Freddie Welsh (born Frederick Hall Thomas; 5 March 1886 – 29 July 1927) was a Welsh World boxing champion. The lightweight boxer was born in Pontypridd, Wales, nicknamed the "Welsh Wizard". Brought up in a tough mining community, Welsh left a working-class background to make a name for himself in America. He turned professional as a boxer in Philadelphia in 1905, and spent the best part of his career fighting in the United States.
Welsh spent much of his career chasing the world championship title, held in turn by Battling Nelson, Ad Wolgast and Willie Ritchie, failing through a series of events to meet each until a successful encounter with Ritchie in July 1914, when he finally became world lightweight champion. Welsh held the title until 1917 when he lost to Benny Leonard, though he continued to fight sparingly until 1922. During his career, he fought in more than 160 professional bouts, suffering defeat on just 5 occasions.
A keen follower of Bernarr Macfadden's physical culture, Welsh believed in exercise and healthy living and was a non-smoker and a vegetarian. In the years following the end of his career, bad business choices cost him his fortune, and after numerous health problems he died in poverty in 1927.
Freddie Welsh was born in Pontypridd on 5 March 1886, to John Thomas and his wife Elizabeth Thomas (née Hall). In the late 19th century, Pontypridd was a growing coal mining town, which attracted not only those wishing to make a living in the mines, but also middle-class professionals who saw an opportunity to make a living in a thriving community. Welsh's father was one such commercial immigrant, setting up a business on Taff Street as an auctioneer. Welsh's parents moved into 17 Morgan Street in the town, where Welsh was born. He had two younger siblings, a brother, Arthur Stanley and a sister, Edith Kate. Unlike most boxers of the period, Welsh had a privileged upbringing, at the age of four he attended Mr Mclune's Grammar School in Pontypridd and was privately educated at Long Ashton College in Clifton, Bristol. A few months after Welsh was born, his mother persuaded her husband to buy the Bridge Inn Hotel on Berw Road, and the family moved there. Welsh's mother was the daughter of a hotelier from Merthyr, and the Bridge Inn was her responsibility, as John Thomas was often away from home. When Welsh was ten, his father died. His mother, faced with running the hotel alone, sent Kate and Stanley to an aunt in Merthyr, while Welsh was sent to his maternal grandfather in Radyr. After a year, suffering from homesickness, Welsh returned home to Pontypridd. His mother later remarried, to Richard Williams, an innkeeper from Aberdare.
When Welsh left school at the age of 14, he took up work as a boilerman (the 1901 census, when he was 15, has him recorded as an apprentice mechanical engineer) finding work with Llewellyn & Cubbitt of Pentre, Rhondda. At the age of 16 he and three friends decided to find a new life in Canada. They set sail from Liverpool to Vancouver arriving in January 1903, but although his companions were able to find work, Welsh struggled to hold down any steady jobs. It was in Canada that he took a serious interest in bodybuilding and became a firm advocate of Bernarr Macfadden's physical culture regime. After a year Welsh was again homesick and borrowed enough money to return to Britain, but with only $10 he was forced to travel as a worker on a cattle-boat.
With his newfound physical fitness he entered the boxing ring undertaking amateur fights in Scotland, far away from Wales to prevent his mother discovering his passion for fighting. After twelve months he raised the money needed to return to the America, travelling to New York on the Baltic on her maiden voyage on 29 June 1904.
Welsh failed to find steady work in the States, and although his mother thought he was earning a regular wage and living comfortably, Welsh was actually taking any casual work that was offered him. Initially he rode the rails to the Dakotas to labour in the farm fields, before heading to New York City working long hours as a dishwasher or banner bearer. When Welsh was mugged while sleeping at a cheap hotel, he was given a job as a porter by the sympathetic hotel manager.
His first job in New York was as a boxing instructor in one of Bernarr Macfadden institutes. He was allowed to sleep in the gym, was given all his meals, plus $1 salary a day. It was as an instructor he first met his future wife, Brahna Weinstein, a Jewish Russian girl who anglicised her name to Fanny Weston when her family moved to the East Side.
He then successfully applied to an advertisement for a "smart, active young man who can box" at a down town gym, Knipe's Institute. Welsh subsidised his work as a trainer, as a boxing instructor and training director at Brown's Gymnasium. When hard times hit the gym, he was put on half time subsidising his earnings as a snow shoveller in Harlem. Welsh then found work at a well-known New York gymnasium for $8 a day, the wage barely paid his meals but he took the job to learn the boxing profession.
Despite going days without eating, and having to sleep on the wrestling mats at the gym, he refused to turn professional, partially to preserve his amateur status and he also did not want his mother to discover he was earning a living as a boxer. When friends who knew him from his gym work, and seeing him struggle to pay for a decent meal, asked why he didn't take up the nightly paid 'private' fights, Welsh initially refused. Despite his misgivings, the next day Welsh took up the offer and knocked out Kid Allen in a third round bout. This was followed with wins over Johnny Mezier, Young Peterson and Jack Cameron. With his financial issues resolved and being able to pay for steady meals, at the age of 19, Welsh decided to turn professional.
Early professional career, 1905–1906
Still with dreams of becoming a culture expert, he moved to Philadelphia to become an instructor at Herman's Institute, while Fanny stayed in New York to finish her studies. Before his first professional fight, Welsh decided to change his name, fearing he may fail and that his mother would find out he was boxing. He first chose Fred Cymry, Cymry meaning Welsh, but on writing to Fanny, she suggested that 'Welsh' would be less confusing. Welsh took Jack Clancy on as his American manager, and on 21 December 1905 he experienced his first professional bout. His first opponent was Young Williams, and the two novices fought at the Broadway Athletic Club of Philadelphia. Welsh won by knockout in the third round, and was booked to return to the club for his second fight in January. He went six rounds with Johnny Keely on 25 January, with a 'no-decision' verdict, the standard practice in Philadelphia for full-distance fights at the time, given to the fight. His next match saw him stop Eddie Fay in the sixth, and with this promising start to his career, the Broadway Athletic Club lined up a more challenging opponent, journeyman Tommy Feltz. The fight went all six rounds, and although Feltz was past his best, he was expected to win the bout; so the result, given to Welsh by the Philadelphia Item, was seen as an upset. From that fight, Welsh started to take more frequent matches, sometimes accepting two bouts a week to build up his experience and stamina. In March 1906, he faced four opponents, defeating Tommy Love and Kid Stinger (both 'no-decision', but given by the Philadelphia Item) and then a points win over Eddie Lenny, followed by a draw with Johnny Dohan. The Lenny result was the first of eight bouts to which the Philadelphia Item failed to give Welsh a victory, though seven of them were 'no-decision' verdicts on the night. The seven matches after Dohan were Billy Maharg, who took the fight decisively on points, then Frank Carsey, followed by three experienced fighters, Jimmy Devine, Tommy Love and Matty Baldwin; the last two opponents on this losing streak were Philadelphians Billy Willis and Tim Callahan.