Joe Baksi Joe Baksi Joe Baksi (January 14, 1922 – August 6, 1977) was a top heavyweight contender who defeated fighters such as Tami Mauriello, Lee Savold, Lou Nova, and Freddie Mills, while losing decisions to Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles. Joe Baksi was a child of the Kulpmont, Pennsylvania coal mines. He was quoted as saying that he never had any intention of being a boxer, but he saw it "as a ticket to a better way of life, out of the coal mines." He broke into professional boxing in 1940 at the age of 18. He beat nine boxers
Barbados Joe Walcott in Boston. Gardner would became a world welterweight contender against Mike "Twin" Sullivan in April of that year. New York's "Evening World", wrote that Walcott's performance "did not come up to expectations", and that Gardner's win "was one of the easiest victories he ever earned." On November 2, 1911, Walcott fought his last reported bout against Tom Sawyer in Lowell, Massachusetts. He walked out of the ring before the bell at the end of the one-sided 12-round technical knockout, and said to the crowd "I'm 40 years old and I guess I'm done with this game." Walcott squandered a fortune