Don Cockell vs Roland LaStarza also featuring Randy Turpin vs Olle Bengtsson official on-site 24 page programme, 30th March 1954, Earls Court Arena, Kensington, London.

Condition very good (horizontal centre fold along with minor surface creases)

Cockell W Pts over 10 rounds

Turpin W Pts over 10 rounds

Price: £ SOLD

Don Cockell was English and he fought for most of his career as a light-heavyweight and became the British and European champion at that weight. Later in his career he moved up to heavyweight and held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles. He is best remembered for fighting against Rocky Marciano for the world heavyweight championship.

Early Life
His full name was Donald John Cockell and he was born on 22 September 1928 in Balham, London, the son of Kate Cockell, a domestic servant from Battersea. He never knew his father. He was a blacksmith by trade and as a result, developed a strong physique. He began boxing in fairground booths and soon rose through the amateur ranks until he was ready to turn professional in 1946.

Professional Career
Cockell had his first professional fight on 26 June 1946 against Trevor Lowder and won it by a knockout in the fifth round. He continued to build up an impressive fighting record marred by the occasional defeat. By 1950 he was ready to challenge for the vacant British light-heavyweight title recently vacated due to the retirement of Freddie Mills. On 17 October at Harringay Arena he fought Mark Hart and took the title with a knockout in the fourteenth round.

Cockell fought and won two more fights before fighting the Frenchman Albert Yvel for his European light-heavyweight title. The bout took place on 27 March 1951 at Earls Court, London and Cockell won by a technical knockout in the sixth round.

Cockell had two more wins before defending his British and European titles against Albert Finch, who had previously been British middleweight champion. The bout was held on 16 October 1951, at Harringay Arena, and Cockell won by a knockout in the seventh round.

Cockell decisively lost his next fight against the American heavyweight Jimmy Slade. Fighting at Harringay Arena, Cockell was knocked down twice in the first round, once in the second, and twice more in the fourth. The referee then stopped the fight. Cockell followed this defeat with a points win against Italian light-heavyweight Renato Tontini, despite being knocked down twice in the second round.

Cockell then fought against Randolph Turpin, who the year before, had beaten Sugar Ray Robinson to become world middleweight champion, before losing his title in the re-match. Cockell was defending his British title, and both fighters were contesting the vacant Commonwealth light-heavyweight title. The bout was at the White City Stadium on 10 June 1952. Cockell was knocked down three times during the fight and lost on a technical knockout in the eleventh round.

One of the reasons for the defeat was the difficulty that Cockell had in making the weight for light-heavyweight fights. He therefore decided to subsequently fight as a heavyweight. His next three fights, at heavyweight were all won by technical knockouts. The third one was against the Welshman, Tommy Farr, who had been an excellent heavyweight, fighting against the great Joe Louis, but was now at the end of his career.

The fight against Farr was a final eliminator for the British heavyweight title, and so put Cockell in line for a title challenge against the holder Johnny Williams. The bout British and Commonwealth titles was held at Harringay Arena on 12 May 1953, and Cockell won on points over fifteen rounds.

Cockell then had two more wins before defending his Commonwealth title against Johnny Arthur in Johannesburg, South Africa. He won the fight on points after fifteen rounds.

Cockell moved rapidly up the heavyweight rankings by scoring three wins against American fighters. First he beat Roland La Starza on points at Earls Court Arena, then he had successive victories over Harry (Kid) Matthews, first at the White City Stadium and then at Sicks' Stadium, Seattle.

These victories put him in line for a title fight against the world champion Rocky Marciano. This was the first British world title bid since Tommy Farr had fought Joe Louis in 1937.

World Heavyweight Title Fight
On 16 May 1955, Cockell fought Marciano for the world heavyweight title at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco, CA. Cockell was a 10-1 underdog and weighed 205 pounds against Marciano’s 189. For the first three rounds the fight was fairly even, but as it progressed further Cockell began to take more and more punishment, without being able to hurt Marciano at all. Cockell ended the eighth round hanging through the ropes after withstanding a terrific beating. Marciano won the fight by a technical knockout 54 seconds into round nine after Cockell had been knocked down twice, for counts of eight and seven. After the fight, Marciano stated, "He's got a lot of guts. I don't think I ever hit anyone else any more often or harder."

Many boxing fans in Britain felt that Marciano employed unfair tactics, such as hitting after the bell and low punches, but although the British Boxing Board of Control protested, Cockell himself made no complaints.

Aftermath
The title fight had taken much out of Cockell, and he lost his subsequent two fights. In September 1955 he lost to the Cuban, Nino Valdes at the White City Stadium by a technical knockout in the third round. He weighed 216 pounds for the fight. In April 1956 he was knocked out in the second round Kitione Lave, known as the “Tongan Terror”. That was his final fight. In May 1956 he was stripped of his Commonwealth title and in July he surrendered his British title and retired.

