Bob Murphy, (July 22, 1922 – August 1, 1961), was an Irish-American light heavyweight

Light heavyweight

In boxing, the light heavyweight is a weight division above 168 pounds [12 Stone or 76.204 kilograms] and up to 175 pounds [12.5 stone or 79.38 kilograms]), falling between super middleweight and cruiserweight...

 boxer

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 who fought from 1945 to 1954. He was born Edwin Lee Conarty in Flagler, Colorado

Flagler, Colorado

Flagler is a Statutory Town in Kit Carson County, Colorado, United States. The population was 612 at the 2000 census.The town was established in 1888 as a small settlement near the then-new Rock Island Railroad, named Malowe after Rock Island Railroad attorney M. A. Lowe...

, but fought out of San Diego, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. In 2003, Murphy, who was a southpaw, made the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.

Pro career

He unsuccessfully challenged Joey Maxim

Joey Maxim

Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli was an American boxer. He was a light heavyweight champion of the world. He took the ring-name Joey Maxim from the Maxim gun, the world's first self-acting machine gun, based on his ability to rapidly throw a large number of left jabs.-Early career:Maxim was born in...

 for the light heavyweight championship on August 22, 1951. Although Murphy entered the ring as the favorite, Maxim clearly outboxed him and won a unanimous 15-round decision.

Murphy's biggest win came on June 27, 1951 against former middleweight

Middleweight

Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1897...

 champion Jake LaMotta

Jake LaMotta

Giacobbe LaMotta , better known as Jake LaMotta, nicknamed "The Bronx Bull" and "The Raging Bull", is a former American world middleweight champion boxer...

, who had moved up to the light heavyweight division after losing his crown to Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson

Sugar Ray Robinson was an African-American professional boxer. Frequently cited as the greatest boxer of all time, Robinson's performances in the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight...

. LaMotta appeared poorly prepared for the bout and was floored (the only knockdown of LaMotta's career). The match stopped when LaMotta could not answer the bell for the eighth round. Murphy and LaMotta fought a rematch on June 11, 1952, and La Motta won the decision.

Murphy retired in 1954 with a 65-11-1 record with 57 knockout wins.

Death

Murphy was killed in a road accident in Boston, when he crashed his motorcycle and broke his neck on August 1, 1961.