| Biography | Mushy Callahan was the ring name of Vincent Morris Scheer, a boxer and a champion in the light welterweight division. Callahan was born on November 3, 1904, in New York City. He took the ring name of Mushy Callahan and began boxing in 1924.
On September 21, 1926, Callahan fought Pinky Mitchell for Mitchell's light welterweight championship. Mitchell was the first champion of this weight class, which had been created in 1922. At the time, not many people recognized the championship of this weight class as a legitimate title. Nevertheless, Callahan beat Mitchell over ten rounds and won the title.
Callahan defended his title twice in 1927 and fought a variety of non-title fights from 1927 to 1929.
In 1930 he put his title on the line against Jack Kid Berg on February 18 in London, England. Berg knocked him out in ten rounds to win the title. There is some dispute about the title being on the line in this fight. The National Boxing Association (NBA) had stripped Callahan of its version of the title before the Berg fight. Furthermore, at the time of the Berg fight, Britain did not recognize the light welterweight division. The New York State Athletic Commission recognized the Berg-Callahan fight as being for the title, however, and Berg won NBA recognition in 1931.
Callahan never fought for another title and retired in 1932. After boxing, Callahan worked as a boxing referee and in the entertainment industry, in which he coached actors for boxing scenes (for example, he worked as a boxing consultant on the 1962 Elvis Presley vehicle, Kid Galahad).
|