Fidel LaBarba
Toronto Daily Star, December 5 1932
Fidel LaBarba (1905-1981) was the Olympic gold medalist in boxing in the flyweight division in the 1924 Olympic Games. He became the world flyweight champion in 1927 and then moved up to the featherweight division in 1928.
In 1931, he lost a bid for the world featherweight championship but, at the time of this photograph, he had every reason to believe that he was in the middle of what he hoped would be a long career. He had no way of knowing that his next fight would be his last.
On December 9 1932, four days after the photograph shown above appeared, LaBarba not only lost his fight with Kid Chocolate: he lost sight in one eye, which needed to be removed. This ended his boxing career.
After his injury, LaBarba went on to earn a degree in journalism from Stanford University. He worked as a sportswriter, a screenwriter, in public relations, and as a technical adviser for boxing movies. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1996.
Created September 11, 2025.