His father had been a bantamweight fighter during his time in the British Forces, and had set up a gym in Swansea in which Curvis trained as a youth.

[1] By the end of 1945 he was fighting in larger venues in England, including a victory over Cliff Anderson at the Queensberry Club in Soho.

Curvis had been finding it difficult to making the weight at featherweight, and after losing to Phillips he moved up to lightweight.

Curvis continued his progression and in the summer of 1950 he won his first title eliminator, beating Gwn Williams to set up a shot at the British belt.

Held at St Helen's in Swansea, the fifteen round fight went the distance, Thomas winning by points decision.

The match, held in the newly built Rand Stadium in Johannesburg, resulted in Curvis losing his Commonwealth belt.

He had Dreyer down in the sixth, but he survived a 'long count' which lasted as long as sixteen seconds; this was followed by Curvis breaking his left hand and without his main attack he was forced to box defensively for the rest of the fight.