Career
He challenged for the world title against Joe Louis in the same year and gave Louis one of the toughest fights of his career, hurting him numerous times and lasting the full 15 rounds on his way to a wide unanimous decision loss, which was booed by spectators. Farr is considered to be one of the greatest British heavyweight fighters ever. Farr was inducted into the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
Louis, one of the greatest heavyweights of all time, had knocked out 8 of his previous 9 opponents and proceeded to knock out his next 7, but was fearlessly attacked and hurt by Farr.
The 50,000 crowd booed when Louis was awarded the decision after referee Arthur Donovan, Senior had seemingly raised Farr"s glove in victory. Seven years later, in his published account of the fight, Donovan apologised for the "mistake".
After the Louis fight, Farr was unsuccessful in several contests at Madison Square Garden, New New York Farr returned to the United Kingdom early in 1939, enjoying a run of victories that year.
He retired in 1940, but personal tragedies saw him lose his fortune and he ended up bankrupt, having to return to the ring at the age of 36 to make a living.
Farr later ran a public in Brighton, Sussex after retiring, and died on Saint David"s Day, 1986, aged 72. A musical based on Farr"s career, Contender, was composed by Mal Pope and premiered at the United Nations building in New York, followed by a season at Swansea"s Grand Theatre. A theme of the musical is that Farr"s lack of success in the United States of America resulted wholly from his refusal to co-operate with fight-fixing mobsters and bookmakers.