Former Champion Walcott Dies : Boxing: He lost six times in bids for the heavyweight title, but was its oldest winner at 37.

Nobody lost more heavyweight championship fights than Arnold Cream, better known as Jersey Joe Walcott, and nobody was older when he finally won the title.

Walcott, who died Friday night at 80, lost six times for the title. Two of them were memorable bouts with Joe Louis, the first of which many thought Walcott won.

“He was one of the finest technicians in heavyweight boxing history,” said Eddie Futch, who trained Louis. “He was a credit to the game and a good man after he retired. I was always happy to see him.”

Born Arnold Raymond Cream in Merchantville, N.J., on Jan. 31, 1914, Walcott was a little more than 37 years, six months old when his time finally came. On July 7, 1951, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, he knocked out Ezzard Charles with a left hook in the seventh round to become champion.

Walcott had lost a 15-round decision to Charles four months earlier, and reporters called the rematch the “Why Fight?” Why was Walcott getting a title shot after having failed four times to win the crown?

He beat Charles again before losing the title on Sept. 23, 1952, to Rocky Marciano.

Many thought Walcott won his first fight with Louis. On Dec. 5, 1947, at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Walcott knocked Louis down in the first and fourth rounds, but Louis kept the title on a 15-round split decision.

Disgusted, Louis started to leave the ring before the decision was announced. “He really thought he had lost that fight,” Futch recalled Saturday.

Walcott knocked Louis down in the rematch on June 25, 1948, at Yankee Stadium, but Louis knocked him out in the 11th round, then retired.

Walcott lost 15-round decisions to Charles at Chicago in 1949 and Detroit in 1951 before the Pittsburgh knockout.

He won a rematch with Charles on June 5, 1952, then defended against the unbeaten Marciano at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia. Walcott knocked down Marciano in the first round and led on points after 12 before being knocked out in the 13th.

Marciano knocked Walcott out in the first round in the rematch, May 15, 1953, at Chicago Stadium.

Walcott retired with 50-18-1 record and 30 knockouts in a career that began in 1930. He was elected to The Ring Hall of Fame in 1969.

“He was a great fighter,” said Angelo Dundee, who trained Muhammad Ali, among others. “You have to remember, he fought at a time when you fought only the best. He knocked out a lot of great fighters.”

Walcott also was a referee. His most famous assignment was the fight in Lewiston, Me., in 1965, when Ali, then Cassius Clay, won for the second time against Sonny Liston. Liston went down in the first round and was counted out by the timekeeper.

Confused, Walcott let the fight continue. But Nat Fleischer, founder of Ring Magazine, shouted to him and he stopped the bout.

Walcott also served as chairman of the New Jersey State Boxing Commission, retiring in 1984.