Articles and media mentions of Torpedo Billy Murphy

bstract from: High Flying Kiwis, pg 133.
by Mark Taylor, Sporting press 1998.
ISBN:0959788409 (hbk.)

It is easy to overlook the fistic feats of a human dynamo named Billy Murphy. He did, after all, start his boxing career way back in the dim distance, when bare knuckles did more damage than gloves, and bouts often lasted a couple of days.

Murphy, an Auckland tailor, was often called a wiry fighter but skinny and frail would be more accurate. He had the physique of a Murray Halberg and, like that amazing runner, went on to conquer the world. Murphy remains the only native-born New Zealander to claim a world professional championship. And his featherweight win in 1890 was certainly no fluke. American, Will Naughton, leading boxing reporter of his day, acknowledged the Kiwi as "pound for pound the greatest puncher boxing ever knew", during his lengthy devotion to the fight game, Murphy attracted a number of sobriquets, among them "Torpedo" and "Little Dynamite", while Americans who never came to grips with his country of origin, occasionally referred to him as "Australian Billy".

As well as possessing a murderous right hand, he was fast, crafty and confident. He fancied himself against all-comers, whether -they were featherweight or heavyweight, and at sixty years of age was still asking the Auckland Boxing Association for fights. It didn't take long for Murphy's pugilistic skills to surface. He often pummelled his fellow pupils at school and was finally expelled, aged twelve, after wading into the teacher.

Before sailing for Sydney in 1887, where he took up a tailoring position, Murphy had tasted defeat in New Zealand only once - a disqualification against Isaiah Fake.

Murphy joined up with Larry Foley's boxing academy and became an instant hit. After brushing off Will Fuller in his first attempt on Australian soil he beat, in succession, Sam Stewart, Frisco McCaul, Jim Mulholland, Bert Johnson and Frank King. In two later contests, he knocked out Roy Brook and Ed Parker on the same night. Because the weight of Murphy's punches made a mockery of his 52.2kg (8st 3Ib), he had difficulty enticing opponents into the ring. Consequently, he often fought at a disadvantage against bigger men, one of them being 82.6kg (13st) Harry Laing, who won the Australian heavyweight title.

Murphy arrived in the United States, having tangled with every boxer of note in Australasia. But the Americans were slow to put him in the champion category. That all changed, however, when Murphy opened up with a third-round knockout over Johnny Griffin in 1889.

Leading up to his world title shot, the New Zealander had an extraordinary fight against Englishman, Frank Murphy. The bout was called off after twenty seven rounds with both boxers unfit to continue. They were to resume next day but only Billy Murphy, with broken bones in both hands, showed up and was therefore declared the winner.

Irishman, Ike O'Neill Weir, was the world featherweight champion when Murphy earned his challenge at San Francisco in 1890. Weir, a showman dubbed "The Belfast Spider" because of his long reach, was unbeaten in twenty-one contests in the United States.

Murphy trailed hopelessly on points until the thirteenth round when he caught Weir with his famed right hand. The Irishman went down five times in the round before succumbing to another jolting right in the fourteenth. The referee counted to ten but he needn't have bothered.

Murphy took his diamond-studded world-title belt back to New Zealand before putting it on the line against Australian, Albert Griffiths, in Sydney. But Griffiths, with forty-nine straight wins behind him, was too good.

In the United States, the cauldron of pro fighting, Murphy lost only seventeen of fifty-six bouts - the last of them at forty-two years of age. But that wasn't the end of "Torpedo". He quit the ring as a forty-seven-year-old at New Plymouth in 1907, when he disposed of Australian Tom Toohey, a man little more than half his' age.