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Crunching the Numbers, Montgomery vs Jack in 1944 Drew a Larger Gate than Mayweather-Pacquiao

The 2015 bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas stands as the richest prizefight in history by a hefty margin. A crowd of 16,219 (paid) produced a gate of $72,198,500.
Eighty years ago this week, on Aug. 4, 1944, a show at Madison Square Garden generated a larger gate, notwithstanding the fact that the main event was a non-title fight girded by a flimsy 5-fight undercard.
Yes, it takes some creative bookkeeping to say that this boxing card grossed more revenue on-site than Mayweather-Pacquiao, but before we finagle with the data, let’s meet the principals in the featured attraction, Bob Montgomery and Beau Jack.
Bob Montgomery
One of nine children born to a South Carolina sharecropper and a Cherokee mother, Bob Montgomery moved to Philadelphia in his mid-teens and was working in a laundry when he first ventured into a boxing gym. The “Bobcat” made his pro debut in Atlantic city at age 19 and was 26-1-2 when he secured his first good payday, locking horns with world lightweight champion Lew Jenkins in a non-title bout at Philadelphia’s American League baseball park.
That didn’t go well for Montgomery. He had Jenkins on the canvas in the third round, but Jenkins came on strong and won a unanimous decision.
Two fights later, Montgomery lost again, losing a narrow 10-round decision to Sammy Angott, his first of three losses to the future world lightweight champion. But Montgomery persevered and on May 21, 1943, he won the New York State version of the 135-pound title with a 15-round decision over Beau Jack at Madison Square Garden.
This would be the first of their four meetings, all of which were closely contested affairs at Madison Square Garden and all of which produced an upset. Jack turned the tables on Montgomery later that year, regaining the title, and the Philadelphia Bobcat took it back in March of 1944, rebounding from a devastating knockout (Al “Bummy” Davis flattened him in the first round) to edge Jack by a split decision.
Beau Jack
Beau Jack was born Sidney Walker in Waynesboro, Georgia, and raised on a farm on the outskirts of Augusta by his maternal grandmother who hoped that he would become a preacher. Lore has it that he first attracted notice fighting in battle royals at the Augusta National Golf Club and that the famous golfer Bobby Jones put the bite on the club’s wealthy white members to sponsor the lad who was packed off to Springfield, Massachusetts, to be tutored in the finer points of the sweet science. Beau never did learn the art of defense – he was a high-octane fighter who threw punches from all angles with no regard for what was coming back at him – and that made him America’s top box office attraction (cumulatively) during the World War II era.
Jack had his early pro fights in Augusta and nearby Aiken, South Carolina, and had 25 fights in Holyoke, Massachusetts, before making his New York debut in a 6-rounder at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field on Aug. 5, 1941. Later that month, he made his first appearance at Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of Boxing, and within 15 months would be headlining shows at the fabled Big Apple sock palace.
Jack would eventually appear in 20 main events at Madison Square Garden, a record that will be hard to beat. Thirteen were compressed into a 33-month span preceding his fourth and final meeting with Bob Montgomery.
Montgomery-Jack IV
Non-title fights were common in this era. John Henry Lewis had a ridiculous 52 non-title fights during the three years (1935-38) when he was recognized as the world light heavyweight champion. In theory, no title was necessary to make Montgomery-Jack IV an alluring match-up. Styles make fights and their styles meshed well. And neither man had an advantage in terms of preparation. Both were mustered into the Army on the same day and both were furloughed on the same day to return to New York to finish their training and make the rounds with the boxing writers.
Now let’s cut to the case. What made Montgomery-Jack so unique from the standpoint of gate receipts?
To procure a ticket to the event, one had to purchase a war bond. A pew in the first row cost $100,000. The second row sold for $50,000 and the third row for $25,000. But no one who purchased a pew in these rows was allowed to sit there. These choice seats, 164 in total, were reserved for wounded servicemen recently returned from battlefields in Europe and the Pacific. Their seats were donated to them by wealthy philanthropists who had to sit farther back if they had any interest in attending the show.
Beyond these three rows, the arena was divided into three tiers corresponding to war bonds in $100, $50, and $25 denominations. According to post-fight reports, when the receipts were tabulated, fight-goers contributed $35,804,900 to Uncle Sam to help pay for the cost of the war. Montgomery and Jack fought for free as did the other boxers and their handlers. Promoter Mike Jacobs supposedly earned nothing and other expenses were born by the radio sponsor, the Gillette Safety Razor Co.
