Abe Attell -- There Will Never Be Another
by Eric Matthew Thomsen
Great-Nephew of "The Little Champ"
Born: ABRAHAM WASHINGTON ATTELL, February 22, 1884 (San Francisco)
Died: February 6, 1970 (New Paltz, New York)
Record: 165 Bouts, 92 Wins (51 by Knockout), 10 Losses, 18 Draws and 45 No Decisions
Featherweight Champion of the World, 1901-1912.
Inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame (1955), the International Boxing Hall of Fame (1990),
the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (1982), and the San Francisco Boxing Hall of Fame (1985)
To My Friend ... Abe Attell
There's been fighters through the ages,
Many greats we all know well,
But the one who heads the pages
Is that little champ Attell.
There will never be another Abe Attell
The little Champs of Champs we all know so well.
Fought 'em here and over there
Licked them all, fair and square,
From the opening round until the final bell
Just like Dempsey he'll go down in history
In the boxing Hall of Fame his name will dwell
And to you, and you, and you I'm here to tell
There will never be another Abe Attell.
-- Author Unknown
Abe Attell, truly one of boxing's all time greats, is often called the best fighter in ring history, pound for pound. Standing at only five feet, four inches, and weighing in at 122 pounds, Abe fought featherweights, lightweights, welterweights, and middleweights, and "gloried in being small and whacking around bigger men" (Blady, 1988). Starting out as a knockout specialist, but then learning from two greats of his day the art of blocking, slipping, ducking and side-stepping, Abe became well known for frustrating and tiring out his opponents before moving in for the kill "with the greatest arm-to-body co-ordination in ring history" (Sugar, 1984). One can only wonder how much greater he could have been if it wasn’t for his habit of playing cards the night before a fight.
Abe Attell was born to a large Jewish family in the South of Market district of San Francisco on Washington's Birthday, 1884. Growing up in a predominantly Irish neighborhood, Abe often found himself going toe to toe with other local boys. "You can guess I used to fight 3, 4, 5, 10 times a day," he recalled (Blady,1988).
Coming from a poor family (Abe's father had left his wife alone with their many children when Abe was 13), Abe helped put food on the table by selling newspapers on the street, including at the corner of 8th and Market, where the Mechanics' Pavilion stood. It was here that Abe witnessed the Solly Smith-George Dixon featherweight title match in 1897, which convinced Abe to make a go of it as a boxer. Two of his brothers, Monte (the 'Nob Hill Terror') and Caesar ('Two and a Half '), also stepped through the ropes to make a living.
Abe's first professional fight took place on August 19, 1900, when he was pitted against Kid Lennett. Only after being promised by Abe that this would be his "first and last fight" would his mother allow him to participate. Knocking out Lennett in the second, Abe returned home with the $15 purse, which he gave to his mother. Abe recalled her reaction: "'You mean the fight is all over and you got this $15.00?' she asked. 'And you don't have no cuts on you at all.' I smiled and nodded my head.... She stood up and patted my head and in a slow voice asked, 'Abie, when are you going to fight again?'" (Blady, 1988) In later fights, not only would Mrs. Attell encourage her son's pugilistic pursuits, but would wager on him as well. "Bet a dollar on Abie for me," she would tell the reporters who took Abe to the arena (Muller, 1970).
Abe's second fight took place ten days later, when he scored another second round knockout. For a two month period that year, only once did an opponent survive Abe's attack past the second round. With ten straight knockouts under his belt, Abe moved to Denver, then the center of boxing, where he first claimed the featherweight championship. With a fifteen round victory over the immortal George Dixon (the two had fought to draws in two previous engagements), Abe claimed the title vacated by Terry McGovern, who was unable to make the 122-pound weight limit.
On February 1, 1904, Abe knocked out Harry Forbes to further legitimize his claim. However, Brooklyn Tommy Sullivan also claimed the title, and the two were matched up on October 13, 1904. Although Sullivan knocked out Abe in the fifth, Abe claimed that his opponent was over the weight limit, and the press agreed. On February 22, 1906, his twenty-second birthday, Abe defeated Jimmy Walsh.
By knocking out Sullivan on April 30, 1908, in San Francisco, Abe was finally crowned the undisputed featherweight champion. From 1909-10, Monte claimed the bantamweight title, the first time brothers had held world titles at the same time. Monte left the ring in 1913 when an eye infection led to blindness. Caesar had retired at about the same time Monte first entered the sport, due to their mother's insistence that two boxers in the family were enough. Despite the many years spent outside of the ring, Caesar always kept in excellent condition, still walking at least three miles a day at the age of 93.
From 1906 to 1912, Abe successfully defended his title 22 times. Often venturing out of his weight class when he ran out of worthy featherweights, his opponents during this time included Aurelia Herrera, lightweight (W-15), Buddy Ryan, welterweight (W-6), Benny Yanger, lightweight (L-19), Frankie Neil, who would later say that "Nobody ever came close to Abe in boxing science" (Muller, 1970), (W & W-13), Owen Moran (3 NDs and 2 draws), Battling Nelson, lightweight (Draw-15), Ad Wolgast, lightweight (ND-10), Freddie Welsh, lightweight (L-15), Matt Wells, lightweight (ND-10), Jem Driscoll, (ND-10), Georgie Pierce (W- 6), and Buffalo Eddie Kelly (W-7).
