1942: Boxing

Boxing felt the impact of the war through 1942. Title events were conspicuous by their absence for the most part. Defense requirements militated against important outdoor activities. Champions, ex-champions, title contenders, flocked to the defense of their country, forgetting the ring for the greater battle as a soldier, a sailor, a marine or a coast guard.

Joe Louis, kingpin of them all, set the example. He enlisted soon after the first of the year. Billy Conn, his foremost challenger from Pittsburgh, followed suit. Gus Lesnevich, world light-heavyweight champion, from Cliffside Park, N. H.; Tony Zale, Gary, Ind., boxer who is the world middleweight title-holder; and Freddie (Red) Cochrane of Newark, N. J., holder of the welterweight crown, were other champions in service. As might be expected, competition for these titles was 'frozen' except in the case of Louis. He made two defenses of his crown, contributing his purse for each bout to service relief organizations, the aggregate amounting to $83,246.

Louis knocked out the towering Buddy Baer of California, in Madison Square Garden on Jan. 9, the bout, scheduled for fifteen rounds, ending after exactly 2 minutes 56 seconds of the first round. Immediately following this match Louis enlisted in the army, his induction being effected at Camp Upton, L. I.

On furlough from his army duties, Louis in Madison Square Garden on March 27 knocked out Abe Simon, Long Island behemoth, in 16 seconds of the seventh round of what was scheduled as a fifteen-round bout. An attempt was made by Promoter Mike Jacobs of New York to arrange a Columbus Day outdoor bout between Louis and Conn, in the interests of Army relief. The boxers had been furloughed and entered light training for the bout, but Secretary of War Stimson, solving a question that developed over whether debts of the boxers amounting to more than $130,000 should be liquidated, ruled instead to liquidate the bout plans and peremptorily order both soldiers back to military duties.

There was a crowd of 18,870 at Louis' abbreviated bout with Baer and the receipts amounted to $189,700, the year's largest receipts as well as the year's biggest boxing gathering. The Navy Relief Society, for which the bout was held, profited to the extent of $89,092, of which $47,100 represented Louis' purse, contributed in toto. Proceeds from Louis' bout against Simon, amounting to $64,980, went to the Army Emergency Relief Fund for which the bout was held. Louis' purse, $36,146, was the largest contribution to this nest egg. The match attracted 18,220 persons and receipts of $132,431.

The fact they were in service kept Lesnevich, Zale and Cochrane inactive, so that title competition in the light-heavyweight, middleweight and welterweight classes was nil.

In the lightweight class Sammy Angott, Washington, Pa., defended his title once, winning a decision from Allie Stolz, Newark, N. J., on May 15, and subsequently surrendered the title, claiming he was forsaking the ring to enter a defense plant. Thereupon the New York State Athletic Commission, approving a meeting between Beau Jack (Sidney Walker), Augusta, Ga., and Tippy Larkin, Garfield, N. J., as a championship bout on Dec. 18, recognized Jack as title-holder when he knocked out Larkin in 1 minute 19 seconds of the third round of a scheduled fifteen-round bout.

The National Boxing Association, with which the New York State Athletic Commission is not affiliated, declined to recognize Jack as champion, favoring, instead, an elimination tournament of nation-wide scope.

Chalky Wright, Los Angeles, Calif., after retaining his title against Harry Jeffra in Baltimore, June 19, and against Charles (Lulu) Costantino, New York, on Sept. 25, lost his world featherweight championship to Willie Pep, Hartford, Conn., on Nov. 20, when Pep scored an upset decision in fifteen rounds. This ring division, too, was clouded in dispute, since the N. B. A. recognized Jackie Wilson, Pittsburgh, Pa., as champion.

Manuel Ortiz, Mexico City, was recognized by the N. B. A. as world bantamweight title-holder as a consequence of a twelve-round decision he scored over Lou Salica, New York, in California, Aug. 7. The New York State Athletic Commission, however, declined to recognize Ortiz's title claims. Competition in the flyweight class was at a complete standstill.

