| Biography | Kid Socks was born George Joseph Stockings in 1904. He began his boxing career in 1922, at the age of 18. Like so many fighters of that time, Socks was thrown into the deep end from the start, fighting 10 round matches from the beginning, and his first 15 round match in just his 10th professional contest. Socks tough apprenticeship is shown by the fact that he went a modest 5-8-1 in his first 14 contests, but Socks was already displaying the heart and durability for which he would become known. All of his 8 defeats came via points. In fact, out of his 78 career defeats, only 4 would come inside the distance, and only one of those stoppages was via a clean knockout (and that came at the fists of the great Bantamweight world champion Panama Al Brown.) As his career progressed, Socks became a crowd favourite, and gained the reputation as one of the toughest of ring warriors, and able to give any of the top fighters a run for their money
Kid Socks fought twice for major titles. On April 19, 1926, he fought Elky Clark at the National Sporting Club, London, for the British, Commonwealth, and European Flyweight titles, and was stopped on a TKO in the 20th and final round. Two years later on July 7, 1928, Socks travelled to Melbourne, Australia, and challenged Young Billy McAllister, for the vacant Commonwealth Bantamweight title, losing on points after 15 rounds.
In his 12-year career, Socks had 210 recorded fights, against many of the top fighters of his day. |