Punchers from the Past: Yama Bahama

YAMA BAHAMA William Horatio Butler Jr

Born Bimini, Bahamas  16 February 1933

Died 29 June 2009

Record 94 fights, 77 wins (26 KO/TKO) 14 losses 3 draws

Turned pro 17 November 1953

Beat: Paolo Melis, Gil Turner, Pat Lowry, Jimmy Martinez, Kid Gavilan, Joe Miceli, Wilf Greaves, Phil Moyer, Victor Zalazar, Stan Harrington, Ted Wright, Joey Giambra, Jose Gonzalez and Farid Salim,

Lost to: Pat Lowry, Isaac Logart, Gil Turner, Rudell Stitch, Victor Zalazar, Luis Rodriguez and Emile Griffith,

He was one of a family of seven children. Bahama’s father was first mate on a cargo boat and in his early youth Bahama worked as a fisherman. Two of his elder brothers were amateur boxers and he followed them into the gym. His ring name came about when his manager decided William Butler was not a boxer’s name. They were discussing a new ring name in a in a marina. There was a boat there named Bahama Mama and they kicked that around and came up with Yama Bahama.

He had most of his early fights in the Bahamas and Miami Beach and was unbeaten in his first 15 fights with two draws before losing to Jimmy Ford  who he subsequently beat three times. He fought often with 23 fights in 1954 and 15 in 1955. After the loss to Ford he moved his base to Detroit. In  March 1955 he had his first fight in Madison Square Garden. That was a six round fight and until he knocked out Battling Douglas to win the Bahama’s welterweight title in June 1955 all of his fights had been over six and four rounds so it was only after 34 fights June 1955 he had his first ten round.

Between November 1954 and June 1956 he scored 23 wins in a row. That run moved him to a different level and he went on to fight most of the top of what today would be super welterweights but then from above 147 and up to 160 were a middleweight.  He fought many of them in their home town/ base. He fought Emile Griffith and Joe Miceli in New York, Rudell Stitch in Louisville, Phil Moyer in Portland and Stan Harrington in Honolulu and rose to No 2 in the ratings. There was talk of a fight with Dick Tiger for the middleweight title but that came to nothing. In February 1967 whilst he was under suspension in Florida for failing to fulfil a contract he was arrested in the Bahamas for attempted robbery of the Royal Bank of Canada in Nassau back in 1965. Three convicts already serving time had fingered Bahama as the organiser of the whole scheme. During the trial he was cleared of all charges. He had his last fight in August 1967 and he went back to his home area of North Bimini with his wife and two daughters. He and opened a place called “Yama’s Rest”, owned a hotel and had a boat chartering company and also went in the business of renting boats. So from fisherman back to fisherman.