Fred Storbeck

Fred Storbeck (10 August 1889 – 7 December 1970 (aged 81)) born in Pretoria was a South African Boer blacksmith, and amateur and professional heavyweight boxer of the 1910s, and 1920s, who won the South African heavyweight title, and British Empire heavyweight title.

Boxing career

Amateur Early in 1910 the Transvaal Province amateur boxing authorities sent three representatives to compete in the British championships. Heavyweight Fred Storbeck, lightweight Jim Fennessy and featherweight Joe Thomas, with George Twomey as the manager of the first-ever team of South African amateur boxers to compete overseas. In the British championships Storbeck won all his fights on knockouts and became the 1910 British amateur heavyweight champion. Fennessy reached the semi-final and Thomas was eliminated in the second round of the competition.

Professional Fred Storbeck's first professional boxing bout was a knockout victory over Bill Chase at the National Sporting Club, London on 29 May 1911, this was followed by fights including; a no contest with Matthew Curran for the British Empire heavyweight title, a knockout defeat by Bombardier Billy Wells for the British Empire heavyweight title, "during the contest, Storbeck offended Wells by swearing at him. This reaction betrays perhaps unexpected sensitivity in a former ranker, but the English heavyweight almost literally made the South African eat his words by repeatedly ramming a straight left like a telegraph pole into Storbeck's mouth for the remainder of the fight", a disqualification defeat by Pat Doran at Baker's Pavilion, Melbourne on 28 November 1914, a disqualification victory over Arthur Brown at Sydney Stadium on 15 February 1915, a disqualification defeat by Jerry Jerome at Baker's Pavilion, Melbourne on 6 March 1915, a knockout defeat by Sid Neilson at Adelphi Hall, Maitland, New South Wales on 1 May 1915, Storbeck then travelled home to South Africa, with a points victory over Johnny Rutherford for the vacant South African heavyweight title, a disqualification defeat by Nick van den Bergh for the South African heavyweight title, Fred Storbeck's final professional boxing bout was a knockout defeat by Johnny Squires at City Hall, Johannesburg on 29 August 1921.