Every Joe Gans Lightweight Title Fight – Part 4: Rufe Turner

Published

4 years ago

June 9, 2021

Every-Joe-Gans-Lightweight-Title-Fight-Part-4-Rufe-Turner

Gans left the ring without a scratch – The Brooklyn Eagle, 25^th July, 1902.

Rufe Turner was a puncher.

Between the dawn of the twentieth century and his July 1902 confrontation with Joe Gans, he went 16-3-2; all but one of the victories came by stoppage and all his losses were on points. Turner dried up during the last decade of his career but in his pomp, he was all knockouts and jaw. He had faced down fellow punchers, men like Mike “Dummy” Rowan or “Irishman” Tim Hegarty, but he had never faced a composite puncher like Gans.

For Turner though, in 1902, there was no choice. His pursuit of the lightweight championship was the pursuit of a knockout, stop or be stopped, hurt or be hurt. There was no other way.

Three weeks before he would mount his assault on the title, Turner was working his magic on an inexperienced fighter named Willie Lewis in Stockton. Lewis, who was noted as “making a speciality of black men” in The Stockton Daily Record, worked well, attacking Turner two-handed but walked into what one ringsider called Turner’s “sledgehammer punch”; the result was a ten-count which finished long before Lewis regained consciousness. Turner spoke the name Joe Gans; Joe Gans (pictured) bid him west.

“[Turner] has agreed to box Joe Gans fifteen rounds before the Acme Club, Oakland, on the night of the 24^th,” The San Francisco Call reported two days later. “The fight between the two colored men should be a good one.”

Turner, like Gans, was African-American.

There is a perception that fights between two fighters of African descent was of no interest to the American public in 1902, but this is not true. First, there was an emerging class of “sporting men” who were African-American, and they had money to spend, sometimes spent it on gambling and when they gambled it was often on fights. Second, there was a whole generation of white gamblers who bet upon what they saw, and who would bet on anything, including a prize-fight staged between two fighters of whatever race the promoter might wish to source. Finally, there was stardust – if a black fighter was special, the public would pay to see him.

Still, that Gans reigned as champion so soon after his quit job against Frank Erne and his widely derided fake with Terry McGovern spoke of his irresistible quality. The storm that was Jack Johnson was, even then, gathering for a crack at the heavyweight championship but men like Gans, the wonderful George Dixon and the Barbados Demon, Joe Walcott, beat him to the punch in lifting championships; but a certain conduct was expected of these men, there were limits. While Johnson would turn those expectations on their head in what was probably the most important contribution sport ever made to redressing black-white relations in that troubled time in America’s history, Johnson drew the colour line when he came to power, refusing title shots for most of the African- American fighters who had dogged his steps to a title shot.

Gans, in his third title defence, met the most dangerous lightweight puncher in the country who shared his heritage and that is worth noting. The San Francisco Chronicle, which, it will be remembered from Part Three, was most accusatory of Gans over the McFadden fight, could not have been happier noting that there was “no more worthy opponent in California” and that Turner could be favoured “if he can only forget he is going against the champion lightweight.”

Gans set up training quarters minutes south of Oakland in Alameda.

“I have fought hard for the championship,” he told pressmen. “And now that I have it, I will take no chances losing it. This fellow Turner may be a good, clever fellow, but he will find he is up against a seasoned fighter…You can bet your money I will be the winner.”

The Oakland Tribune stood in admiration:

“The hardy, clever fighter is in the most amiable mood,” one writer purred of his visits to the Gans camp. “Cheerfulness has always been a characteristic of Gans, and it is a characteristic which aids wonderfully in the development of a man training for a fight…[his] muscles are hard as steel and his limbs supple, and every joint moves with an ease.”

Turner, at first, was silent, but his people were not; a special train was scheduled to bring his admirers to the fight. “Turner is looked upon as invincible in Stockton,” stated The Tribute. “His wonderful showings in the ring of late has his stock way up.” Meanwhile the pugilist himself prepared overwhelmingly with heavy sparring, his normal course, but those who knew him were struck by a single difference, specifically a care over his work that had not been present before; where once he had done as he pleased, now he sought council, although nobody could convince him to move his fight camp to Oakland.

