South Jersey will soon honor one of its own.
An 8-foot-tall statue of Jersey Joe Walcott, the late heavyweight champion, is being sculpted and will soon be placed in Wiggins Park in Camden, New Jersey, where Walcott became Sheriff and served in other leadership positions after his boxing career.
Sculptor Carl LeVotch has released an image of a clay rendering he will use to create a bronze statue. It is expected to be finished by the fall of next year.
Walcott, who died in 1994, was heavyweight champ in 1951 and 1952. He is known in part for being on the wrong end of a disputed decision against Joe Louis in 1947 before losing to Louis by knockout the following year.
The statue depicts the moment he put Louis down one of two times in the first fight.
“There’s that moment where, ‘Wow. Look what I did’ of accomplishment. That’s what I’m going to try to capture,” LeVotch told KFW Newsradio.
Local officials commissioned the statue of Walcott, whose name at birth was Arnold Cream. The future location of the artwork has special meaning for Vincent Cream, the fighter’s grandson.
“The slaves that came in on the ships in Camden and docked in Camden are still looking over our shoulder,” he said. “And they’re going to be looking at Camden raising a statue of a Black man on the waterfront. And he’s a champion.”