Bantamweight legend Panama Al Brown
Miles Templeton recalls the times when Panama Al Brown toured the UK
ONE of the all-time greats of the bantamweight division is Panama Al Brown, active between 1922 and 1942 and the winner of 129 of his 160 contests. He is consistently ranked by experts and historians in the all-time bantamweight top 10, and in a 2016 article on the Boxing News website, Mike Lockley placed him at number four.
He was a complex character out of the ring, and he led a colourful and interesting life before tragically dying in 1951 at the early age of 48. He was a gay black man and so he had to contend with a lot of prejudice, and I suspect that this might account for his choosing to spend a large part of his life in Paris, a city notable then, as it still is today, for its tolerance. Brown fitted easily into French society where, as well as being an extremely well-known boxer, he was also an accomplished tap-dancer, part-time actor and flamboyant socialite.