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Montgomery-Jack IV was a good but not great fight. Beau Jack won a majority decision, knotting the series at 2-2 where it would remain. Altogether they fought 55 rounds and even after 55 rounds it was hard to separate them. A reporter summed the total of all the scorecards and the tally was 78 rounds for Jack, 77 for Montgomery, and 10 even.
Bob Montgomery post-fight
Montgomery successfully defended his title twice before losing it to Ike Williams on a sixth-round stoppage before an announced crowd of 30,500 at Philadelphia’s Municipal (formerly Sesquicentennial) Stadium. His loss to Williams was his first of seven defeats to close out his career, reducing his final record to 75-19-3 (37 KOs). In retirement, he found work in a brewery when his savings ran out and dabbled in fight promotions. In 1995, with a big push from Philadelphia promoter J. Russell Peltz, he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, joining his old rival Beau Jack in the Canastota shrine. The Bobcat died three years later at age 79 (some say 77) from complications of a stroke at a Coatsville, Pennsylvania VA hospital
Beau Jack post-fight
Beau Jack continued fighting until 1955, leaving the sport with a record of 91-24-5 (44 KOs). He was inducted into the IBHOF with the second class of 1991 and passed away nine years later at age 78 at a nursing home in Miami, succumbing to complications of Parkinson’s disease.
As a boy in Georgia, Jack worked as a shoeshine boy to help his grandmother make ends meet. After boxing, he returned to that occupation, operating a shoeshine stand at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. In his spare time, he trained amateur boxers at the 5th Street Gym before that iconic establishment was shuttered in 1993. He had a wife and children in the area, but lived alone in a furnished room.
Jack, who purportedly never learned how to read, became Exhibit A whenever there was a movement to create a pension plan for boxers, but Beau wasn’t embarrassed by his circumstances. Photos of him in his boxing togs ornamented his shoeshine stand and he enjoyed talking with people who were familiar with his boxing exploits. Moreover, the Fontainebleau was brimming with big tippers and he undoubtedly made more money than any bootblack in the country. (But, yes, the image of a once-popular boxer, especially a black boxer, shining shoes is an image freighted with uncomfortable symbolism.)
About That Gate:
World War II war bonds were series e bonds that matured in 10 years. The announced gate for Montgomery-Jack IV ($35,804.900) was the face value of the bonds if all were turned in on the day of maturity. However, these particular bonds were sold at 75 percent of face value. That reduced the total amount collected to $26,898,675. Adjusted for inflation, that equals approximately $481 million in today’s dollars which leaves the Mayweather-Pacquiao gate in the dust.
Granted, we are comparing apples and oranges. Those in attendance at the “War Bonds Fight” essentially gained admission by loaning money to the U.S. government, money that would eventually be returned to them or their heirs with interest. But it speaks well of boxing fans and the boxing community that they stepped up to the plate in our nation’s time of need.
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Avila Perspective, Chap. 323: Benn vs Eubank Family Feud and More

Next generation rivals Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr. carry on the family legacy of feudal warring in the prize ring on Saturday.
This is huge in British boxing.
Eubank (34-3, 25 KOs) holds the fringe IBO middleweight title but won’t be defending it against the smaller welterweight Benn (23-0, 14 KOs) on Saturday, April 26, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.
This is about family pride.
The parents of Eubank and Benn actually began the feud in the 1990s.
Papa Nigel Benn fought Papa Chris Eubank twice. Losing as a middleweight in November 1990 at Birmingham, England, then fighting to a draw as a super middleweight in October 1993 in Manchester. Both were world title fights.
Eubank was undefeated and won the WBO middleweight world title in 1990 against Nigel Benn by knockout. He defended it three times before moving up and winning the vacant WBO super middleweight title in September 1991. He defended the super middleweight title 14 times until suffering his first pro defeat in March 1995 against Steve Collins.
Benn won the WBO middleweight title in April 1990 against Doug DeWitt and defended it once before losing to Eubank in November 1990. He moved up in weight and took the WBC super middleweight title from Mauro Galvano in Italy by technical knockout in October 1992. He defended the title nine times until losing in March 1996. His last fight was in November 1996, a loss to Steve Collins.
Animosity between the two families continues this weekend in the boxing ring.
