Billy Soose (August 2, 1915 – September 5, 1998) was an American boxer who won the world middleweight championship in 1941.

Biography

Soose was undefeated in his collegiate boxing career at Penn State and was a three-time

Golden Gloves The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States, where they are awarded a belt and a ring. And the title of nations champion is awarded. The Golden Gloves is a term used to refer to the Nation ...

winner before turning professional in 1938. By the end of his first year in the paid ranks he had beaten the former world champion

Eddie Babe Risko Henry Pylkowski, known in his boxing career as Babe Risko, and Eddie Risko, (July 14, 1911 – March 8, 1957) was a Lithuanian-Polish-American boxer who became Middleweight boxing champion of the world in portions of 1935–36. While boxing ...

although he lost a unanimous decision to

Charley Burley Charley Burley (September 6, 1917 – October 16, 1992) was an American boxer who fought as a welterweight and middleweight from 1936 to 1950. Archie Moore, the light-heavyweight champion who was defeated by Burley in a 1944 middleweight bout, w ...

. In 1940 Soose defeated two future middleweight champions,

Ken Overlin Ken Overlin (August 15, 1910 – July 24, 1969), was an American-born middleweight boxer who fought professionally from 1931 to 1944, compiling a record of 131 wins (23 by knockout), 18 losses, and 9 draws. He took the World middleweight cham ...

and

Tony Zale Anthony Florian Zaleski (May 29, 1913 – March 20, 1997), known professionally as Tony Zale, was an American boxer. Zale was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, a steel town, which gave him his nickname, "Man of Steel", reinforced by his reputat ...

. He began 1941 by defeating future heavyweight and light heavyweight title challenger Tami Mauriello. In May of that year he challenged Overlin for the middleweight title at Madison Square Garden and won by a controversial, but unanimous points decision. He made no defences and in November it was reported that he had relinquished the championship in order to pursue the light-heavyweight title. After losing a bout to light-heavyweight contender

Jimmy Bivins James Louis Bivins, (December 6, 1919 – July 4, 2012) was an American light heavyweight boxer whose professional career ran from 1940 to 1955. He was born in Dry Branch, Georgia. Although he was never given the opportunity to fight for a w ...

in January 1942 Soose joined the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

and retired from professional boxing at the age of twenty-six. Soose was featured on the cover of the June 1941 Ring magazine and is a member of the

World Boxing Hall of Fame In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

. He is also the subject of a book, ''Billy Soose - The Champion Time Forgot''. He was inducted into the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...

in 2009. Soose was found dead at his home at Tafton, Pennsylvania in 1998.

Professional boxing record

External links

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References

1915 births 1998 deaths People from Farrell, Pennsylvania Boxers from Pennsylvania Middleweight boxers World boxing champions American male boxers {{US-boxing-bio-stub