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Carl "Bobo" Olson
(1928-2002)
Carl "Bobo" Olson
was born in Honolulu
July 11, 1928.
He began his boxing
career in 1945
fighting professionally
throughout the
United States,
Canada, Sweden,
South Africa, Italy,
Philippines and
Australia. In 1953,
Olson was the boxing
middleweight champion.
He beat the tattooed
English champ Randy
Turpin in a 15
round battle for
the title that "Sugar" Ray
Robinson had vacated
with his retirement.
Long before the latest trend of
tattooed athletes, Olson sported
two large upper arm tattoos. Today
tattooed boxers are not an uncommon
sight, but in the 1950s Olson and
Turpin were some of the few World
Champions with tattoos.
In 1951 in Chicago, Olson made
his debut before the TV cameras
in a bout with Australian Dave
Sands. This was the first fight
to be telecast coast to coast in
the United States and although
Olson lost that fight, he appeared
on television seventeen time over
the next three years. His aggressive
style of boxing raised him to the
heights as a favorite of the fans.
After his defeat of Turpin in 1953,
The Ring Magazine named Olson "Fighter
of the Year".
He defended his middleweight title
three times in 1954 turning back
Kid Gavilan, Rocky Castellani and
Pierre Langlois and engaging in
four non-title bouts. In 1954 Olson
won the Edward J. Neil Trophy presented
by the Boxing Writers as fighter
of the year.
When "Sugar Ray" Robinson came
out of retirement in 1955, at the
age of 35, he reclaimed the middleweight
title from Olson at the Chicago
Stadium. They had a rematch in
1956 and Robinson won again with
a knockout in the fourth round.
Losing the title forced Olson into
temporary retirement but like many
boxers, in 1957 the lure of the
spotlight and the money drew him
back into the ring. Olson had been
a professional boxer since the
age of seventeen and knew no other
way to make a living. It was reported
that Olson had trouble with his
weight as a middleweight so he
returned to boxing as a heavyweight.
He had success in this weight class
with eight straight wins beating
former champ Joey Maxim and also
defeating Rory Calhoun and Mike
Holt.
In The Ring Magazine of July 1964,
writer Lew Eskin wrote that, "Olson
had gone to war one hundred and
one times, losing only thirteen,
while scoring forty knockouts.
His list of victims include most
of the top men of his weight over
the past decade and a half."
The last bit of information the
Archive has on Olson is from a
March 1987 article in the sports
section of the San Francisco Chronicle.
It stated that Bobo Olson received
a nice settlement from the Joint
Apprenticeship Committee of Operating
Engineers as a result of his being
fired from his long time job as
a physical education instructor.
Tattoo Archive © 2003
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