Early Life and Career
He was born John Charles Peterson in Cardiff, the son of Thomas Peterson, a massage specialist and his wife Melinda Laura Rossiter. He took up amateur boxing as a youth and at the age of 18 he reached the Welsh Amateur Boxing Association finals at both middleweight and light-heavyweight. The following year he won the Welsh ABA titles at light-heavyweight and heavyweight, as well as winning the British ABA title at light-heavyweight.
He turned professional in 1931 and fought under the name of Jack Petersen. He was 6 ft 1½in tall and was a well proportioned athlete. His first professional fight was in September 1931 at the Holborn Stadium, London, against Bill Partridge. Petersen won the fight by a knockout in the fourth round. Petersen won his first sixteen fights, in one of which he knocked out Dick Power to win the Welsh heavyweight title.
Read more about this topic: Jack Petersen
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)
“The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)