Despite the fuss, Gans-Turner suffered stiff competition in terms of build-up. No less a figure than James J Jeffries boxed his first defence of the world’s heavyweight title against former champion Bob Fitzsimmons the same weekend, and locally, in San Francisco. I submit that Jeffries dwarfed even John Sullivan as a superstar from this era, although he had not summited quite yet. Nevertheless, The Call was not alone in noting “unusual interest” in the Gans-Turner fight. Gans, already, was providing competition for the biggest and brightest, and for all the heavies stole many of the headlines, the draw of the eyes of the sporting world to the area could only benefit the two lightweights. Many who had spent fight week in San Francisco for the Jeffries fight spent the evening before in Oakland for the Gans fight. The Acme Athletic Club would be filled to near capacity.

Turner pulled his training two days before the fight and two pounds underweight, a picture of relaxation. He went off to San Francisco and then Oakland the following day. The same day, Gans worked hard but somehow took on a sliver of weight and was forced to run miles the day before the fight, up to ten by some reports. Battles with the weight were not unusual for Joe and usually entailed taking off only those final, stubborn ounces. Turner seemed principally interested in Joe’s weight and even when he was told that Gans continued to spar with former foe Herman Miller while Turner rested, it was the champion’s poundage that moved him. Turner apparently insisted often and loudly in the final days that Gans should make 135lbs, on pain of a $200 forfeit, something that would return to haunt him. To his credit he was also dismissive of any notion as to the fight being another fake, laughing or shaking his head whenever a newspaperman suggested it.

The interest was such that some local papers were by now outright favouring the lightweights over the heavyweights, The Stockton Evening Mail complaining that Jeffries was so the superior of Fitzsimmons that the fight was a foregone conclusion. The Los Angeles Times meanwhile, broke ranks and became the first paper to pick Turner, favouring him for not only his vaunted punch but also for the ease with which he made weight. It is fascinating to note then that it was Turner, not Gans who took extra weight to the ring, coming in at half a pound over while Gans hit his mark. It was Turner, and not Gans who was subject to the fine and muttered accusations of an unfair advantage.

These were thrown into sharper relief by the condition of Gans who had “trained down fine” in the parlance of the day, ribs visible beneath his flesh, his face angular and taught. It is testimony to his discipline and his commitment to his art that he would still be making the 135lb limit some seven years later.

Discipline and professionalism seem the cornerstones, too, of his victory over Turner. It was clear within minutes that Turner had a single chance and that chance involved Gans carelessness intersecting with a flush overhand right, so Gans set out to eliminate those errors and minimise those risks, and this, he did, throughout the fight – until the very final seconds.

Gans could and perhaps should have taken out his man in the first, however, as Turner was clearly overwhelmed by the occasion. It needs to be remembered that this wasn’t a twenty-two-year-old Olympic hero getting the first of five title shots at one of twenty “world titles” spread across four different divisions and separated by increments as small as three pounds; this was a black slugger boxing in an openly racist era against a pound-for-pounder for the only world title he would ever be matched for – and he probably knew it.

It should be remembered, too, that The Chronicle had made Turner a slender favourite but only if “he can forget” the enormity of the occasion. There were some questions concerning Turner’s championship minerals and these proved to be well-founded. According to The Tribune, Turner “evidently feared the champion” and “went down three times in this round from sheer nervousness.” Making sense of this is not easy, and reports are contrary, some describing scuffling but most agreeing that Turner was taking to the canvas without a punch being thrown, much less landed. Gans intimidated people. Even Elbows McFadden, who shared so many rounds with the champion seemed over-wrought in their most recent and final contest. Turner was visibly afraid.

For his part, it can only be imagined the horror Gans was filled with as the spectre of yet another faked fight loomed but Turner gathered himself, recovered his mind and set out in earnest to win the world’s championship. Gans remained cautious.

“Joe saw that the work cut out for him was easy,” The Chronicle wrote, “and he took his time, fighting a careful, waiting battle with the right ever ready to put an abrupt ending to proceedings when the proper time arrived…no matter what position he got in during the mix he never left either the head or body unprotected.”

Gans, careful, shifting, feinting, but never extended, allowed Turner to develop momentum. Key for Joe Gans: it does not matter unless the offence is absolutely elite. Momentum does not matter, fluidity, cohesion, speed, none of it matters because Joe Gans has an absolute measure of any fighter merely excellent with whom he takes to the ring.

“His blocking was wonderful,” reported The Tribune, “and it may be said that Rufe only succeeded in getting one really good clean blow [in the entire fight].”

This “one blow” remark is disputed, notably by the gambler Finny Jackson, who from a ringside seat saw Turner land two good body punches in round three. Whatever occurred in the third, Turner began to overreach in the fourth and his long and painful execution began. At round’s end, a rapid left-hand counter dropped Turner for the nine count; when he regained his feet, Gans hit him again with a reverse one-two and Turner was dropped once more, saved only by the bell.

This is important to note. Joe’s perennial critics at the San Francisco Chronicle alleged after this fight that Gans let Turner survive into the fifteenth to allow his manager to collect on bets. It is true, such things were not unheard of but here in the fourth Gans blasted Turner to the deck for a nine count and then pasted him again when he made it up, only the bell interrupting the count. If Joe was trying to avoid the early knockout, he was playing with fine margins.

Turner landed a good right hand high on the head in the fifth and enjoyed his best round of the fight in the sixth, landing the one good blow identified by The Tribune, a left-handed body shot so violent it lifted Gans from the canvas. This sounds hyperbolic, but it was reported in both The Tribune and The Chronicle and the champion’s offence was momentarily stymied. His defence, meanwhile, seems almost to have been impregnable these occasional punches aside, while Turner threw and threw and threw and wilted. Gans meanwhile “never wasted a punch” even according to the ever-critical Chronicle, boxing with absolute economy in the face of a fighter attempting to throw himself into relevance.

The San Francisco Examiner saw a total of three clean punches landed by Turner, their favourite a right hand to the heart in the eighth. Nevertheless, this was another round that saw Turner spilled to the canvas, though he was up quickly and straight back to the fight. It was in the tenth that the fight started to feel cruel, Turner dropped twice, first on his face with an uppercut to the stomach, then with headshots that sent him crashing through the ropes. The bell saved him for a second time, a fact once again overlooked by The Chronicle which itself reported the awful beating Gans administered in the thirteenth in another round where perhaps only the bell and a hard head combined to see Turner through.

The San Diego Union and Daily Bee has Turner hitting the deck in the fourteenth but no other source repeats the claim. In the fifteenth, Gans closed the show. In a repeat of the thirteenth, Gans landed headshots almost at will, eventually putting Turner out of his considerably misery. This was an experienced, powerful man but against Gans he appeared little more than a middling sparring partner. “Gans never took a chance at any stage,” noted The Bee. “Even when Turner was groggy and an easy mark…he kept away or jabbed easy ones to Rufe’s face.”

Nevertheless, there was marked admiration for Turner’s staying power which was considerable. “You’re alright old man,” Gans told his fallen opponent as the two shook hands. “There was sincerity,” reported The Chronicle, “for the Stockton boy made a truly brave showing.”

The Stockton boy fought on and in fact went fifteen fights and two years undefeated. In 1905 he even found his way back into Joe Gans’ ring, though for a six-round no-decision rather than a championship fight. Most sources made Gans a handy winner, but the fight contained none of the spite Gans unleashed against him in the fourth round of their title fight.

Turner fought another twenty years, a third and fourth career, fading but never falling entirely to pieces. He fought on several occasions for something called the “Orient Lightweight title” and supposedly made the acquaintanceship of Pancho Villa, even showing him a thing or two in the line of punching according to Bill Miller, who had indeed spent some time in that part of the world.

Jack Kearns, too, sang Rufe’s praises as a puncher and even spun a tall tale in which he boxed Turner, stopped on his feet after nine. Some sources have him boxing into the early 1920s, his fourth decade as a fighter. Turner was never going to make a champion in the early 1900s, but he likely had the punch and the heart to hold a strap in our own time.

Gans emerged from this fight without a mark on his face and he was not for resting upon his laurels. Al Herford, campaigning as always on Joe’s behalf, began work in tempting Jimmy Britt into the championship ring. First though, there was the matter of Gus Gardner who he met just two months after dusting Turner in a fight that had originally been named a title fight only for Gardner to miss the weight by three pounds. If there were any truth to the notion that Gans had held back against Turner, he certainly did not do so against Gardner, who he blasted out in five of a scheduled twenty. Gardner does not appear to have landed a meaningful punch. Once more, reporters made the claim that a Gans opponent appeared to be “nervous” and in the case of a writer for The Waterbury Evening Democrat, outright scared.

