Vince Dundee

Lou Brouillard

On October 30, 1933, after six years in the professional ring, Dundee defeated Lou Brouillard over 15 rounds before 9,330 in Boston to capture the New York State Athletic Commission's (NYSAC) world middleweight title. Dundee side-stepped most of Brouillard's savage rushes and countered repeatedly with rights to the head, in a close decision. Dundee managed to take eight rounds, but most of his scored points were from calculated blows, and there were no knockdowns in the bout. Brouillard had difficulty penetrating the defenses of Dundee, and could only score consistently with brief attacks to the body.[14][15] Brouillard, though a 3-1 favorite, had difficulty with the skilled scientific boxing and calculated defense of Dundee. Brouillard claimed fatigue in making the 160 pound weight limit was the cause of his loss, but Dundee opened up well by the last round, and stung Brouillard with both lefts and rights that clinched his scoring margin, and likely had an effect. In the early rounds, Dundee danced for position and strategically landed left jabs to Brouillard's face that piled up points and kept his opponent at a distance.[16]

Dundee defended his world middleweight title on December 8, 1933 against southpaw Andy Callahan, winning in a fifteen round split decision against Andy Callahan before 11,200 in Boston. Dundee dominated the last five rounds, though Callahan frequently tried to force the fighting which was particularly close in the first ten rounds. The Boston Globe gave Dundee nine rounds with only the first, seventh, eighth, and ninth to Callahan.[17] Dundee fought with both a four inch height advantage, and a not insignificant advantage in reach. Callahan scored in the first two thirds of the bout with hard rights and harder lefts to the head and body before tiring in the ninth. Callahan landed a few solid blows with his left, which he also led with, but had difficulty connecting with his right.[18]

Dundee defeated French-Canadian boxer Al McCoy on March 22, 1934 in a ten round unanimous decision in Boston. Dundee won decisively, though he took a beating during a strong display of offense by McCoy in the first three rounds.[19]

Before a crowd of 8,000, Dundee mounted his second successful defense of the world middleweight title against Al Diamond on May 3, 1934 in Patterson, New Jersey, winning in a fifteen round points decision. The referee gave eleven rounds of the decisive win to Dundee with only the third to Diamond. Aiming for the body and delivering a strong right to Diamond's left side through most of the bout, Dundee hammered away, particularly when the two were close.[20]

Dundee lost his claim to the middleweight crown when he was outpointed by Teddy Yarosz in a fifteen round decision on September 11, 1934 before a crowd of 28,000 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.[1] The bout was close but somewhat dull due to too much wrestling and clinching, though Yarosz seemed to hold the lead in all but the late rounds when he looked visibly exhausted. Yarosz was awarded eight rounds to Dundee's four, with three even. He scored well with long range blows to the head of Dundee, who seemed to focus more on Yarosz's midsection. Dundee was down three times during the bout, once falling out of the ropes in round three.[21][22]

Dundee defeated Babe Risko on January 25, 1935 in a close ten round split decision at Madison Square Garden. One judge scored five rounds for Dundee with four to Risko, while the other judge, Jack Britton, gave seven to Dundee and three to Risko. The Associated Press gave six rounds to Dundee and four to Risko. Risko rallied in the last few rounds, but Dundee's more sustained aggressiveness and frequent blows to the body gave him the decision on points.[23]

Dundee lost to Freddie Steele on July 30, 1935 in a brutal third round technical knockout. Dundee was down eleven times in the bout, before the referee stopped the match. He was hospitalized at Seattle's Providence Hospital, after sustaining a slight concussion and a jaw broken in three places on the left side. Dundee was down four times in the first, three times in the second, and three times in the third. Only fifty seconds into the first round, Dundee was down for a nine count from a left to the point of his jaw. His second trip to the canvas was also from a blow to the jaw, and also for a count of nine. Steele had lost only four times by decision in his previous 72 fights.[24]

Dundee retired with a record of 118 wins (28 knockouts), 20 losses and 13 draws.