Brunch Boxing Remembers: Larry Gains
- Matthew Brown
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
02/13/2026
They called him The Toronto Terror. In an era that limited opportunity for Black heavyweights, Larry Gains built a career that forced the sport to reckon with his greatness.
Twice World Colored Heavyweight Champion. Canadian and British Empire champion. Leicester hero. The Toronto Terror never received his shot at the world crown, but his record and resilience secured his place in boxing history.
Born Lawrence Samuel Gains on December 12, 1900 on Sumach Street in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto, he came to boxing at around twenty years old. Charlie Clay asked him to serve as a sparring partner, and Gains soon began training out of the Praestamus Club, an organization for Black boxers. From those early rounds he showed the polish that would define his style.
After a successful amateur run, Gains turned professional and traveled to Britain on a cattle ship. He debuted in London in June 1923 under the nickname The Toronto Terror. Early bouts took him across France and Germany, where he befriended writers Morley Callahan and Ernest Hemingway, then working as newspaper reporters. In 1925 he defeated Max Schmeling, a win that carried weight far beyond the moment.
On February 28, 1927, Gains stopped Horace Soldier Jones in five rounds in Toronto to claim the Canadian Heavyweight Championship. He defended it against Jack Renault and Charlie Belanger, establishing himself as the nation’s premier heavyweight.
In 1930 he settled in Leicester, England, becoming a central figure in the city’s early Black community. Slick and composed in the ring, Gains drew massive crowds. In 1931 he knocked out Phil Scott before 30,000 spectators at Welford Road to win the British Empire title, even while the color bar still shadowed the sport.
That color bar had been entrenched in Britain since 1911, when a proposed bout between Jack Johnson and Bombardier Billy Wells led Home Secretary Winston Churchill to support a ban on interracial title fights. Black heavyweights were steered away from the sport’s biggest prizes. Gains was among the best of his era, yet he was denied a shot at the British and World Championships.
In 1932 the color bar was lifted, and Gains defended his Empire crown against South African Donald McCorkindale at the Royal Albert Hall. The bout ended in an unpopular decision for Gains. During the fight his trainer Jack Goodwin collapsed and died, a tragedy that marked one of the darkest nights of his career. Gains became only the second Black fighter to appear at the venue.
Later that year he defeated Primo Carnera before 70,000 fans at White City in London, a British record attendance for a boxing match. Carnera outweighed him by 60 pounds and stood four inches taller. Gains outboxed him anyway.
He lost the British Empire title in 1934 to Len Harvey and failed to regain it later that year, falling to Jack Petersen in front of 64,000 at White City. As the years progressed and opportunities narrowed, his income dwindled. He was declared bankrupt in 1937.
Shut out of the sport’s highest honors, Gains competed for the World Colored Heavyweight Championship. He won that title in 1928 from George Godfrey and reclaimed it in 1935 against Obie Walker. When Joe Louis captured the World Heavyweight title on June 22, 1937, the separate colored championship became obsolete. Gains was its last recognized champion.
Between 1930 and 1937 he fought 18 times in Leicester, mostly at Granby Halls and Welford Road Stadium, winning the majority. The city embraced him as its own. He trained above the Jolly Angler on Wharf Street and near The George pub in Desborough. Children remembered him buying ice cream after big victories. When he returned from London after beating McCorkindale, crowds filled the streets. After his win over Carnera, even the Mayor of Leicester joined the celebrations. Toronto was his birthplace, but Leicester became his second home. He proudly called himself a Shireman.
In December 1938 he defeated Welsh champion George James on points. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Gains joined the British Army as a physical training instructor. He served as a sergeant major in the Pioneer Corps in the Middle East. His final fight came in June 1942, a loss to Jack London in a fundraiser for the RAF Benevolent Fund. He retired at 40.
Gains finished with 143 professional bouts, winning 115 and drawing five. Many of his defeats came late in his career. He estimated that he earned around 500,000 dollars during his time in the ring, much of which he lost through gambling.
Life after boxing was uneven. He worked low paid jobs, including laboring in Shoeburyness in 1950. In 1953 he was jailed for three months for stealing money from a British Legion club where he served as steward. He pleaded guilty and said he would repay it. After appeal, and repayment by a well known sporting gentleman, he was conditionally discharged. He later performed as a singer and drummer in a hotel band in Southend on Sea, worked as a salvage collection merchant in Tooting Broadway, sold cars, and trained fighters in Morden.
With his wife Lisa, he raised four children, Betty, Harold, Anne and John. In 1976 he published his autobiography The Impossible Dream, a title that spoke to his pursuit of the World Heavyweight Championship that was never made available to him. Max Schmeling wrote the foreword.
Larry Gains died in July 1983 of a heart attack while visiting relatives in Cologne, Germany. Decades later, in 2015, he was posthumously inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Subscribe to the Brunch Boxing website, Twitter and Podcast for more updates and in-depth coverage of the world of boxing in and out of the ring.
Brunch Boxing Support Links: