Barbados Joe Walcott name as his own ring name. Walcott was born on March 13, 1873, in Demerara, Guyana, according to several sources, though he spent part of his youth in Barbados. As a youngster he set out to see the world and got a job as a cabin boy on a ship sailing to Boston that arrived around 1887. He soon settled in Boston as a piano mover, and porter and took other odd jobs as well. Later, he landed a job in a gym, and became popular with even the best of the boxers as an able opponent before turning professional.
Jersey Joe Walcott world title for the first time. Walcott lost early bouts against world-class competition. He lost a pair of fights to Tiger Jack Fox and was knocked out by contender Abe Simon. But that would change in 1945 when Walcott beat top heavyweights such as Joe Baksi, Lee Q. Murray, Curtis Sheppard and Jimmy Bivins. He closed out 1946 with a pair of losses to former light heavyweight champ Joey Maxim and heavyweight contender Elmer Ray, but promptly avenged those defeats in 1947. On December 5, 1947, he fought Joe Louis, at thirty three years of age breaking the record as