Jack Treadaway

Jack Treadaway, a 17-year-old van delivery boy for Watney’s Brewery, beat Cardiff’s George Reynolds to win the 1932 ABA bantamweight title, having only taken up serious boxing a few months earlier. The following year, Treadaway moved to featherweight, and it was at that weight that he fought for the remainder of his career. In 1934 he won his second ABA title, beating Scotland’s Joe Connolly and, that year, Treadaway competed at the European Championships but was eliminated in the first round by Czechoslovakia’s Vaclav Ulrich. The following year Treadaway lost in the ABA final to Edward Ryan of the famous Lynn BC and was reserve to Ryan in the Golden Gloves match against the United States in New York, but did not compete in the main event.

Treadway won a third ABA title in 1936 when he beat Alf Harper and was then the first choice featherweight for the return match against the United States at Wembley where Treadaway beat Raymond Olivo in one round. The Briton then went to the Berlin Olympics where he lost in the quarter-finals to Germany’s eventual bronze medallist Josef Miner. Shortly after losing his ABA featherweight crown, Treadaway announced in April 1937 that he was turning professional. Between 1937-39 he had 11 bouts with a 6-3-2 record, and after World War II had just one more contest, losing to professional debutant Sammy Ervin in 1946. Treadway was a welder by trade.