Conor Benn, the son of Nigel, has fought mostly as a welterweight but lately has participated in the super welterweight division. He is several inches shorter in height than Eubank but has power and speed. Kind of a British version of Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
“It’s always personal, every opponent I fight is personal. People want to say it’s strictly business, but it’s never business. If someone is trying to put their hands on me, trying to render me unconscious, it’s never business,” said Benn.
This fight was scheduled twice before and cut short twice due to failed PED tests by Benn. The weight limit agreed upon is 160 pounds.
Eubank, a natural middleweight, has exchanged taunts with Benn for years. He recently avenged a loss to Liam Smith with a knockout victory in September 2023.
“This fight isn’t about size or weight. It’s about skill. It’s about dedication. It’s about expertise and all those areas in which I excel in,” said Eubank. “I have many, many more years of experience over Conor Benn, and that will be the deciding factor of the night.”
Because this fight was postponed twice, the animosity between the two feuding fighters has increased the attention of their fans. Both fighters are anxious to flatten each other.
“He’s another opponent in my way trying to crush my dreams. trying to take food off my plate and trying to render me unconscious. That’s how I look at him,” said Benn.
Eubank smiles.
“Whether it’s boxing, whether it’s a gun fight. Defense, offense, foot movement, speed, power. I am the superior boxer in each of those departments and so many more – which is why I’m so confident,” he said.
Supporting Bout
Former world champion Liam Smith (33-4-1, 20 KOs) tangles with Ireland’s Aaron McKenna (19-0, 10 KOs) in a middleweight fight set for 12 rounds on the Benn-Eubank undercard in London.
“Beefy” Smith has long been known as one of the fighting Smith brothers and recently lost to Eubank a year and a half ago. It was only the second time in 38 bouts he had been stopped. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez did it several years ago.
McKenna is a familiar name in Southern California. The Irish fighter fought numerous times on Golden Boy Promotion cards between 2017 and 2019 before returning to the United Kingdom and his assault on continuing the middleweight division. This is a big step for the tall Irish fighter.
It’s youth versus experience.
“I’ve been calling for big fights like this for the last two or three years, and it’s a fight I’m really excited for. I plan to make the most of it and make a statement win on Saturday night,” said McKenna, one of two fighting brothers.
Monster in L.A.
Japan’s super star Naoya “Monster” Inoue arrived in Los Angeles for last day workouts before his Las Vegas showdown against Ramon Cardenas on Sunday May 4, at T-Mobile Arena. ESPN will televise and stream the Top Rank card.
It’s been four years since the super bantamweight world champion performed in the US and during that time Naoya (29-0, 26 KOs) gathered world titles in different weight divisions. The Japanese slugger has also gained fame as perhaps the best fighter on the planet. Cardenas is 26-1 with 14 KOs.
Pomona Fights
Super featherweights Mathias Radcliffe (9-0-1) and Ezequiel Flores (6-4) lead a boxing card called “DMG Night of Champions” on Saturday April 26, at the historic Fox Theater in downtown Pomona, Calif.
Michaela Bracamontes (11-2-1) and Jesus Torres Beltran (8-4-1) will be fighting for a regional WBC super featherweight title. More than eight bouts are scheduled.
Doors open at 6 p.m. For ticket information go to: www.tix.com/dmgnightofchampions
Fights to Watch
Sat. DAZN 9 a.m. Conor Benn (23-0) vs Chris Eubank Jr. (34-3); Liam Smith (33-4-1) vs Aaron McKenna (19-0).
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Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton

Floyd Mayweather has Another Phenom and his name is Curmel Moton
In any endeavor, the defining feature of a phenom is his youth. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper was a phenom. He was on the radar screen of baseball’s most powerful player agents when he was 14 years old.
Curmel Moton, who turns 19 in June, is a phenom. Of all the young boxing stars out there, wrote James Slater in July of last year, “Curmel Moton is the one to get most excited about.”
Moton was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. His father Curtis Moton, a barber by trade, was a big boxing fan and specifically a big fan of Floyd Mayweather Jr. When Curmel was six, Curtis packed up his wife (Curmel’s stepmom) and his son and moved to Las Vegas. Curtis wanted his son to get involved in boxing and there was no better place to develop one’s latent talents than in Las Vegas where many of the sport’s top practitioners came to train.
Many father-son relationships have been ruined, or at least frayed, by a father’s unrealistic expectations for his son, but when it came to boxing, the boy was a natural and he felt right at home in the gym.