Cockell sued the Daily Mail after the newspaper had described him as being ‘overweight and flabby’ for his last fight, and not giving his all. He received £7500 damages with costs.

Retirement
He tried various jobs including running a farm, being a publican, and running a haulage firm. His last job was as an emergency maintenance man. He died of cancer on 18 July 1983 at a hospital in Tooting. He was married to Patricia Mary Cockell.

Fight Record
He had 81 official fights winning 66 with 38 knockouts and lost 14 with one draw.












Randolph Adolphus ('Randy') Turpin (7 June 1928 – 17 May 1966) known as the Leamington Larruper, and was considered by some to be Europe's best middleweight boxer of the 1940s and 1950s.

Biography
Born in Leamington Spa, to a black father who had emigrated from Guyana and a white British mother, he started like his brother Dick to be trained in the art of boxing at Leamington Boys' Club.

Turpin turned professional in London in 1946, soon after his 18th birthday. Trained by his elder brother Dick, who himself was a successful middleweight, Randolph knocked out Gordon Griffiths in his first bout. Turpin put together a string of 16 wins in a row, all over the United Kingdom, until drawing with Mark Hart over six rounds in his last bout of 1947.

Three wins later, he found himself facing Albert Finch who inflicted on Turpin his first defeat, an 8-round-decision loss. After one more win he lost again, knocked out in 5 rounds by Jean Stock in London.

Turpin was determined not to lose again after the Stock defeat, and put together another string of wins which reached 12 (including a 4-round disqualification win against William Poli). Rematched with Finch, this time with the British middleweight title on the line, Turpin avenged his first loss and won his first championship by knocking out Finch in five rounds on 17 October 1950 at Harringay Arena.

Three more wins followed, including a disqualification win in 8 rounds against important challenger Tommy Yarosz. He then met European middleweight champion Luc Van Dam in London, whom he knocked out in the first round to seize the European championship.

Four wins followed after that, including a rematch with Stock, against whom he avenged his second defeat, knocking him out in 5 rounds. Then world middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson travelled to London and, on 10 July 1951, risked his title against Turpin, who won the world title by beating Robinson on a 15-round decision.

Turpin became an instant national hero. His win over Robinson gave him such celebrity that even many people who were not boxing fans knew who he was. When he signed for a rematch with Robinson and chose Gwrych Castle near Abergele in North Wales to train, the castle was constantly hounded by fans and tourists.

Decline
His days as a world champion didn't last long, however, and when he made his first trip outside his homeland for a fight, he lost his crown to Robinson by a tenth-round TKO with eight seconds left in the round at the Polo Grounds in New York on 12 September 1951.

This turned out to be the beginning of Turpin's problems, because he would begin to miss the sweet life that being a world boxing champion gave him.

He tried to regain his former status and, three fights later, beat Don Cockell in 11 rounds by a knockout to conquer the British Commonwealth light-heavyweight title.

Turpin went back down in weight, and beat Georges Angelo to regain his British middleweight title, and put on another string of wins, leading to his challenge of Bobo Olson for the world middleweight title that Robinson had left vacant after retiring. His second trip to New York turned into another 15-round defeat, this time at the hands of Olson.

In 1954, he went to Rome where he lost his European middleweight title by a knockout in the first round to Tiberio Mitri.

He kept trying mightily as he could to regain his former condition as a world champion and even retained his British middleweight title a few times in his next ten fights, but he lost two of them to obscure opponents.

After that, he managed another winning streak against some obscure boxers, but by 1958 it was clear his best days in boxing were long over. He lost that year to Yolande Pompey, another future world title challenger, by a second-round knockout in Birmingham, and retired in 1959.

In 1962, he began another comeback which lasted for only two fights, both of which he won, the last being held in Malta.

He retired with a record of 66 wins, 8 losses and 1 draw. Of his 66 wins, 48 came by knockout.

By now he was so short of money that he resorted to professional wrestling. His name meant that he drew moderate crowds for a short time but in the end this venture was not a success because he was a fighter not a showman.

Retirement And Suicide
According to articles, reports and a biography, Turpin couldn't deal with the obscurity resulting from the loss of his crown. In Llandudno in Wales, he bought a public house on the Great Orme, which today retains several genuine artefacts from his career. Between 1952 and 1961, he was the registered licensee.

After being declared bankrupt, Turpin committed suicide by shooting himself in 1966. It is reported that, on the same day, he tried to kill his daughter.

Memorial
Turpin was inducted as a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame in Canastota, New York in 2001. There is a statue of him in Market Square, Warwick.