Jack Elliott

Jack Elliott had an outstanding amateur career that saw him win two ABA titles, an Olympic silver medal, and wow the American fans on a tour of the United States.

A London Port Authority policeman, Eliiott beat Rhys Howells of Roath AC to win the 1924 ABA middleweight title. He then went to Paris for the Olympics, and returned home with a silver medal after losing on points in the all-British final to Harry Mallin. The contest was fought amidst pandemonium from a vociferous Paris crowd, who were still annoyed at the disqualification of their own fighter Roger Brousse in the quarter-final for biting Mallin.

Eliott retained his ABA title in 1925 with a win over the Army’s Frank Crawley, and shortly afterwards engaged in contests in Boston and New York along with three fellow Olympians, Harry Mitchell, Patrick O’Hanrahan, and George Gogay. The home fans warmed to Elliott who was the only member of the quartet to return home undefeated. Selected for the inaugural European Amateur Boxing Championships at Stockholm in 1925, Elliott could not make the weight (he was selected as a cruiserweight) and did not take part. Shortly afterwards he announced he was turning professional.

Unfortunately, the professional career of Jack Elliott was nowhere near as successful as his amateur one. He returned to the USA for his professional début against Tom Kirby in Revere, Massachusetts, but the referee stopped the fight in the second round of a scheduled eight-rounder, to prevent Elliott suffering further punishment. Elliott’s first seven fights were all in the USA and his next two wins were his only professional victories, losing nine and drawing one in his 12-fight career, which ended in 1930. Elliott fought in Australia towards the end of his career and after retiring from the ring went to live in the country and became a boxing correspondent for a Sydney publication. He later became a well-respected broadcaster and it was while he worked as a war correspondent, covering the Borneo Campaign in 1945 for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, that he lost his life when hit by a bullet from a Japanese sniper.