BAIRD, DOYLE SIGNED PHOTO

HISTORY: Doyle Baird was an Akron Middleweight who compiled a career record of 24-7-1.

“Boxing was good to me,” Baird once told the Beacon Journal. “It came along at a good time, financially and every other way. It curbed a lot of energy I might have used elsewhere. Boxing gave me money, it gave me prestige. It helped me get accepted as a person.”

Baird, the son of the Rev. Jennings and Evelyn Baird, was born April 18, 1938, in Elk Valley, Tennessee, and moved with his family to Akron when he was 4 years old. His father served as pastor of the Assembly of God on West Crosier Street in the 1950s and 1960s.

A natural athlete, Baird won two letters in football at South High School, played on the city championship team in 1954 and also earned letters in track and swimming.

But he grew up in a tough neighborhood in South Akron and hung out with a rough crowd, frequently landing in street brawls.

“We thought nothing of getting into four or five fights a night,” he once recalled. “Some guy would say something smart and away we’d go.”

Or as Beacon Journal sports writer Tom Melody put it: “If he was not the worst kid in Akron, he was right up there among ’em. He spent more time in the back seat of a cop car than a police dog.”

Baird turned his life around through boxing. In the early 1960s, he began training at Tom Binns’ gymnasium at the Manchester Youth Center, channeling his aggression with a punching bag and confining his fighting to the ring.

The sandy-haired, freckle-faced athlete stood 5-11 and weighed about 160 pounds. As a middleweight, he battled to victory in Golden Gloves tournaments at the Akron Armory and finished second at the 1965 Amateur Athletic Union Boxing Championship in Toledo.

Boxing promoter Don Elbaum talked Baird into turning professional in 1966 at the ripe old age of 28. Over the next two years, he compiled a 23-2 record.

Baird was a tenacious fighter with tremendous heart, refusing to give up in the ring. He was willing to absorb two punches in exchange for landing one good one against his opponent. As a consequence, his endured swollen eyes, broken teeth, a mashed nose, scar tissue and too many cuts to count.

“I used to keep track of the stitches, but I’ve lost track,” Baird recalled. “I know they’re well over 100.”

For five years, he was ranked among the top 10 middleweights in the world. He fought three world champions and boxed in one title bout.

His most famous bout in Akron was when he battled middleweight champion Nino Benvenuti of Italy on Oct. 14, 1968, at the Akron Rubber Bowl. The two men battered each other for 10 rounds. 

To many observers, Baird appeared to have won the nontitle fight. The referee even raised the fighter’s arm after the final bell. A half-hour later, though, the judges issued their controversial decision: draw.

Doyle Baird passed away on September 2, 2021.

Presented here is a signed photo of Doyle Baird.

FULL DESCRIPTION: This is promotional photo of Doyle Baird. Boldly signed in red ink, "Best Wishes Doyle Baird." Bold, clear image. Clean front and back. Not creased or torn. 8" x 10."