Still, Gardner fared better than Jack Bennett who Gans knocked out in two one-sided rounds five days later. Bennett was a seventy-fight veteran who had, in the preceding eighteen months, been in with the likes of former welterweight champion Rube Ferns, George McFadden, Mike Sullivan, not to mention Joe Gans himself. But something had changed. Bennett now “appeared to be afraid of the champion” according to the Washington Evening Star.

Gans dropped him twice in the first and then put him away with his new pet, a reverse one-two, in the second.

The following month Gans departed once more for Canada, Fort Erie, the site of his great triumph over Frank Erne. His opponent was an old foe, one who had extended him twenty-five rounds in 1898, the veteran Kid McPartland. But the question now seemed a different one to that which was usually asked, not as to who could beat Joe Gans, but as to who could face him without fear.

This series was written with the support of boxing historian and Joe Gans expert Sergei Yurchenko. His work can be found here: http://senya13.blogspot.com/

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Published

9 hours ago

January 16, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.

Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.

Hopefully the worst is over.

Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.

Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.

“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.

He knows talent.

Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.

Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.

Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.

Can Trinidad reach world title status?

Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.

It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.

Mizukii Hiruta

Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.

Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

Boxing and the Media

The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.

Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.

Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.

Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.

MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.

Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.

Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.

It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.

Photos credit: Lina Baker

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Boxing Trainer Bob Santos Paid his Dues and is Reaping the Rewards

Published

1 day ago

January 15, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Boxing-Trainer-Bob-Santos-Paid-his-Dues-and-is-Reaping the Rewards

Bob Santos, the 2022 Sports Illustrated and The Ring magazine Trainer of the Year, is a busy fellow. On Feb. 1, fighters under his tutelage will open and close the show on the four-bout main portion of the Prime Video PPV event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jeison Rosario continues his comeback in the lid-lifter, opposing Jesus Ramos. In the finale, former Cuban amateur standout David Morrell will attempt to saddle David Benavidez with his first defeat. Both combatants in the main event have been chasing 168-pound kingpin Canelo Alvarez, but this bout will be contested for a piece of the light heavyweight title.

When the show is over, Santos will barely have time to exhale. Before the month is over, one will likely find him working the corner of Dainier Pero, Brian Mendoza, Elijah Garcia, and perhaps others.

Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) turned 28 last month. He is in the prime of his career. However, a lot of folk rate Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) a very live dog. At last look, Benavidez was a consensus 7/4 (minus-175) favorite, a price that betokens a very competitive fight.

Bob Santos, needless to say, is confident that his guy can upset the odds. “I have worked with both,” he says. “It’s a tough fight for David Morrell, but he has more ways to victory because he’s less one-dimensional. He can go forward or fight going back and his foot speed is superior.”

Benavidez’s big edge, in the eyes of many, is his greater experience. He captured the vacant WBC 168-pound title at age 20, becoming the youngest super middleweight champion in history. As a pro, Benavidez has answered the bell for 148 rounds compared with only 54 for Morrell, but Bob Santos thinks this angle is largely irrelevant.

“Sure, I’d rather have pro experience than amateur experience,” he says, “but if you look at Benavidez’s record, he fought a lot of soft opponents when he was climbing the ladder.”

True. Benavidez, who turned pro at age 16, had his first seven fights in Mexico against a motley assortment of opponents. His first bout on U.S. soil occurred in his native Pheonix against an opponent with a 1-6-2 record.

While it’s certainly true that Morrell, 26, has yet to fight an opponent the caliber of Caleb Plant, he took up boxing at roughly the same tender age as Benavidez and earned his spurs in the vaunted Cuban amateur system, eventually defeating elite amateurs in international tournaments.

“If you look at his [pro] record, you will notice that [Morrell] has hardly lost a round,” says Santos of the fighter who captured an interim title in only his third professional bout with a 12-round decision over Guyanese veteran Lennox Allen.

Bob Santos is something of a late bloomer. He was around boxing for a long time, assisting such notables as Joe Goossen, Emanuel Steward, and Ronnie Shields before becoming recognized as one of the sport’s top trainers.

A native of San Jose, he grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood but not in a household where Spanish was spoken. “I know enough now to get by,” he says modestly. He attended James Lick High School whose most famous alumnus is Heisman winning and Super Bowl winning quarterback Jim Plunkett. “We worked in the same apricot orchard when we were kids,” says Santos. “Not at the same time, but in the same field.”

After graduation, he followed his father’s footsteps into construction work, but boxing was always beckoning. A cousin, the late Luis Molina, represented the U.S. as a lightweight in the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, and was good enough as a pro to appear in a main event at Madison Square Garden where he lost a narrow decision to the notorious Puerto Rican hothead Frankie Narvaez, a future world title challenger.

