone for continuing to make this a very very informative and interesting forum...

rickwick welcome to the forum and thanks.