The University of Maryland won the Eastern Intercollegiate Association championships at Charlottesville, Va., March 7, without producing an individual champion among its 5-man team. Contrasting was the work of the University of Wisconsin's 4-man team which won the National Collegiate Athletic Association championships at Baton Rouge, La., March 28, and bagged four individual titles.

Competitors from widely scattered points won championships at the Amateur Athletic Union's annual title tournament in Boston, April 13, 14 and 15. Titles were scattered over an area which included Cleveland, O., New Orleans, La., Fort Mitchel, N. Y., Lackawanna, N. Y., Saugus, Mass., St. Louis, Mo., and Pittsburgh, Pa.

1941: Boxing

Professional Boxing.

Only two of the champions who were class leaders in boxing, as 1941 was ushered in, finished the year as title-holders. Joseph Louis Barrow, the famed Brown Bomber known as Joe Louis, ruled the heavyweight roost, unassailed, or practically so, despite the fact he defended his title no less than seven times. Lou Salica, product of New York's East Side, maintained his position at the top of the bantamweight class through three title defenses. In all other six standard divisions of boxing, changes were effected, some of them after conflicting championship claims which made for a repetition of the confusion which has surrounded ring championships through most of the years of the modern era.

Alone, pre-eminently, Louis was the outstanding figure in the sport, the greatest 'fighting' heavyweight champion the ring has ever known, a credit to the Negro race and to the sport he leads so capably. He had defended his title nineteen times since 1937 when the year ended.

He started the year's title defenses Jan. 31, when he knocked out Clarence (Red) Burman of Baltimore, in five rounds in New York. On Feb. 17, Louis journeyed to Philadelphia and knocked out Gus Dorazio in two rounds. He was in Detroit, March 21, where he disposed of Abe Simon, Long Island ring giant, in thirteen rounds. In St. Louis, on April 8, Louis knocked out Tony Musto, Chicagoan, in nine rounds.

The champion's next bout was on May 23, in Washington, D. C., and in this contest Louis disposed of Buddy Baer, California's giant challenger, in seven exciting rounds. On June 18, Louis knocked out Billy Conn, Pittsburgher, in thirteen rounds in New York and on Sept. 29 the champion knocked out Lou Nova. Californian, in six rounds in New York. The Conn and Nova battles were Louis' most important of the year. They were held in the Polo Grounds, New York before the season's largest professional paid crowds. But it was from Baer, first, and then Conn that Louis experienced his greatest difficulty.

Baer surprised Louis and the boxing world by dumping the champion out of the ring in the very first round of their Washington clash. Recovering from this astonishing ordeal Louis came back savagely, gradually to beat Baer down until he floored the challenger twice in the sixth round and rendered Baer helpless. The round ended with Louis accidentally striking Baer after the bell and Ancil Hoffman, manager of Baer, forthwith claiming a foul. He demanded that Referee Arthur Donovan rule a foul disqualification, which would have involved the transfer of Louis' title, and refused to let Baer respond to the bell for the seventh round. Referee Donovan ignored the claim of foul, disqualified Baer for his manager's refusal to let the boxer come up for the seventh round, a disqualification that gave Louis credit for a knockout, and the bout ended in confusion. Manager Hoffman's attempts to have the decision reviewed and changed were rejected.

Conn, a clever, shifty boxer, gave Louis trouble for twelve rounds of their scheduled fifteen-round encounter. He floored the champion with a left hook to the jaw near the end of the twelfth round. Encouraged at this success Conn discarded his boxing speed, agility and brilliance in a reckless bid for a knockout in the thirteenth round and was himself crumpled under the pulverizing blows of the champion.

Against Nova, Louis experienced absolutely no trouble. In the first flash of real fighting the bout held Louis knocked out his foe in the sixth round. The bout was unanimously declared to be one of the most disappointing heavyweight championships of modern times.

The largest crowd, 56,549 persons, witnessed the Nova match. The receipts amounted to $583,821. A crowd of 54,484 persons saw the Conn bout for which the receipts were $451,743. For the Conn and Nova bouts Louis collected $347,678. His income from the five other bouts, added to this figure, boosted to more than $2,180,000 his ring earnings from the day he laid down his laborer's tools in the Ford plant at Detroit, back in 1934.