Early in his career, Abe thought that "the easy way was to knock 'em out." In fact, he had done just that to his first 24 of 28 opponents. However, watching the way James J. Corbett and George Dixon "slipped, blocked, ducked and side-stepped punches," Abe learned that "a fellow could be a prize fighter and not get hurt, provided he was smart enough" (Hawthorne, 1970). Developing a Fancy Dan style based on these two greats, Abe never forgot this lesson. It was still fresh in his mind in 1957 when he told a reporter that the fighters of the day were "right-hand- crazy amateurs" who tried only to "bomb the other guy out quick" (San Francisco Chronicle, 1970).
Having won/defended the title on his birthday in 1906, Abe become the only man to both win and lose the title on his birthday when he lost to Johnny Kilbane in twenty rounds on February 22, 1912, in Vernon, Los Angeles County, California. The two had met before on October 24, 1910, with Abe successfully defending his title in a ten round decision. While Kilbane saw the odds against him vary from 2 to 1 to 10 to 7, it was Father Time who was seen as Abe's real foe, and this defence would turn out to be one too many for the "veteran of a thousand mitt wars" (Sloan, 1912a). Sensing that he might be outclassed that day, Abe unveiled his darker side. The crowd of nearly 10,000 hissed his foul tactics, which included grabbing Kilbane's arm and bending it back. In the sixteenth, the referee suspended the fight to wipe an unknown substance off of Abe's body, which Kilbane claimed was placed on the champion by his seconds to make him groggy. "Abe Attell's biography will not be benefited any by the incidents that took place," wrote the Los Angeles Times (Sloan, 1912b). Abe retorted with the claim that whenever he would rush Kilbane, his opponent "would clinch and it took the referee to part us" (Sloan, 1912b). Abe lost the title, saying afterwards to a friend at ringside: "Well, I had to stand for it; I couldn't do any better" (New York Times, 1912). Despite his loss, the ex-champ still claimed a purse one thousand times greater than the $15 he received for his first professional fight only twelve years before.
With the better part of his ring career behind him, Abe then faced Harlem Tommy Murphy twice, the second being called "one of the goriest bouts in ring history ... You couldn't tell 'em apart for the gore" (Blady, 1988). Despite announcing his retirement following a match with Ollie Kirk in November of 1912, Abe returned to the ring three and a half months later to defeat Kirk in the third. On July 4, 1913, he fought Willie Beecher, accidentally smashing the referee the in the face while trying to stage some action for the unhappy crowd. Having ‘retired’ again after defeating Kid Callahan in 8 minutes on September 6, 1913, Abe again returned to the ring just eleven days later to defeat Sid Knott in six. Abe spent a third short term in retirement after the Knott fight, but decided to take one more bite at the cherry on January 8, 1917, losing to Phil Virgets.
Abe's name appeared in the papers in 1920 as the man behind the Black Sox World Series fix of 1919. However, he was never brought to trial as part of the conspiracy because he had convinced a New York jury that he was not the same Abe Attell that the Chicago Grand Jury investigating the fix was looking for. In response, the New York Sun rhetorically asked, "Is Abe Attell himself or is he somebody else?" (Asinof, 1987) In later years, he proclaimed his complete innocence, blaming the entire fix on Arnold "The Big Bankroll" Rothstein, who had kept Abe as part of his entourage.
After his first marriage had ended in divorce, Abe married Mae O'Brien, and the two of them managed a tavern in New York's East Side. He regularly attended fight cards at Madison Square Garden until he entered a nursing home. He died at the age of 85 on February 6, 1970 in Liberty-Loomis Hospital in Liberty, New York, and is buried in Beaverkill Cemetery near Rockland, New York He was survived by Mae, three stepchildren (Abe fathered no children of his own), his brother Caesar (who later that year would become the proud great-grandfather of the author), and his sister Sarah.
SOURCES:
Abe Attell -- There Will Never Be Another by Eric Matthew Thomsen. The Cyber Boxing Zone Encyclopedia. 2006.
"Abe Attell Loses to John Kilbane." The New York Times 23 Feb. 1912.
Asinof, Eliot. Eight Men Out. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1987.
(It should be noted here that Abe Attell was not born with the name Albert Knoehr, as is it stated in this text.)
Blady, Ken. The Jewish Boxers' Hall of Fame. New York: Shapolsky Publishers, Inc., 1988: 38-48.
"Fighter Abe Attell Dies at 85." The San Francisco Chronicle 7 Feb. 1970.
Hawthorne, Mark. "Abe Attell Dies; Boxing Champion." The New York Times 7 Feb. 1970.
Muller, Eddie. "Cleverest S.F. Boxer: Attell." The San Francisco Examiner 9 Feb. 1970: 48.
Sloan, J. Alex. "Who Will Be Featherweight Champ Tonight?" The Los Angeles Times 22 Feb. 1912.
"Kilbane Wins Championship From Attell." The Los Angeles Times 23 Feb. 1912.
Sugar, Bert. The 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time. New York: Bonanza Books, 1984: 76-77, 202