Santos’ cousin was a big draw in San Jose in an era when the San Jose / Sacramento territory was the bailiwick of Don Chargin. “Don was a beautiful man and his wife Lorraine was even nicer,” says Santos of the husband/wife promotion team who are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Don Chargin was inducted in 2001 and Lorraine posthumously in 2018.

Chargin promoted Fresno-based featherweight Hector Lizarraga who captured the IBF title in 1997. Lizarraga turned his career around after a 5-7-3 start when he hooked up with San Jose gym operator Miguel Jara. It was one of the most successful reclamation projects in boxing history and Bob Santos played a part in it.

Bob hopes to accomplish the same turnaround with Jeison Rosario whose career was on the skids when Santos got involved. In his most recent start, Rosario held heavily favored Jarrett Hurd to a draw in a battle between former IBF 154-pound champions on a ProBox card in Florida.

“I consider that one of my greatest achievements,” says Santos, noting that Rosario was stopped four times and effectively out of action for two years before resuming his career and is now on the cusp of earning another title shot.

The boxer with whom Santos is most closely identified is former four-division world title-holder Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. The slick southpaw, the pride of Gilroy, California, the self-proclaimed “Garlic Capital of the World,” retired following a bad loss to Omar Figueroa Jr, but had second thoughts and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak. “I’ve known him since he was 15 years old,” notes Santos.

Years from now, Santos may be more closely identified with the Pero brothers, Dainier and Lenier, who aspire to be the Cuban-American version of the Klitschko brothers.

Santos describes Dainier, one of the youngest members of Cuba’s Olympic Team in Tokyo, as a bigger version of Oleksandr Usyk. That may be stretching it, but Dainier (10-0, 8 KOs as a pro), certainly hits harder.

Dainier Pero

This reporter was a fly on the wall as Santos put Dainier Pero through his paces on Tuesday (Jan. 14) at Bones Adams gym in Las Vegas. Santos held tight to a punch shield, in the boxing vernacular a donut, as the Cuban practiced his punches. On several occasions the trainer was knocked off-balance and the expression on his face as his body absorbed some of the after-shocks, plainly said, “My goodness, what the hell am I doing here? There has to be an easier way to make a living.” It was an assignment that Santos would have undoubtedly preferred handing off to his young assistant, his son Joe Santos, but Joe was preoccupied coordinating David Morrell’s camp.

Dainer’s brother Lenier is also an ex-Olympian, and like Dainier was a super heavyweight by trade as an amateur. With an 11-0 (8 KOs) record, Lenier Pero’s pro career was on a parallel path until stalled by a managerial dispute. Lenier last fought in March of last year and Santos says he will soon join his brother in Las Vegas.

There’s little to choose between the Pero brothers, but Dainier is considered to have the bigger upside because at age 25 he is the younger sibling by seven years.

Bob Santos was in the running again this year for The Ring magazine’s Trainer of the Year, one of six nominees for the honor that was bestowed upon his good friend Robert Garcia. Considering the way that Santos’ career is going, it’s a safe bet that he will be showered with many more accolades in the years to come.

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Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong

Published

6 days ago

January 10, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Bygone Days: The Largest Crowd Ever at Madison Square Garden Sees Zivic TKO Armstrong

There’s not much happening on the boxing front this month. That’s consistent with the historical pattern.

Fight promoters of yesteryear tended to pull back after the Christmas and New Year holidays on the assumption that fight fans had less discretionary income at their disposal. Weather was a contributing factor. In olden days, more boxing cards were staged outdoors and the most attractive match-ups tended to be summertime events.

There were exceptions, of course. On Jan. 17, 1941, an SRO crowd of 23,180 filled Madison Square Garden to the rafters to witness the welterweight title fight between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. (This was the third Madison Square Garden, situated at 50^th Street and Eighth Avenue, roughly 17 blocks north of the current Garden which sits atop Pennsylvania Station. The first two arenas to take this name were situated farther south adjacent to Madison Square Park).

This was a rematch. They had fought here in October of the previous year. In a shocker, Zivic won a 15-round decision. The fight was close on the scorecards. Referee Arthur Donovan and one of the judges had it even after 14 rounds, but Zivic had won his rounds more decisively and he punctuated his well-earned triumph by knocking Armstrong face-first to the canvas as the final bell sounded.

