Dixie Kid

Aaron Lister Brown (23 December 1883 – 6 April 1934), known professionally as the Dixie Kid, was an American boxer. He was a controversial contender for the World Welterweight Boxing Championship in April 1904.

Early life and career Brown was born on December 23, 1883, in Fulton, Missouri. The match was disregarded as a title bout when it was discovered, not surprisingly, that referee Sullivan had bet on Dixie Kid to win the match. As Langford gained his stride, the "Kid" went down once in the fifth round and again as the bell sounded, and could not return to box in the sixth when the towel was thrown.

On November 1, 1909, he faced the impressive black boxer Jeff Clark and fought to an eight-round win, which he repeated on November 15. Clark would later fight for championships in Panama City, Panama against such exceptional black opponents as Kid Norfolk, a future International Boxing Hall of Fame recipient, Roughouse Ware, and Sam McVea.

Loss to welterweight champion Harry Lewis in England, 1912

On January 18, 1912, he make a solid showing against world welterweight champion Harry Lewis, losing in an eighth-round technical knockout in a non-title fight in Liverpool, England. Lewis showed the advantage throughout the bout.

On October 4, 1912, in Premierland, Paris, he lost to Marcel Thomas in a fifteen-round points decision. The bout brought European world welterweight status to Thomas and had an impressive purse of $5000, equal to the better purses the Kid had split in the United States. The Kid had the best of the earlier rounds, but Thomas came back in the later ones.

On April 25, 1912, the Kid soundly defeated an eighteen year old Georges Bernard at France's grand Cirq de Paris, in an eleventh-round technical knockout. The bout was billed as the 147 pound world title, putting it in the welterweight class. About 1913, he trained Eugene Bullard as a boxer and arranged for him to fight in Paris. Bullard, an African-American, became a fighter pilot during World War I.

The Kid completed his boxing career in Europe, featuring bouts in France, England, and Spain. Near the end of his life in the summer of 1933 when Jimmy McLarnin became world welterweight champion, the Kid appeared at the young boxer's training camp, picking the junior welterweight as a rising star.

The Kid died April 6, 1934, in Los Angeles after falling out of a tenement story window. It is not known whether it was by accident or a suicide. Sadly, he lived near poverty at the time of his death, making ends meet with odd jobs and the occasional donation. unless otherwise stated.

Official Record

All newspaper decisions are officially regarded as "no decision" bouts and are not counted to the win/loss/draw column.

Unofficial record

Record with the inclusion of newspaper decisions to the win/loss/draw column.