Some info on Moore's opponent James J Parker who Moore fought for the "Heavyweight Championship of the World", with Moore billed as champion, in July 1956 from a Canadian press article...
"A heavyweight boxing champion, he fought the last bare-knuckle boxing match in Canada.
But “The Barrie Bomber” was also known for his soft side, as a loving husband and father.
The thunderous, right-hand punches and ferocious bouts of James Parker, won’t soon be forgotten in the boxing world.
His record — 30-7-4 — includes 17 knockouts and a shot at the world heavyweight title.
Born in Saskatoon in 1928, Parker moved in the 1930s to Barrie where his father had a Massey-Harris dealership.
He wound up in London after serving a five-month sentence at the old London jailhouse for fraud.
The road to boxing legend began with an amateur career starting in 1947.
“He was a championship fighter, and it was cool for me as a kid to have an uncle as a fighter,” said Tom Parker, who has fond memories of his uncle’s boxing days.
“He was a Barrie guy, and although he might not have been the most famous fighter, he was a good one.”
Boxing was Parker’s passion, and he was a championship fighter for much of his career.
“We were proud of him and other kids were scared of you because your uncle was a fighter,” Tom laughed.
After beginning training with the Magneto boxing family in Toronto, Parker won the Alberta novice heavyweight championship — his debut bout. When he turned professional, Parker trained in New Jersey and fought in Toronto, New York, Washington and Florida.
In 1954, Parker defeated John Arthur to claim the British Empire heavyweight championship. That brought him a world heavyweight fight against Archie Moore in 1956.
The bout against Moore was fought at the old Maple Leaf Stadium in Toronto, with seating capacity of about 13,000. Parker lost the fight in the ninth round.
Moore had opened a large cut above Parker’s eye that prompted the referees to end the match. The match was called a technical knockout in Moore’s favour.
Bruce Huff, a former Toronto and Southwestern Ontario sports columnist, still vividly recalls a picture of Parker from the fight. “He was bleeding all down his face,” he said.
Parker was notorious in the boxing world as a “tough a resilient fighter,” said Huff. “He could take a beating, but nobody could ever knock him down.”
Parker’s legendary bare-knuckle fight against Howard Chard is considered the last of its kind fought in Canada. Held in a private Toronto bar, the fight is said to have gone for almost an hour before it was stopped.
But despite Parker’s size and ferocious boxing abilities, Mel Oxford — the former president of the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame — remembers the pugilist as a gentle giant, a family man well liked by his many friends inside and outside boxing circles.
“There are so many things to remember about him, because he was such a nice person and very well like,” said Oxford.
“He never turned down anyone for an autograph or pictures.”"
(by Brendan McConnell)
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From a November 1956 article prior to the Floyd Patterson fight...
"Moore has had only two meaningful fights since he just missed taking Rocky's crown, and neither of them supports optimism. One was against Yolande Pompey in London, where Archie defended his light heavyweight title. Archie's admirers were gravely disappointed then, even though in the end he retained his championship. He just didn't look good. The other important fight, if importance can be attached to a ballyhooed mismatch, was against James J. Parker in Toronto; and there Archie's punching was less than satisfactory. He looked better against Parker than against Pompey, pounded him at will and cut him badly, but the fight lasted nine rounds and was stopped only by the referee's pity, and Archie's, for a defenseless opponent. Surely a sound Archie Moore would have taken out a James J. Parker in two or three rounds with a clean knockout. Archie grants the point and says he was not sound.
"After the Pompey fight," he says, "my hands were soft as mush. In England they don't let a fighter protect his hands properly. There is no protection for the fighter whatsoever. London rules state that you can use only eight feet of gauze and only six feet of adhesive on each hand. In the States we can use 10 and 10 each—but it's 10 yards, not feet, if we want that much. So when I was training for the Parker fight I had to use rubber sponges on my hands every day. When I fought Parker my hands were soft."
Archie argues almost as well as he fights."
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*Any claim on the World Heavyweight Title was dubious at best. The title was officially vacant between April 1956 when Rocky Marciano retired and November 1956 when Floyd Patterson beat Archie Moore for the vacant title.