The gym the Motons patronized was the Mayweather Boxing Club. Curtis took his son there in hopes of catching the eye of the proprietor. “Floyd would occasionally drop by the gym and I was there so often that he came to recognize me,” says Curmel. What he fails to add is that the trainers there had Floyd’s ear. “This kid is special,” they told him.
It costs a great deal of money for a kid to travel around the country competing in a slew of amateur boxing tournaments. Only a few have the luxury of a sponsor. For the vast majority, fund raisers such as car washes keep the wheels greased.
Floyd Mayweather stepped in with the financial backing needed for the Motons to canvas the country in tournaments. As an amateur, Curmel was — take your pick — 156-7 or 144-6 or 61-3 (the latter figure from boxrec). Regardless, at virtually every tournament at which he appeared, Curmel Moton was the cock of the walk.
Before the pandemic, Floyd Mayweather Jr had a stable of boxers he promoted under the banner of “The Money Team.” In talking about his boxers, Floyd was understated with one glaring exception – Gervonta “Tank” Davis, now one of boxing’s top earners.
When Floyd took to praising Curmel Moton with the same effusive language, folks stood up and took notice.
Curmel made his pro debut on Sept. 30, 2023, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the undercard of the super middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo. After stopping his opponent in the opening round, he addressed a flock of reporters in the media room with Floyd standing at his side. “I felt ready,” he said, “I knew I had Floyd behind me. He believes in me. I had the utmost confidence going into the fight. And I went in there and did what I do.”
Floyd ventured the opinion that Curmel was already a better fighter than Leigh Wood, the reigning WBA world featherweight champion who would successfully defend his belt the following week.
Moton’s boxing style has been described as a blend of Floyd Mayweather and Tank Davis. “I grew up watching Floyd, so it’s natural I have some similarities to him,” says Curmel who sparred with Tank in late November of 2021 as Davis was preparing for his match with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz. Curmell says he did okay. He was then 15 years old and still in school; he dropped out as soon as he reached the age of 16.
Curmel is now 7-0 with six KOs, four coming in the opening round. He pitched an 8-round shutout the only time he was taken the distance. It’s not yet official, but he returns to the ring on May 31 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas where Caleb Plant and Jermall Charlo are co-featured in matches conceived as tune-ups for a fall showdown. The fight card will reportedly be free for Amazon Prime Video subscribers.
Curmel’s presumptive opponent is Renny Viamonte, a 28-year-old Las Vegas-based Cuban with a 4-1-1 (2) record. It will be Curmel’s first professional fight with Kofi Jantuah the chief voice in his corner. A two-time world title challenger who began his career in his native Ghana, the 50-year-old Jantuah has worked almost exclusively with amateurs, a recent exception being Mikaela Mayer.
It would seem that the phenom needs a tougher opponent than Viamonte at this stage of his career. However, the match is intriguing in one regard. Viamonte is lanky. Listed at 5-foot-11, he will have a seven-inch height advantage.
Keeping his weight down has already been problematic for Moton. He tipped the scales at 128 ½ for his most recent fight. His May 31 bout, he says, will be contested at 135 and down the road it’s reasonable to think he will blossom into a welterweight. And with each bump up in weight, his short stature will theoretically be more of a handicap.
For fun, we asked Moton to name the top fighter on his pound-for-pound list. “[Oleksandr] Usyk is number one right now,” he said without hesitation,” great footwork, but guys like Canelo, Crawford, Inoue, and Bivol are right there.”
It’s notable that there isn’t a young gun on that list. Usyk is 38, a year older than Crawford; Inoue is the pup at age 32.
Moton anticipates that his name will appear on pound-for-pound lists within the next two or three years. True, history is replete with examples of phenoms who flamed out early, but we wouldn’t bet against it.
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Arne’s Almanac: The First Boxing Writers Assoc. of America Dinner Was Quite the Shindig

The first annual dinner of the Boxing Writers Association of America was staged on April 25, 1926 in the grand ballroom of New York’s Hotel Astor, an edifice that rivaled the original Waldorf Astoria as the swankiest hotel in the city. Back then, the organization was known as the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York.
The ballroom was configured to hold 1200 for the banquet which was reportedly oversubscribed. Among those listed as agreeing to attend were the governors of six states (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland) and the mayors of 10 of America’s largest cities.