In order to get the match with Louis, Conn had to surrender his world light-heavyweight title. This created a confusing situation until Gus Lesnevich, Cliffside Park, N. J., boxer, conquered Tami Mauriello of New York, on Aug. 26, establishing an undisputed champion. Lesnevich repeated the victory in a return bout staged Nov. 14.

The middleweight class was clouded in confusing title claims when Billy Soose of Farrell, Pa., surrendered the championship. This was cleared up on Nov. 28, when Tony Zale of Gary, Ind., who had been recognized as champion by the National Boxing Association but not in New York and other non-affiliate localities, defeated Georgie Abrams of the U.S. Navy, to gain clear claim to the title.

An upset was provided in the welterweight class when Freddie (Red) Cochrane of Newark, N. J., defeated Fritzie Zivic of Pittsburgh, in Newark, July 29, and became champion. Cochrane did not again defend the title through the year. Lew Jenkins, Sweet-water, Tex., who was lightweight champion as the year opened, lost his title on Dec. 19 when Sammy Angott of Washington, Pa., won a fifteen-round decision over him in New York, a bout that witnessed Jenkins' only title defense of the year.

The featherweight championship had Chalky Wright, Los Angeles, and Jackie Wilson of Pittsburgh, as claimants when the year ended, Wright being recognized by the New York State Athletic Commission, and Wilson by the National Boxing Association.

In the bantamweight class Salica held his title through two defenses against Tommy Forte of Philadelphia and another against Lou Transparenti of Baltimore. The flyweight class was inactive.

Amateur Boxing.

Amateur boxing proceeded with undiminished interest despite gathering war clouds in Amateur Athletic Union circles. Attendances were on the increase. But in college circles the sport suffered. The Eastern Intercollegiate Conference championships were cancelled; Cornell dropped boxing as an intercollegiate sport, expanding on the intramural plan, and Annapolis considered dropping the sport on an intercollegiate competitive scale, long before the treacherous visit of the Japanese to Pearl Harbor. The Eastern Intercollegiate Association championship title was won by Syracuse University. The National Collegiate Athletic Association championship title was won by University of Idaho, which also gained three individual titles.

The war abroad cancelled all foreign boxing of any consequence. Only bouts of minor importance were held and these principally for the entertainment of service men.

1940: Boxing

Professional Boxing.

Although boxing dipped below previous levels in 1940 from a financial standpoint, competitively it was up to par: a total of thirty championship bouts went into the record, an exceedingly high average. This total of title struggles includes championships in divisions where the title claim is disputed owing to the fact that different governing bodies in boxing recognize different claimants to the championships.

As has been the case since he achieved the world heavyweight championship in 1937 by knocking out James J. Braddock in Chicago, Joe Louis ruled supreme over a field that saw no threat to his reign as the year ended. He defended his title four times, starting with a fifteen-round bout against Arturo Godoy, Chilean heavyweight, staged in New York's Madison Square Garden in February. In this battle Louis found Godoy's crouching style something of a problem, but the champion had little difficulty winning the decision. In March Louis scored a quick knockout over Johnny Paychek, Des Moines, Ia., boxer in a bout that was hardly a serious workout for the champion, so quickly did it end. The knockout came in the second round as Louis created something of a record with his second title defense in Madison Square Garden within a period of six weeks. The champion's biggest bout of the year was a return meeting with Godoy, staged at the Yankee Stadium in New York, June 20. In this bout Louis knocked out Godoy in the eighth round, the bout ending over the violent protests of Godoy after he had been battered into a helpless, gory spectacle by Louis' thudding blows. A crowd of 27,786 persons viewed the battle. The gross receipts were $149,505, the record receipts of the year, and a sharp decline from the high of 1939 when the bout between Louis and Bob Pastor in Detroit attracted a year's record gate of $347,870. Louis closed his year's activity with a six-round knockout of Al McCoy, French-Canadian boxer, in Boston on Dec. 16, the bout ending because of an abnormal swelling over McCoy's left eye, although the challenger sought to dissuade his handlers from calling a halt. Through the year Louis' earnings amounted to $129,312, hardly as much as he has collected from a single bout in the past. His gross earnings from the time he forsook a factory hand's berth in the Henry Ford plant in 1934 rose to $1,722,908.

