Leo Houck-Boxing

Sports' Forgotten Heroes

When he was just 14, Leo Houck decided to step into the ring and give boxing a try. He loved it! For the next 24-years he made it his life. And he was pretty darned good at it too. In fact, over the course of his career, Leo never suffered a knockout. But he sure dished out punishment. According to BoxRec, Leo fought 210 times finishing his career with 144 wins, 39 losses and 27 draws. When Leo fought, though, it was a different game. There were no governing bodies like there are today; and even though Leo thumped then middleweight champion George Chip, he didn't knock him out. So, Leo beat the champ, but didn't win the title. Nonetheless, Leo kept on boxing and became a top-contender for the Light Heavyweight Championship. Although he never actually was crowned champion of any weight class, Leo was one of the most feared and dominant boxers of his era. On this episode of Sports' Forgotten Heroes, I discuss the extraordinary career of Leo Houck with Randy Swope author of a terrific biography on Leo, "Leo Houck: A Biography of Boxing's Uncrowned Middleweight Champion". Randy's research is thorough and our conversation covers such interesting aspects about Leo's career such as: 6-round bouts, 20-round bouts, fighting once a week (sometimes on back-to-back nights), his reluctance to fight overseas and his desire to stay home and fight, but most importantly, the two most critical areas that might have cost him more opportunities: 1.) his apathy towards fellow boxers whom he knew he had defeated so he decided not to knock them out ... 2.) his failure to hire better representation (management), and that might have cost him the opportunity for more championship bouts. But, in the end, there were/are few in long history of boxing who have/had accomplished as much as Leo Houck.