Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Actually, calling the fights staged in the 1920s “boxing” might be a stretch – they weren’t that far removed from the Roman beat-’em-till-their-dead matches. But hey, what’s wrong with glorifying a little violence here and there, especially on the Fourth of July? Read on, from the Franklin Press:
For a time during the 1920s, Macon County was on the circuit for boxing’s Southern region.
A highly touted match between Larry Avera and Chick Branch, “The Asheville Scrapper,” was one in a series of such “entertainments” to captivate local audiences in the summer of 1923.
It began on the Fourth of July. A specially constructed boxing ring was set up in the courthouse. After a three-round preliminary bout between brothers Lee and Tracy Barnard (Tracy won, but it was a hard-fought contest), Larry Avera took on “Battling Budd.”
The two men fought to a draw through 10 hard rounds, and The Franklin Press congratulated the community on “such an excellent exhibition for the entertainment of our guests on the Fourth, for it is a rare thing indeed that such a high-class exhibition is offered, even in the largest cities.”
The fight was termed, “one of the fastest and most vicious battles ever staged in this whole section.”
A week later, Larry Avera, now the general favorite with Franklin fans, took on “Knock-Out” Crosby, of Philadelphia. Crosby had won 75 percent of all his bouts, but he was no match for Avera, who knocked him out in the sixth round. Avera traveled to Asheville that same week to win a decision battle over Chick Branch. Then, to the delight of his Franklin fans, he went to Atlanta and arranged to move his belongings here.
While Avera was moving, the boxing business took a short break. Four weeks after his fight with Crosby, the favorite returned to the ring to take on Atlantan Jackie Carr. Advance programs promised “the best program ever offered the fans in this section of the country, and equal to any held in any of our Southern cities.”
The local hero outpointed Carr in a 10-round thriller. Before their engagements, there were preliminary bouts between Charley Carpenter and Paul Seay, 11-year-old Franklin boys (who fought to a draw), and Horace Bly and Charley Harshaw.
The Bly-Harshaw match was termed “an example of sure-enough-to-goodness fighting without any regard for the fine points of the game.”