Henry Armstrong won distinction as the year's most active champion for the second successive year. The doughty little California Negro who defended his welterweight title eleven times in 1939, retained the honor through six defenses before finally being dethroned in his seventh bout of the year, his twentieth as welterweight champion, by Fritzie Zivic of Pittsburgh. Leading up to his fall from eminence, Armstrong, with effective display of the ring attributes which earned him the sobriquet 'Hammering Henry,' knocked out Joe Ghnouly in five rounds; Pedro Montanez in nine; Paul Junior in seven; Ralph Zanelli in five; Paul Junior (again) in three; and Phil Furr in four, as he waged battle in St. Louis, New York, Boston, Portland, Me., and Washington, D. C., from January to September. On Oct. 4, Zivic won a fifteen-round decision over Armstrong in a bout in Madison Square Garden that closed with the gallant Armstrong the figure of crushing defeat, staggering and swaying about the ring, hardly able to see through eyes that were bruised, torn and partly closed. Zivic engaged in three non-championship bouts after becoming champion, but did not defend the title.

Armstrong was one of several champions whose titles changed hands. Only Billy Conn of Pittsburgh, in addition to Louis, retained his championship. Conn made one defense of the light-heavyweight crown, winning a decision over Gus Lesnevich in Detroit, June 5, after fifteen rounds. The middleweight championship passed from Ceferino Garcia to Ken Overlin of Washington, D. C., when, on May 23 in Madison Square Garden Garcia, who previously fought a draw with Armstrong in defense of the title, lost a decision to Overlin in fifteen rounds. Overlin twice defended his title, winning two fifteen-round decisions over Steve Belloise of New York. But the division ended the year with rival claims to the title. While Overlin was generally recognized by right of direct succession from Garcia, the National Boxing Association recognized Tony Zale of Chicago as champion.

Lew Jenkins of Sweetwater, Tex., knocked out Lou Ambers of Herkimer. N. Y., to win the lightweight title on May 10. The knockout, one of the most startling ring reversals of the year, was effected in three rounds. Jenkins defended the title once, knocking out Pete Lello of Chicago in two rounds in New York. Jenkins undertook a bout against Armstrong in July, a non-title match between two champions, but was knocked out in six rounds.

The featherweight title changed hands when Henry Jeffra of Baltimore, defeated Joey Archibald of Providence, R. I., in fifteen rounds at Baltimore on May 20. In the bantamweight division Lou Salica of New York became champion when, following a drawn battle against Georgie Pace on March 4 in Toronto, Can., he came back to win a fifteen-round decision over Pace in a bout staged in the Bronx Coliseum, New York, Sept. 24. The flyweight division was entirely inactive.

In addition to Zale as a disputant to a title, divisions were recorded also in the lightweight and featherweight classes. Zale's recognition came from the N.B.A. through a victory Zale scored over Al Hostak of Seattle. The N.B.A. recognized Sammy Angott as the lightweight champion through a victory he scored in May over Davey Day at Louisville, in a match dignified with championship recognition by the Association. In the featherweight class Petey Scalzo of New York was recognized by the N.B.A. as champion. He defeated Frankie Covelli in Washington in May.

Amateur Boxing.

Amateur boxing continued on a wide scale through the country and in increasing volume. Sectional championships drew increased patronage, tournaments of sectional, district and national distinction drew large entries, attracted banner crowds and provided sterling competition. In collegiate boxing Penn State won the Eastern Intercollegiate Association championships in March, retiring the trophy while the Eastern Intercollegiate Conference championship title was retained by Bucknell.

European Countries.

The war crushed boxing in European countries. Only in isolated cases was any attempt made to maintain the sport on a competitive basis and then only on a moderate scale.

1939: Boxing

In a year that saw boxing subjected to more than the customary amount of knocks from within and without, Joe Louis reigned supreme: Henry Armstrong won the palm for activity and consistency: Billy Conn established himself as one of the sport's foremost exponents as well as the most likely looking prospect for development; and Tony Galento, providing the year's greatest thrill, stood out singularly, viewed from any angle of his barrel-like frame.

