Jimmy McLarnin, 96; Welterweight Boxing Champion Two Times in ‘30s

Jimmy “Baby Face” McLarnin, a two-time welterweight boxing champion in an era when each weight division had only one titleholder, has died. He was 96.

McLarnin died Oct. 28 at a nursing home in Richland, Wash. The cause of death was not reported.

McLarnin, also known as the Belfast Spider, had victories over 21 champions or future titleholders in a career that stretched from 1923 to 1936.

He beat Young Corbett III at Los Angeles’ Wrigley Field in 1933 for the welterweight title, lost it to Barney Ross in 1934, then came back that same year to avenge his defeat and regain the title by beating Ross. McLarnin subsequently lost the welterweight championship again to Ross the following year.

After three more fights, all in 1936, McLarnin retired at 28, finishing with a record of 63-11-3, with 20 knockouts.

Those who knew McLarnin in subsequent years as an amiable figure on Southern California golf courses, and watched him play with Bing Crosby, Spencer Tracy and Pat O’Brien, might have thought he was born to the country club life. Far from it.

McLarnin was born in Inchicore, Ireland, and grew up in Canada, where his father supported a dozen children by working at various times as a farmer, butcher, shoemaker and lumberman.

Even before reaching his teens, McLarnin saw a simpler way to make money -- using his fists.

“I fought a few fights that are not in the record book,” McLarnin told Associated Press in 1991. “I started to fight when I was 10.”

Harnessing the youngster’s raw talent, Charles “Pop” Foster, a former British boxer, took control of McLarnin’s career when the fighter was in his mid-teens and remained his manager until the day McLarnin took the gloves off for good.

McLarnin turned professional at 15 -- he lied, saying he was 16 -- and earned $1 for his first fight. For his final match against Ross, McLarnin was paid $60,000, finishing his career with earnings of $700,000 to $800,000.

Such riches were unimaginable when McLarnin and Foster boarded a steamer out of Vancouver in 1923, headed for San Francisco.

McLarnin quickly gained a reputation as a brawler who could take a punch, epitomized by his 1927 match against Louis “Kid” Kaplan.

“Oh, could he hit,” McLarnin said of Kaplan in a 1989 interview with The Times. “He knocked me down three times ... and broke my jaw.

“After the fight [McLarnin won by knockout in the eighth round], I remember my teeth didn’t fit together the same, but I didn’t think much about it,” McLarnin said.

“Three years later, a dentist asked me, ‘How did you break your jaw?’ Kaplan had broken my jaw and I’d never known it.”

Today, if a fighter has a spectacular record after 15 or 20 fights, he begins demanding a title fight. In McLarnin’s day, however, with only one title in each weight division and far fewer weight categories, a fighter could spend his career waiting for a precious title shot. McLarnin nearly did, fighting 70 bouts before getting his opportunity against Corbett.

He declined an even bigger opportunity after his retirement. “I turned down $50,000 to make a comeback against Henry Armstrong,” McLarnin said. “I was playing golf with Bob Hope when Pop Foster showed up with a telegram from promoter Mike Jacobs.

“Hope said: ‘You’re not going to turn down all that money to fight that guy.’

“I said: ‘You want it? You fight the guy.’ ”

McLarnin is survived by his son Jimmy; daughters Jean Bookwalter, Grace Ellen Watkins and Nancy Smith; two sisters; six grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. His wife of 50 years, Lillian, died in 1985.