Abe Attell

Ring Wizard

 

Abe Attell grew up as a small, poor, Jewish boy in a world populated by people who were bigger, richer and gentile. But despite these disadvantages - or perhaps because of them - he learned how to defend himself and fight, and went on to become one of the greatest boxers ever to step into a ring. He held the world featherweight championship for more than a decade at the turn of the century, and after retirement was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame.

"I was a conceited fighter," Attell admitted. "I thought I could lick anybody. For a long time I was right." Sports columnist Joe Williams says that Abe was the greatest featherweight of them all. Famed author and sports buff Damon Runyon identifies Attell as "one of the five greatest fighters of all time." Nat Fleischer, publisher of Ring magazine and the world's foremost authority on pugilism, names Abe as at least the third greatest fighter his class has ever produced, behind only Terrible Terry McGovern and Britain's Jem Driscoll, with whom Abe once fought a ten-round no-decision bout, with Attell retaining his world crown.

Born on Washington's Birthday in 1884, Abe found himself fighting almost from birth. Indeed, he liked to joke that one of the few fights he ever lost was when he took a swing at the doctor delivering him. As the sixteenth of