Louis went calmly about the business of defending his world heavyweight title and adding to his fortune. He knocked out, in order, John Henry Lewis, Jack Roper, Tony Galento and Bob Pastor.

Armstrong placed his welterweight crown on the competitive block no fewer than eleven times, which will suffice for a record until a better one comes along. True, the challengers were not in all cases first-class. The 147-pound division of the ring does not hold ten first-class challengers. But the fact remains Armstrong's crown was in jeopardy in eleven distinct bouts in a sport where it is an established fact a title is at stake whenever a champion steps between the ropes with a rival at weight.

Armstrong dropped his lightweight title to Lou Ambers, Herkimer Hurricane, on a disputed decision last August. In this battle Hammering Henry retained his heavier title only because it was expressly understood in advance of the bout that because Armstrong would be compelled to weigh down to 135 pounds or less, it would not be reasonable to have the 147-pound title ride on the result. This arrangement was something of a departure for old-timers from the days before legislative measures brought their regulating influence when a champion's title or titles were involved any time he entered a ring against a challenger at weight, regardless of whether he were fighting for the lighter or heavier crown.

Conn, after conquering Fred Apostoli for a second time in one of the year's outstanding bouts, ended the light-heavyweight championship reign of Melio Bettina, Beacon. N. Y., boxer, in July, winning a fifteen-round decision. Bettina had gained recognition as class champion in February with a victory over Tiger Jack Fox in a State Athletic Commission supervised elimination. The elimination was arranged to determine a successor to John Henry Lewis who had to abdicate when a medical examination disclosed an optic irregularity. When Bettina clamored for another chance at the title he had held such a short time, Conn obliged and in September again defeated Bettina in a bout that brought Pittsburgh once again to the forefront as one of the boxing centers of America. Not since the days when the late Harry Greb was the idol of the mining belt was such interest manifested in a boxing event.

All told 25 championship battles were waged in the course of the year. Every class was represented but the forgotten flyweight division. The scarcity of little men, the difficulty in reaching agreement on the outstanding ring midget, saw this once popular class approach almost to the point of extinction.

In addition to the eleven title struggles by Armstrong, the four by Louis, the three in the light-heavy-weight division and the lone lightweight championship, the middleweight class saw 3 championships by 2 title claimants, the featherweight division saw Joey Archibald of Providence twice defend his crown (although the second defense left an ugly aftermath), and Sixto Escobar once defended his bantamweight title before voluntarily surrendering the title.

Boxing was investigated in California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York. The nation's legislative halls in Washington, D. C., echoed a demand for Federal control of the sport. Harry Thomas purportedly confessed he engaged in fake fights with Max Schmeling and Galento in 1937 and 1938. A bout between Galento and Natie Brown in Detroit ended in such dissatisfaction that Brown was banned, Galento was under a modified band and the commission chairman resigned.

Louis, of course, was the year's leading fistic figure. He knocked out his four challengers in less than seventeen completed rounds. John Henry Lewis was the first victim. He succumbed in January in 2:29 of the first round. Next came Jack Roper, who was toppled in April in 2:20 of the first round.

Galento was crushed in June in 2:29 of the fourth round after surprising with an attack which staggered Louis in the first round and saw the champion floored under a left hook to the jaw in the third. Here was the year's biggest thrill, the spectacle of the Brown Bomber on a ring floor for the first time since 1937 when James J. Braddock upset him with a right uppercut to the chin, before being hammered out of the title in Chicago. And, in September, Louis knocked out Pastor in 38 seconds of the eleventh round in Detroit, crushing a gallant bid by a challenger who had stormed through three previous rounds with dangerous power.

Louis grossed a total of $273,986 for his year's labor, collecting his largest purse for the Pastor battle. This contest also drew the largest gate of the year, $347,870. The champion's share was $118,400. With Galento, Louis drew $283,303 and received $96,323. For polishing off Lewis so quickly, the champion collected $34,413 and his purse for the speedy set-to with Roper was $34,850. This year's earnings brought the grand total for Louis' career dating back to 1934, to $1,669,722, placing him third only to Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney in this highly desirable department.

