Monte Attel

Attell was elected to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.

Attell initially retired from boxing in 1916, largely as the result of an eye infection that eventually led to his going blind in the eye. He had lost most of his vision in the other eye as a result of injuries sustained during his fight with Owen Moran in May 1905. One of his last bouts was a seven-round knockout loss on October 16, 1930, to Marty Taylor, known as Kid Taylor, a featherweight who had fought but not beaten several quality boxers. In his youth, he had knocked out Taylor on April 21, 1905 in New York.

In time, a failed business and the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s wiped out his savings. By February 1923, according to one source, Attell was short on funds, blind, and residing at the Alameda County Hospital. While blind, he was forced at one point to sell peanuts and cigarettes at fights to raise money, while a young man led him to his customers. Hearing of his plight, Jack Dempsey later financed a cigar stand in San Francisco that supplied Attell a decent living for many years. He was married to wife Mary, formerly Mary Forman, but had no children of their own. In 1957, he suffered a heart attack and retired to Palo Alto for a period. After his passing in 1960 at his home on South Court in Palo Alto, he was interred in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in the San Francisco suburb, Colma, California, the city in which he had first taken his World Bantamweight title.

He was an actor, known for The Great Secret (1917).

Future world bantamweight champion, Joe Lynch (boxer) knocked out Attell in the seventh round of a scheduled ten round bout at the Pioneer Sporting Club on September 5, 1916 in East Liverpool, Ohio. Lynch would hold the world bantamweight championship in the early 1920s. Attell was down in the first round.

Sometime in 1914, Attell incurred an eye injury that became infected, and eventually resulted in a loss of sight in the eye.

In a bout billed as a world bantamweight title match on January 30, 1911, Attell won a ten-round newspaper decision to retain his title against Phil McGovern, brother to champion Terry, at the Athletic Club in Brooklyn. In a close and brutal bout, McGovern sent Attell to the floor three times in the first round. The New York Tribune wrote that Attell traded punches with McGovern at three to one, and used his advantage in height and reach as well as a hard, straight punch that crossed inside to win their newspaper decision. Attell was down in the second as well from a swing to the jaw, though he rose quickly after his trip to the mat. McGovern sensed a quick victory, but Attell stood him off with straight lefts. McGovern's aggressiveness made the bout look like a contest, and his ability to take his time with his opponent and effectively use lefts to the face, won him the decision of the New York Tribune. Newspapers were divided on who had won the bout, but the local papers, The New York Times, and Brooklyn Daily Eagle favored Attell as the winner. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote that Attell used stabbing lefts to counter McGovern's advances in the fourth and fifth. After the fifth, Attell's left to the face and right cross to the jaw dominated the bout, and took the steam from McGovern. In the ninth and tenth, McGovern staged an ineffective rally, and was stopped by Attell's counterpunches.

Attell lost the world bantamweight championship to Frankie Conley on February 22, 1910, at the Pacific Athletic Club in Vernon, a suburb of Los Angeles, by a knockout in the 42nd round.

On June 19, 1909, Monte Attell won the World Bantamweight title defeating former champion Frankie Neil at Coffroth's Arena, in an eighteenth-round knockout in Colma, California. The bout was billed as a championship for the world bantamweight title. According to W. W. Naughton writing for the Oakland Tribune, Attell won every round of the eighteen round bout, which was ended by a full left handed blow to the chin of Frankie Neil. Neil reportedly "took a terrible mauling without flinching. From the very first it was apparent that the only chance Neil had was to outgame Attell and wear him down by persistent rushing for he was being outpunched at least two to one and the blows of the Hebrew fighter (Attell) were not the easiest either." Though Neil was the aggressor through much of the bout, Attell "peppered Neil with straight lefts", brought crushing rights to the jaw, and delivered solid rights to the midsection that eventually took their toll on his opponent. In the fifteenth, Neil was down from a left to the stomach, and twice he stumbled to his hands and knees in the clinches. He was nearly finished at the end of the round from lefts and rights but was saved by the fifteenth's closing bell. Though Attell could not finish Neal in the next two rounds, but in the eighteenth, as Neil first approached, Attell finished him with a straight left to the jaw that put him down for the count. Neil had last held the title in 1904, before losing it to British bantamweight Joe Bowker.

Attell defeated Mike Kutchos on November 25, 1908 for the Pacific Coast Bantamweight Title, winning in a fifteen-round points decision.

In an early loss against a known competitor, Attell lost to Freddie Weeks on September 3, 1906 in a fifth-round knockout at the Grand Opera House at Victor, Colorado. Weeks was a quick and scrappy competitor who fought some of the best, including Monte's brother Abe in October 1907 and January 1909 in unsuccessful title matches for the world featherweight championship.

Attell lost to accomplished British boxer Owen Moran on May 15, 1905 in a twenty-round points decision at the Pallisades in New York before a private, affluent crowd of around 150, who paid as much as $10 to see the fight, a princely sum in that era. Moran held the BBBC Flyweight Championship of Great Britain in 1903 and would compete several times for the bantamweight championship of his native land. Moran fought with more telling blows which won him the decision. By the sixth, both fighters were fatigued, and in the seventh, Moran hooked a strong left to the jaw of Attell staggering him, and causing him to fall against the ropes as the round ended. Moran tried to finish Attell through the final ten rounds, but was unable, as his opponent would retreat or clinch to save himself. The bout caused a serious eye injury to Attell which became permanent and eventually led to blindness.

Before his world bantamweight championship bout, Attell defeated Dusty Miller on November 5, 1904 in a six-round points decision at the Chicago Athletic Club. Two weeks later, Attell defeated Miller again at the West End Athletic Club in St. Louis, in a ten-round points decision. In their bout in St. Louis, Attell had the lead throughout, boring in constantly, and defending with skill. Miller fought back gamely, but Attell clearly held the better hand. In the fifth to the ninth rounds, Miller stalled, and though he rallied in the tenth, the round finished even. Attell received the decision for his ability to penetrate Miller's defenses with stronger, if at times less frequent blows.

From fighting for survival in the streets, Monte Attell turned professional by 1902, winning his first five bouts. He lost several of his early bouts, but between February 1906 and May 1909, he won ten continuous matches. His performance earned him a chance to fight for the vacant Bantamweight championship in 1909.

Monte Attel was born on July 28, 1885 in San Francisco, California, USA.