BruceWoodcockBoxer.co.uk

The final fight that capped this momentous year was another Jack Solomons promotion. It was in front of a crowd of 8,000 at the Albert Hall, where his professional career had begun just three years earlier, and where in 1939 he had won his amateur light-heavy-weight title the same night Jock Porter took the A.B.A. heavy-weight crown. This time Bruce was fighting Porter, who had turned professional in 1944 and had achieved some impressive wins, stopping Al Delaney in two rounds, faster than Bruce had done the previous year, and beating Jack London just a few weeks after Bruce’s own victory over him. But since then, Jock had suffered a technical knock-out from Ken Shaw, the beginnings of a serious of losses that would end his career the next year.

And Bruce made his contribution in this fight.

In fact, Bruce put Porter down nine times in three rounds, despite suffering from a synovial inflammation in his left elbow that he kept from Tom Hurst for fear of the fight being cancelled. Porter had started well with two lefts to Bruce’s face that hurt, but which he returned with a right hook to the chin, sending Jock down for the first count - eight. Realising he’d shaken Porter, Bruce followed that with three quick right hooks, putting his man down again for four before the bell ended the round. After intensive work in his corner, the courageous Porter returned with an attack at the beginning of the second round, but missed an attempted uppercut, giving Bruce space for another right hook that put Porter on the floor for nine. When he got back up, he was badly shaken and Bruce took the advantage with another right that drove Porter to the floor where he clung to the bottom rope before the bell. The third round saw further counts of eight, nine, seven and four, before the referee. Jack Hart, stopped the fight.

It was a savagely convincing win, but at the same time, Bruce was concerned that he’d had Porter on the canvas nine times and hadn’t finished him. But at least he had avoided aggravating his damaged left, and he did eventually earn himself a mention in a recent scholarly volume listing of the largest number of knock-downs [Friedrich Unterharnscheidt and Julia Taylor-Unterharnscheidt, Boxing: Medical Aspects, 2003, p. 60].

But in the aftermath of the fight, there was some dispute in the press about Bruce’s future path and some dissenters from the general accolades for his performance. Geoffrey Simpson admired Bruce’s punching power but was scathing about his lack of style, going so far as to say ‘The champion is no great boxer. That was plain for all to see’. He also questioned Bruce’s defensive capacity. The Herald boxing critic James Butler agreed that Bruce ‘threw overboard any finesse’ in his eagerness to score with a deciding punch’. But the Yorkshire Evening News reporter refused ‘to deny the champion praise which he deserves’, quoting the president of the French Boxing Federation Roland Resche as saying after the fight ‘Bruce Woodcock is undoubtedly the best heavy-weight in Europe today.’ 

Jock Porter himself told the journalist as he got ready for the fight, 

Bruce has no equal in this country. I remember, back in February, 1939, when Bruce and I fought on the same bill in Dublin and we were room-mates, that I told him ‘You’ll be a champion one day, Bruce - you’ve got class.’ How right I was.

But the News reporter also had a note of caution: 

Many ringside judges immediately hailed Woodcock as the greatest British heavy-weight of the century. Before we accept this valuation, however, let us remember that Woodcock, full of the highest promise though he is, has yet to meet an opponent of real class.

Jimmy Wilde, the former fly-weight world champion, agreed that there was ‘no British heavy-weight good enough to extend him, unless it be Freddie Mills’, feeling that Bruce was ‘in need of constant practice’ and expressing surprise that ‘he did not apply the finishing touch and win with a conclusive knock-out.’

True to form, Bruce took all the press furore quietly in his stride. His relaxed approach had nearly led him to miss the bout itself. Through a misunderstanding, he was still sleeping in his hotel in Shaftsbury Avenue, when a call came through from the Albert Hall and brother Bill rushed in the wake him at 7.10 p.m., got him dressed by 7.20 and drove Bruce through the West End at a terrific pace to arrive at the venue by 7.30, a full thirty minutes after the first bout had started. Porter was knocked out by 8.10. Straight after the fight, the pair were on the road back to Doncaster, arriving home at 3.00 a.m. But the next day was a leisurely rise at 10.30 and a walk for Mick, Bruce’s Irish terrier, after breakfast.