British Boxing Beefcake

During the early years of the 20th century, finding beefcake was a problem.  Silent movies rarely featured male nudity.  Neither did pulp magazines.  Bodybuilding was in its infancy.

But in Britain, you could always go to a boxing match, and see biceps and bulges as muscular guys punched, pounded, grabbed, hugged.  It was a quasi-homoerotic ritual that millions of men watched every week.

Boxers became superstars, both for their prowess and their physique.

I like guys who are short, and British featherweight Dick Corbett (1908-1943) was only 5'4".

Nipper Pat Daily (1913-1988), the world's youngest professional boxer, was a flyweight contender ate age 15.  He won 99 of his 119 fights before retiring at age 17 to become a trainer and run a gym. He never married.

Actually, many of the early 20th century boxers never married.  They were most comfortable in a masculine world of boxing rings and gyms.

Scottish light heavyweight Bert Gilroy (1918-1998) won 88 of 121 fights in a long career that lasted for 13 years, then retired to be a manager and trainer, spending the rest of his life near the ring.

Welsh boxer Johnny Basham (1890-1947), known as the Happy Wanderer, became the European welterweight champion.

Welterweight Brian Curvis (1937-2012) fought in the 1950s and 1960s, when awareness of gay identity made immersion in a male-only world suspect.  He got married.

See also: Jerry Quarry, Boxer with Something Extra.