By Ron Jackson
On November 3, it will be 49 years since Arnold Taylor became only the third South African fighter in history to win a version of a world title.
The first South Africans to hold a version of a world title was Willie Smith who captured the British Version of the world bantamweight title, when on 6 October 1927 he outpointed England’s Teddy Baldock over 15 rounds at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Vic Toweel, who is rated as one of South Africa’s greatest fighters of all time, won the Universal/ undisputed world bantamweight title when there were only eight divisions, on 31 May 1950 after outpointing the 116 fight Mexican/American Manuel Ortiz over 15 rounds at the Wembley Stadium on a historic night in South African boxing.
According to my records, 88 South African fighters have won one or other version of a world title but Vic Toweel is still the only fighter to be recognized as a universal/undisputed world champion.
South Africa had to wait another 23 years before they had another world champion when in possibly one of the greatest and most dramatic fights ever on South African soil, on 3 November 1973 Arnold Taylor won the WBA bantamweight title with a 14th round knockout against Romeo Anaya (33-4-1) from Mexico.
On that memorable night in front of more than 20 000 spectators, Taylor survived some terrible punishment. He refused to be beaten. Seldom had any fighter shown so much courage.
Taylor was knocked down in the eighth and tenth rounds. He was on the brink of defeat.
Then, in the penultimate round, he threw a right-hand punch that landed on the jaw of the tough Mexican. Suddenly Anaya was flat on his back and Taylor became South Africa’s third world champion after Willie Smith and Vic Toweel.
At the time of Taylor winning the title, the World Boxing Council and the World Boxing Association were the only major boxing organizations.
The drama had started long before the fight. Anaya had to make five trips to the scale, two of them unofficial, before coming in at the bantamweight limit of 53.52 kg.
Twice before the official weigh-in at noon that day, Anaya accompanied by his handlers was weighed in private at the President Hotel.
Taylor had no problem making the weight. He came in at 53.10 kg shortly after noon, but the champion arrived only at 12:30 and was declared overweight at 54.20 kg.
Anaya and his handlers demanded that he be weighed again, immediately. All the officials, except the SA Boxing Board’s clerk of scales Wally Snowball, had to leave the platform.
After stripping off his underpants, Anaya once again climbed on the scale, but was still over the limit at 54.15 kg. He was told that he had until 13:10 to make the weight as the scales had been officially opened at 12:10. Failure to meet the limit would result in the champion forfeiting his title.
After spending time in the sauna and a steam bath, Anaya weighed in at 53.45 kg, a fraction inside the bantamweight limit.
The fight produced even more controversy.
Many experts and journalists, and, of course, all in the Anaya camp felt Taylor should have been disqualified when he went down for the third time in the eighth round; this time without taking a punch.
Anaya felt Taylor had given up as he went in for the kill. The challenger suddenly dropped to one knee but South African referee Stan Christodoulou, officiating in his first world title fight, allowed the fight to continue when Taylor got up.
The sad part of the all-action bout was that no full-length film was made of it because promoter Dave Levin was unable to find a sponsor to buy the film rights.
The fight lasted about 40 minutes, not counting the 13 minutes taken up by the intervals between rounds, but only about 15 minutes of the fighting was filmed for newsreel by Killarney Films.
Rather sadly at the age of 38, only five years after his last fight, he was killed in a road accident.
It was at 12.30am on November 22, 1981. Taylor, on a motorcycle, collided head-on with a car on the corner of Main Reef Road and Church Street, Mayfair only about a kilometre from his home.