HUGH RILEY - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 152733

HUGH RILEY

The professional Scottish boxer is shown in his boxing attire and showing a defensive attitude in this 3½x5½ black and white photograph, signed in black felt tip

Photograph Signed: “Yours in Sport/Hugh Riley” in black felt tip. 3½x5½. Hugh Riley (1929-2004) was born and raised in the south of Edinburgh into a boxing family presided over by his father and noted boxing coach and corner man Johnny Riley. He went to Auckland, New Zealand and won the Empire (now Commonwealth) Games flyweight gold medal. Soon the pro ranks beckoned to the youthful Edinburgh plumber with the fast, skillful, educated left jab and ring skills which led to him boxing in October 1953 the notoriously ruthless Scottish bantamweight champion, also from Edinburgh, Eddie Carson. Outside the ropes he was noted for his good humor but also was always bitter about Carson's utterly ruthless disregard the rules and top Edinburgh referee Eugene Henderson's alleged handling of the bout which Riley lost controversially in points. He also reprised his elder brother's unhappy record of never winning a title bout at the El Dorado venue. However, Riley won many more pro bouts than he ever lost and in early 1954 he moved to the United States, where he made a very good impression on the hard bitten American West Coast fight-game crowd that he subsequently boxed on the same bill as then world middleweight champion, Sugar Ray Robinson, in Los Angeles in 1956. Even though Riley never stopped scaling the heights he had achieved as an amateur boxer, Riley remains one of the best flyweight boxers ever in Scotland history. Corners slightly rounded. Edges lightly worn. Soiled on verso. Pencil notations on verso (unknown hand). Slightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition.