James Harold Fanning (born August 6, 1942) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant.

[4] He had title matches against champion Pedro Morales in secondary arenas, such as Philadelphia, and feuded with short-term tag partner Chief Jay Strongbow.

Jimmy and his kayfabe brother Johnny Valiant held the tag belts from 1974 to 1975 and main evented Madison Square Garden against Chief Jay Strongbow and Bruno Sammartino (Strongbow and Sammartino won 2 out of 3 falls, but one fall via disqualification; hence the belts didn't change hands).

He even recorded a song, "The Ballad of Handsome Jimmy", which was used in wrestling arenas as his entry music and became a mainstay on some Memphis radio stations for a few years.

Due to the beard cutting attack, he feuded heavily with Paul Jones and his army of wrestlers, from 1984 through to late 1986.

During The Great American Bash 1986 summer shows, Paul Jones adopted a military style look in his long feud with Valiant and labeled his stable of wrestlers The Army.

Paul Jones at this point shortened his army to his newly acquired tag team of Ragin Bull and Rick Rude.

In the late 1980s, he teamed with Hector Guerrero (then masked as Laser Tron) and Bugsy McGraw and feuded with The New Breed.

He now enjoys his time with his wife Angel and training wrestlers at Boogie's Wrestling Camp located in Shawsville, Virginia.

Valiant remains in the wrestling world today with continuing to appear at independent shows signing autographs while his students appear in a few matches on the card.

[citation needed] On May 14, 2022, Valiant came out of retirement at 79 years old winning a 6-man tag team match at Patriotic Wrestling Federation in York, South Carolina.