Armstrong made his title defenses in the 147-pound class against Baby Arizmendi, Bobby Pacho (twice), Lew Feldman, Davey Day, Ernie Roderick (in London, Eng.), Al Manfredo, Howard Scott, Ritchie Fontaine and Jimmy Garrison (twice). All but three of the contests ended in knockouts. Arizmendi went ten rounds, Roderick lasted fifteen and Garrison survived ten in their first battle.

The decision by which Armstrong was shorn of his lightweight title by Ambers in August created widespread controversy because the result came in a rough-house bout in which Armstrong lost by foul penalties, while Ambers, equally guilty, went unpenalized.

In the middleweight division Ceferino Garcia knocked out Fred Apostoli in seven exciting rounds to gain recognition in New York and California. Al Hostak, National Boxing Association champion, knocked out Solly Krieger in four rounds at Seattle, and disposed of Eric Seelig in one round at Cleveland, to retain his standing. Archibald held the featherweight title against Leo Rodak and Henry Jeffra, winning decisions over each although the Jeffra verdict was roundly condemned. Escobar held the bantamweight title by winning a decision over Kayo Morgan in fifteen unimpressive rounds at San Juan, P. R., last April and shortly afterward surrendered the crown. The flyweight class was the ring's step-child through the year.

The professional sport had its first experience with television. A bout was televised for the first time in London, Eng., in February, with not altogether satisfactory results. A bout in which Lou Nova knocked out Max Baer in eleven rounds last June was telecast from the Yankee Stadium in New York with moderate success. Nova, incidentally, was the victim of one of the year's outstanding upsets when he was knocked out by Galento in fourteen rounds at Philadelphia.

Amateur and collegiate boxing flourished. Popularity of the sport swelled the ranks of amateurs, providing greater and more varied competition in Amateur Athletic Union State, sectional and national championships conducted from coast to coast. In collegiate boxing West Point won the Eastern Intercollegiate Association championships; the Eastern Conference title went to Bucknell, the Southeastern Conference championship to Louisiana State and the mythical National Collegiate A.A. championship was claimed by the University of Wisconsin whose fistic team accounted for four of the eight individual titles.

1938: Boxing

More emphatically than at any other time in the long history of pugilism did the Negro dominate the ring throughout 1938. Joe Louis was world heavyweight champion, appropriately recognized as the ring's monarch. There were also two other Negro champions — Henry Armstrong and John Henry Lewis.

Henry Armstrong was holder of the world welter-weight championship and the world lightweight title as well. He became the first boxer in history ever to hold three championships at the same time, because, when he won the lightweight title after having acquired the welterweight championship, he had also the world featherweight championship, a crown the doughty little Los Angeles Negro annexed from Petey Sarron on Oct. 29, 1937. The weight of his title proved too much for Armstrong. Finding it next to impossible longer to make 126 pounds and fight at his ring best, he surrendered the featherweight crown, but not until after he had established himself as a triple champion.

John Henry Lewis, Arizona Negro, was leader of the world light-heavy-weight class, although his claim was somewhat open to dispute in some quarters. For failing to dispose of challenges hurled at him through the New York State Athletic Commission. Lewis saw his title declared vacated by the Empire State board. The action led to court proceedings in which Lewis was legally testing the authority of the Commission with the year on the wane and the prospect of a chance at Joe Louis heavyweight title confronting him. But, outside of New York. Lewis was recognized as the leader of the 175-pound class, giving the Negro race what might conservatively be described as a strangle hold on four of the eight championships in the professional ring.

If it were possible to determine leadership in boxing on outstanding performance alone. Armstrong would have undisputed right to whatever this distinction amounts to. In boxing, however, as in practically every other sport, things are relative. When the situation is considered objectively the palm must go to Joe Louis.

The heavyweight champion brought back the million-dollar gate. He defended his title three times, something of a record for a year's work for as far back as heavyweight championship history goes. He fought, all told, less than nine full rounds as he bowled over three rivals for his title, the climax coming on June 22, when he knocked out Max Schmeling, the Black Uhlan of the Rhine who formerly held the title, in one round, or exactly 2 minutes 4 seconds of fighting that was primitively savage, spectacularly furious and startlingly decisive. He battered the German so terrifically in the brief round the bout occupied, that Schmeling was removed to the Polyclinic Hospital, where he was confined for ten days with a back injury.

This bout, which established a record for brevity in heavyweight title defense, was fought in the Yankee Stadium, before 70,025 persons, a representative gathering that ran the gamut from Cabinet officer to newsboy. The receipts, including $75,000 accruing to Promoter Michael Strauss Jacobs for motion picture and radio rights, amounted to $1,015,096.

Louis received $349,288 for his work of 2 minutes 4 seconds, Schmeling's balm being a fortune of $174,644. A straight left started Schmeling on the road to defeat. It jarred him to his toes, tossed him against the ropes and then, with tigerish fury, Louis battered his foe to the ring floor three times while a startled crowd rent the air with its cheers.

Leading up to this match. Louis had knocked out Nathan Mann of New Haven, in 1 minute 56 seconds of the third round in a scheduled fifteen-round match in Madison Square Garden on Feb. 23. On April 1, in Chicago's Stadium, the champion bowled over Harry Thomas in 2 minutes 50 seconds of the fifth round.

All told, titles in four divisions changed hands. The succession involved three boxers directly and a fourth, in the middleweight division, indirectly.

On May 31, Armstrong hammered Barney Ross of Chicago through fifteen rounds in New York and won the world welterweight title. Back to the ring on Aug. 17 came Armstrong, to wrest the world lightweight crown from Lou Ambers in fifteen equally torrid rounds in New York. Disregarding a precedent which dictates that a champion ordinarily should rest on his laurels. Armstrong, surrendering his feather-weight title, went forth and, before the year ended, twice defended his welterweight championship within a period of ten days, winning decisions over Ceferino Garcia and Alf Manfredo. The doughty little California Negro thus completed two solid years in which he had been undefeated.

Sixto Escobar, Puerto Rican fighter, was victor in the other title battle in which a championship changed hands. In February he conquered Harry Jeffra of Baltimore, in a bout staged in Puerto Rico, to regain the world bantamweight championship.

The middleweight muddle followed Freddic Steele's loss of the title to Al Hostak. The latter lost the crown to Solly Krieger, who thereupon ignored a legitimate challenge from Fred Apostoli, accounted by many the world's premier middleweight boxer. As a consequence Krieger's title claim was unrecognized by the New York State Athletic Commission, which recognized Apostoli as champion. The Boxing Commission of California. Apostoli's native State, concurred. Krieger was somewhat in disfavor as the year ended, although the National Boxing Association accorded him recognition as 160-pound-class champion.

John Henry Lewis defended his title twice, knocking out Emilio Martinez in four rounds of a bout in St. Paul on April 25, and winning a fifteen-round decision over Al Gainer in New Haven. Oct. 25. However, Tiger Jack Fox, Spokane Negro, was regarded as a more creditably-established challenger than either Martinez or Gainer, and neither of these fights was generally recognized as of real championship standard.

The championships in the featherweight and flyweight divisions were likewise in dispute. When Armstrong surrendered the featherweight crown, the question of undisputed possession rested between Joey Archibald of Providence. R. L. and Leo Rodak of Chicago. The issue was not decided as the year ended. Lack of a leader threw the flyweight class, once one of the most popular ring divisions, into wildest disorder.

The improvement in professional boxing was reflected somewhat in the amateur sport. A record crowd of 22,234 in Chicago were present in May at an international tournament in which Chicago's Golden Glovers repulsed invaders from Finland. Italy, Ireland, Germany and Poland. The Amateur Athletic Union's national title fixture ran through three nights of stirring competition, in which, incidentally, the ascendancy of the Negro boxer was notable. The ten-year monopoly of Syracuse and Penn State in Eastern intercollegiate boxing circles also was shattered in the annual title tournament, when Army's boxing team annexed the team championship.