Fred Mallin

Fred Mallin lost to Frank Crawley in the 1923 ABA middleweight final and, in 1933, he was beaten by Alf Shawyer. In the five years in between, however, he was champion every year and equalled the feat of his older brother Harry who also won the title in the five years between 1919-23. Harry was the first man to retain an Olympic boxing title, and as of 2020 remained the only British male boxer to achieve this feat.

Unfortunately for Fred, he could not emulate his sibling and win an Olympic medal, finishing fourth at Amsterdam in 1928 after losing to Belgium’s Leonard Steyaert in the bronze medal contest. Mallin’s finest moment on the international stage came at the 1930 British Empire Games in Canada when he comfortably beat Dudley Gallagher of Australia on points to win the middleweight gold medal.