This was a huge upset.

Armstrong had a rocky beginning to his pro career, but he came on like gangbusters after trainer/manager Eddie Mead acquired his contract with backing from Broadway and Hollywood star Al Jolson. Heading into his first match with Zivic – the nineteenth defense of the title he won from Barney Ross – Hammerin’ Henry had suffered only one defeat in his previous 60 fights, that coming in his second meeting with Lou Ambers, a controversial decision.

Shirley Povich, the nationally-known sports columnist for the Washington Post, conducted an informal survey of boxing insiders and found only person who gave Zivic a chance. The dissident was Chris Dundee (then far more well-known than his younger brother Angelo). “Zivic knows all the tricks,” said Dundee. “He’ll butt Armstrong with his head, gouge him with his thumbs and hit him just as low as Armstrong [who had five points deducted for low blows in his bout with Ambers].”

Indeed, Pittsburgh’s Ferdinand “Fritzie” Zivic, the youngest and best of five fighting sons of a Croatian immigrant steelworker (Fritzie’s two oldest brothers represented the U.S. at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics) would attract a cult following because of his facility for bending the rules. It would be said that no one was more adept at using his thumbs to blind an opponent or using the laces of his gloves as an anti-coagulant, undoing the work of a fighter’s cut man.

Although it was generally understood that at age 28 his best days were behind him, Henry Armstrong was chalked the favorite in the rematch (albeit a very short favorite) a tribute to his body of work. Although he had mastered Armstrong in their first encounter, most boxing insiders considered Fritzie little more than a high-class journeyman and he hadn’t looked sharp in his most recent fight, a 10-round non-title affair with lightweight champion Lew Jenkins who had the best of it in the eyes of most observers although the match was declared a draw.

The Jan. 17 rematch was a one-sided affair. Veteran New York Times scribe James P. Dawson gave Armstrong only two rounds before referee Donovan pulled the plug at the 52-second mark of the twelfth round. Armstrong, boxing’s great perpetual motion machine, a world title-holder in three weight classes, repaired to his dressing room bleeding from his nose and his mouth and with both eyes swollen nearly shut. But his effort could not have been more courageous.

At the conclusion of the 10^th frame, Donovan went to Armstrong’s corner and said something to the effect, “you will have to show me something, Henry, or I will have to stop it.” What followed was Armstrong’s best round.

“[Armstrong] pulled the crowd to its feet in as glorious a rally as this observer has seen in twenty-five years of attendance at these ring battles,” wrote Dawson. But Armstrong, who had been stopped only once previously, that coming in his pro debut, had punched himself out and had nothing left.

Armstrong retired after this fight, siting his worsening eyesight, but he returned in the summer of the following year, soldiering on for 46 more fights, winning 37 to finish 149-21-10. During this run, he was reacquainted with Fritzie Zivic. Their third encounter was fought in San Francisco before a near-capacity crowd of 8,000 at the Civic Auditorium and Armstrong got his revenge, setting the pace and working the body effectively to win a 10-round decision. By then the welterweight title had passed into the hands of Freddie Cochran.

Hammerin’ Henry (aka Homicide Hank) Armstrong was named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the inaugural class of 1990. Fritzie Zivic followed him into the Hall three years later.

Active from 1931 to 1949, Zivic lost 65 of his 231 fights – the most of anyone in the Hall of Fame, a dubious distinction – but there was yet little controversy when he was named to the Canastota shrine because one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who had fought a tougher schedule. Aside from Armstrong and Jenkins, he had four fights with Jake LaMotta, four with Kid Azteca, three with Charley Burley, two with Sugar Ray Robinson, two with Beau Jack, and singles with the likes of Billy Conn, Lou Ambers, and Bob Montgomery. Of the aforementioned, only Azteca, in their final meeting in Mexico City, and Sugar Ray, in their second encounter, were able to win inside the distance.

By the way, it has been written that no event of any kind at any of the four Madison Square Gardens ever drew a larger crowd than the crowd that turned out on Jan. 17, 1941, to see the rematch between Fritzie Zivic and Henry Armstrong. Needless to say, prizefighting was big in those days.

A recognized authority on the history of prizefighting and the history of American sports gambling, TSS editor-in-chief Arne K. Lang is the author of five books including “Prizefighting: An American History,” released by McFarland in 2008 and re-released in a paperback edition in 2020.

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