By: Ken Hissner

On January 21st the heaviest boxer of all-time “Precious” Frank Finnegan passed away at age 49 in his hometown of Elkton, MD. He died of an apparent heart attack. In addition he had Bariatric surgery after retiring from boxing in hope to lose weight years ago but no information is available as to how successful it was for him at the time of his passing. Though he had a brief career at 3-0 (1) turning professional in February of 2001 when he stopped Josh Walters in 2 rounds in Wilmington, DE, he still holds the record as far as I know.

Finnegan followed up 2 months later in April being re-matched with Waters winning a 4 round decision. Though the first fight didn’t have any weights listed Finnegan weighed 464 pounds at a height of 6:07. Waters came in at 262. Finnegan’s final fight was 2 months later winning a 4 round majority decision over Brian Aro of Elkton, MD. Both fights were at the Big Kahuna Night Club in Wilmington.

“While an inspector of the PA-DE boxing commission in 2001 I witnessed what had to be the heaviest heavyweight in boxing history. Though morbidly obese during his professional boxing career, Frank was still a local crowd favorite. Being a firsthand witness I can actually attest to the fact that Frank Finnegan had decent enough skills and cardio fitness to get through the four rounders he participated all the while looking somewhat impressive,” said Vic deWysocki.