Cleveland's Jimmy Bivins was a short light heavy and heavyweight of the 1940's. The Spiderman was a boxer's boxer and turned pro at 20 in 1940 as a middleweight.
He was so good out of the blocks that in his sixth pro fight he beat ranked 160 Nate Bolden!
In his 15th pro fight, nine months after turning pro, he went to Charley Burley's hometown and, with a seven pound advantage, knocked off the ATG. By the end of his first year as a pro he is 18-1 with his only loss to #2 ranked light heavy Anton Christofordis with whom he split fights three weeks apart.
In 1941 he has grown into a light heavy and defeats HOFer and #5 ranked Teddy Yarosz, HOFer Billy Soose, and Nate Bolden for the second time. He has also tried his hand with ranked heavies losing to Lem Franklin and Tony Mutso while giving up 20+ pounds each time.
In 1942 the diminutive Bivins decisions reigning 175 champ Gus Lesnevich in an over the weight match as well as HOFer Joey Maxim and now he begins to beat those ranked heavies. Tami Mauriello, Bob Pastor and Lee Savold, the #'2 , 2 and 7 heavies. By the end of 1942 the twenty three year old Bivins has just finished his third ear as a pro and is 30-5 with wins over a dozen ranked fighters and three HOFers. He is considered so formidable that he is ranked the number 1 contender at BOTH heavyweight and 175 by Ring Magazine.
But because of WWII the titles have been frozen due to so many fighters and trainers going off to war and nobody, Bivins included, can get a crack at Joe Louis or at Gus Lesnevich (whom Bivins had already defeated).
But Jimmy Bivins keeps on trucking. He kicks off 1943 with a soft touch in a guy named Ezzard Charles. The ATG is ranked #3 at 175. Bivins knocks him down four times en route to a unanimous decision. Through the rest of 1943 Bivins fights eight more times and goes unbeaten with a KO win over HOFer Lloyd Marshall and the #'s 2 and 3 heavies and the # 2 175.
In 1944 Bivins fights only once due to military service but he makes it count knocking off #2 heavyweight contender Lee Q. Murray for the second time.
In 1945 Bivins, now a full fledged heavy fighting around 185 takes two tuneups and then gets a draw with #1 Melio Bettina whom Bivins had previously knocked off. He decisions #3 Curtis Sheppard ands then, with an 18 pound advantage disposes of some guy named Archie Moore in six rounds.
From 1941-1945 Jimmy Bivins has gone 25-1-1 with eleven wins over ranked fighters and three wins over HOFers and a win over the reigning 175 champion. And yet because of WWII he cannot get a title shot.
By 1946 Bivins is 48-5-1 and 26 years old. But now the constant fighting of larger men and the brutal schedule he has fought to date begins to show. But the Jimmy Bivins decline is nothing to sneeze at!
In 1946 Bivins decisions #5 ranked 175 Oakland Billy Smith then loses three in a row to HOFer Jersey Joe Walcott, Lee Q. Murray and Ezzard Charles.
In 1947 he rights the ship for a brief period with wins over #6 heavy Curtis Sheppard and #8 175 Booker Beckwith but Ezzard Charles really cements the end of Bivins as a championship threat by drilling Bivins in four rounds in Cleveland.
From this point on Jimmy can still compete with and beat ranked guys, which he does seven more times before he is done. What he can no longer do is beat truly great fighters. He'll lose twice more to Ezzard, and three times to Archie Moore.
Finally in 1951 a used up Jimmy Bivins gets the fight that should have happened a decade earlier,an equally used up Joe Louis. Louis wins an easy decision.
Jimmy Bivins spent his post fighting years as a trainer and truck driver. Like too many greats he suffered a terrible old-age, locked in an attic by his daughter until police responded to a complaint on another matter and found him shrivelled from cancer and wrapped in a blanket soiled with his own excrement.
A terribly sad end to a career that, had the world been a different place, might have numbered him among boxing's true legends.
Here is a faded Bivins taking on a peak Mongoose.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmBHz6vDwuA
