Sonny Boy West
American boxer
Al West (May 13, 1929 – December 21, 1950), alias Sonny Boy, was a lightweight professional boxer from Maryland. He was a native of Washington, D.C.
Professional career
West made his professional debut on November 29, 1946, a two-round knockout win against George Junior. He won his first nine professional matches before losing to Harry LaSane on August 11, 1947, a loss which he avenged just fourteen days later. West's final record was 46 wins (14 by knockout), 8 losses, and 1 draw in 55 fights. In his short career West fought such important names as Stonewall Jackson, Jimmy Carter, Redtop Davis, Sammy Angott, Ike Williams, Charley Salas, and Mario Pacheco.
Death
The career and life of Sonny Boy West ended with a beating at the hands of Percy Bassett, which caused bleeding in the brain. According to boxrec.com, "West complained of double vision between the 6th and 7th rounds. After he was hurt to the body by Bassett, he was floored by a right hand. As he fell, he landed hard on his head. West died of injuries suffered in this bout on December 21st.
“Sonny Boy West” enters the record as american boxer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sonny, West and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7562009. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 1950, 1946 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sonny Boy West” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.