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Yvon Durelle, born October 14, 1929 in
Baie-Ste-Anne, New Brunswick, Canada, was a
British Empire champion boxer.

From a family of fourteen children, Yvon Durelle
grew up in a small Acadian fishing village on the
Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic coast. Like many others of
his generation, he left school at an early age to
work on a fishing boat. In his spare time, Durelle
liked to box and while still working in the
fishery, he began prize fighting on weekends.
Dubbed as the Fighting Fisherman, he began his
professional career in 1947, boxing at various
venues around the province of New Brunswick. Over
time he gained a reputation as a tough opponent
with a hard punch and his victories eventually
made him one of the top ranked middleweight
fighters in Canada.

In May of 1953, Durelle won the Canadian
middleweight championship then, after defending
his title and winning 8 straight bouts, he moved
up in weight class to fight in the
light-heavyweight division where in his first
fight against a heavier and stronger opponent, he
defeated the Canadian champion to take the
light-heavyweight title. The following year, he
fought outside his native Canada for the first
time, going to Brooklyn, New York to fight Floyd
Patterson, an up-and-coming United States|American
Golden Gloves champion. Outpointed in 8 rounds by
the man who would soon become the heavyweight
champion of the world, Durelle's strong
performance in a losing cause against Patterson
gained him wide respect in the international
boxing world.

In New York, New York|New York City, in March of
1957, Durelle broke into the top ten world
rankings with a 10 round decision over Angelo
Defendis. In May he won the British Empire
light-heavyweight championship and the following
month fought the top-ranked contender in the
world, Tony Anthony. In a fight most experts say
he won handily, Durelle was given only a draw
against the heavily favored Anthony but it
elevated him to the number 3 ranking in the world.
He became a much talked about sports personality
in his native country after he beat the
Germany|German champion, Willi Besmanoff. In 1958,
he defeated Clarence Hinnant, regarded by many as
one of the best all around boxers of the time. The
victory provided Durelle with the opportunity for
his first chance to fight for a world title.

Yvonne Durelle's light-heavyweight championship
fight against the great Archie Moore on December
10, 1958 at the Forum in Montreal, Quebec, is one
of the most memorable fights in boxing history.
Listed as a 4-to-1 underdog, the bout made Yvon
Durelle a legend in Canada, gaining him near cult
status for his performance. In one of the first
fights broadcast coast-to-coast on American
television, Durelle stunned boxing patrons by
knocking the champion down 3 times in the first
round. Under boxing rules today (except those of
the World Boxing Council), the fight would have
been stopped after three knockdowns in one round
and Yvon Durelle would have been world champion.
Also, he missed an opportunity when, after the
first knockdown, he stood over Moore watching for
several seconds before returning to his corner. As
a result of his delay, the referee had to wait to
begin the count, and Moore made it to his feet at
the count of nine. Durelle swarmed all over the
champion for four more rounds and knocked him to
the canvas again in round five but Moore held on
and eventually wore Durelle down to retain his
world championship with an eleventh round
knockout. The fight was the talk of the boxing
world and members of the Canadian Press voted it
the sporting event of the year.

Six months later, in June of 1959, at Durelle's
home village of Baie-Ste-Anne,  thirty-five
fishermen died when they were swept out to sea by
40 foot tidal waves that pounded the wharf.
Distraught at the loss of friends and relatives,
in August he lost in a world title fight rematch
with Archie Moore by a third round knockout. In
November of that year he lost in 12 rounds to the
Canadian heavyweight champion, George Chuvalo.
Durelle fought only a few more times, before
taking up professional wrestling in 1961. He
returned to boxing in 1963 winning twice more
before retiring permanently. He continued to earn
a living at wrestling, primarily in eastern Canada
but on occasion with Stu Hart's Stampede
Wrestling, in Calgary, Alberta.

Despite his size and brutal profession, Durelle is
often referred to as a modest and gentle man (his
nickname was "doux", meaning "soft"). However, in
the 1970s an event would profoundly impact him and
his family when, in a bar that he owned and
operated, he shot and killed a man who had
attacked him. Charged with murder, he was defended
by a young lawyer by the name of Frank McKenna and
was acquitted on the grounds of self defense. The
trial received massive and sustained publicity and
McKenna would eventually go into politics and be
elected List of New Brunswick premiers|Premier of
the province of New Brunswick.

Retired in his native village, a small museum with
souvenirs of his twenty-year boxing career was
built attached to his home where he and his wife
of more than fifty years greet fans who still show
up to see the New Brunswick boxer. In an article
for ESPN.Com about the most memorable matches in
boxing history, current-day referee Mills Lane
said: "I don't think you'll ever see a fight like
Durelle-Moore again...That fight transcended what
great fights are."

Honors:
*Inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of
Fame in 1971
*Inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in
1975
*Inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame in
1989

Yvon Durelle's biography, "The Fighting Fisherman:
The Life of Yvon Durelle" by author Raymond
Fraser, was published in 1981. In 2003, Ginette
Pellerin of the National Film Board of Canada made
a documentary film|documentary on his life called
"Durelle."