Johnny "The Scotch Wop" Dundee (November 19, 1893 – April 22, 1965) was an American featherweight and the first world junior lightweight champion boxer who fought from 1910 until 1932. He was inducted into the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1957 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame class of 1991.
Early life
Giuseppe Curreri was born in Sciacca, Agricento, Sicily, Italy to Calogero Curreri (1857 - 1937) and Ignazia Segreto (1859 - 1921). His father was a fisherman. His parents immigrated to the United States in 1909. He was raised on Manhattan's West Side where his father owned a fish shop on 41st Street and 9th Avenue.
Professional career
Name
Curreri was given his ring name in 1910 by his former manager, Scotty Montieth, of Dundee, Scotland.
In 1913, Dundee earned a world title fight in his 87th fight. He fought 20 rounds against World Featherweight champion, Johnny Kilbane in Vernon, California. The fight ended in a draw.
In 1921, Dundee won the junior lightweight championship when his opponent, George "KO" Chaney, was disqualified in the fifth round. The win made Dundee the first universally recognized junior lightweight champion in history.
A year later, Dundee knocked out Danny Frush. Following the win, he was recognized, in New York State, as the featherweight champion of the world.
On July 6, 1922, Dundee defeated "Little" Jackie Sharkey by unanimous decision in a fifteen-round Junior Lightweight title bout at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Sharkey was briefly down in the fourth round, and again in the fifteenth. Though the fight was close Dundee won "by a shade". He was criticized for the fight with the New York Evening World writing that Dundee was "losing his fighting fire" by allowing the bout to go fifteen rounds.
Dundee successfully defended his junior lightweight crown three times before losing it to Jack Bernstein on May 30, 1923. They fought at the Coney Island Velodrome, in front of a crowd of 15,000. Dundee was expected to win; however, he lost a unanimous fifteen-round decision despite knocking Bernstein down in the third round.
Less than two months later, Dundee was given the opportunity to fight featherweight champion, and war hero, Eugene Criqui. He lost 28 pounds in four weeks in order to fight him, making 126 pounds on the days of the fight. Criqui had beaten Johnny Kilbane two days after Dundee's fight with Bernstein, with a sixth-round knockout. However, part of the contract for this fight required that he give Dundee a shot at the title within sixty days. Fifty-four days later, on July 26, 1923, Dundee fought Criqui. He knocked him down four times and beat him by a fifteen-round decision.
Controversial decision
On December 17, 1923, Dundee fought Jack Bernstein again at Madison Square Garden. The fight ended in a Split Decision. Several newspapers, including the New York Times, wrote that the judges made the wrong decision. Author Ken Blady wrote that several of the judges may have been influenced to vote against Bernstein. The Milwaukee Sentinel echoed by printing "By probably the worst decision in local boxing history, Johnny Dundee of Jersey City regained his Junior Lightweight championship from Jack Bernstein."
In contrast, the Milwaukee Journal noted that Dundee finished strong in the bout, and agreed with the decision. The paper also noted "the sentiment of the crowd, based on the fighters' round by round showing, was that Bernstein had won easily."
With the win, Dundee had unified the featherweight title and the junior lightweight title.
The last significant fight of his career was in 1927 when he challenged featherweight champion Tony Canzoneri, but lost a 15-round decision.
After a three-year retirement, Dundee tried to stage a comeback in 1932. However, two fights into it, he officially retired after posting a six-round decision win over Mickey Greb, and a 10th round lost to Al Dunbar.
Style
In 1965, Al del Greco wrote that Dundee was regarded as a "good southpaw craftsman."