In 1926, radio was in its infancy and the digital age was decades away (and inconceivable). So, every journalist who regularly covered boxing was a newspaper and/or magazine writer, editor, or cartoonist. And at this juncture in American history, there were plenty of outlets for someone who wanted to pursue a career as a sportswriter and had the requisite skills to get hired.
The following papers were represented at the inaugural boxing writers’ dinner:
New York Times
New York News
New York World
New York Sun
New York Journal
New York Post
New York Mirror
New York Telegram
New York Graphic
New York Herald Tribune
Brooklyn Eagle
Brooklyn Times
Brooklyn Standard Union
Brooklyn Citizen
Bronx Home News
This isn’t a complete list because a few of these papers, notably the New York World and the New York Journal, had strong afternoon editions that functioned as independent papers. Plus, scribes from both big national wire services (Associated Press and UPI) attended the banquet and there were undoubtedly a smattering of scribes from papers in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Back then, the event’s organizer Nat Fleischer, sports editor of the New York Telegram and the driving force behind The Ring magazine, had little choice but to limit the journalistic component of the gathering to writers in the New York metropolitan area. There wasn’t a ballroom big enough to accommodate a good-sized response if he had extended the welcome to every boxing writer in North America.
The keynote speaker at the inaugural dinner was New York’s charismatic Jazz Age mayor James J. “Jimmy” Walker, architect of the transformative Walker Law of 1920 which ushered in a new era of boxing in the Empire State with a template that would guide reformers in many other jurisdictions.
Prizefighting was then associated with hooligans. In his speech, Mayor Walker promised to rid the sport of their ilk. “Boxing, as you know, is closest to my heart,” said hizzoner. “So I tell you the police force is behind you against those who would besmirch or injure boxing. Rowdyism doesn’t belong in this town or in your game.” (In 1945, Walker would be the recipient of the Edward J. Neil Memorial Award given for meritorious service to the sport. The oldest of the BWAA awards, the previous recipients were all active or former boxers. The award, no longer issued under that title, was named for an Associated Press sportswriter and war correspondent who died from shrapnel wounds covering the Spanish Civil War.)
Another speaker was well-traveled sportswriter Wilbur Wood, then affiliated with the Brooklyn Citizen. He told the assembly that the aim of the organization was two-fold: to help defend the game against its detractors and to promote harmony among the various factions.
Of course, the 1926 dinner wouldn’t have been as well-attended without the entertainment. According to press dispatches, Broadway stars and performers from some of the city’s top nightclubs would be there to regale the attendees. Among the names bandied about were vaudeville superstars Sophie Tucker and Jimmy Durante, the latter of whom would appear with his trio, Durante, (Lou) Clayton, and (Eddie) Jackson.
There was a contraction of New York newspapers during the Great Depression. Although empirical evidence is lacking, the inaugural boxing writers dinner was likely the largest of its kind. Fifteen years later, in 1941, the event drew “more than 200” according to a news report. There was no mention of entertainment.
In 1950, for the first time, the annual dinner was opened to the public. For $25, a civilian could get a meal and mingle with some of his favorite fighters. Sugar Ray Robinson was the Edward J. Neil Award winner that year, honored for his ring exploits and for donating his purse from the Charlie Fusari fight to the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund.
There was no formal announcement when the Boxing Writers Association of Greater New York was re-christened the Boxing Writers Association of America, but by the late 1940s reporters were referencing the annual event as simply the boxing writers dinner. By then, it had become traditional to hold the annual affair in January, a practice discontinued after 1971.
The winnowing of New York’s newspaper herd plus competing banquets in other parts of the country forced Nat Fleischer’s baby to adapt. And more adaptations will be necessary in the immediate future as the future of the BWAA, as it currently exists, is threatened by new technologies. If the forthcoming BWAA dinner (April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in mid-Manhattan) were restricted to wordsmiths from the traditional print media, the gathering would be too small to cover the nut and the congregants would be drawn disproportionately from the geriatric class.
Some of those adaptations have already started. Last year, Las Vegas resident Sean Zittel, a recent UNLV graduate, had the distinction of becoming the first videographer welcomed into the BWAA. With more and more people getting their news from sound bites, rather than the written word, the videographer serves an important function.
The reporters who conducted interviews with pen and paper have gone the way of the dodo bird and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A taped interview for a “talkie” has more integrity than a story culled from a paper and pen interview because it is unfiltered. Many years ago, some reporters, after interviewing the great Joe Louis, put words in his mouth that made him seem like a dullard, words consistent with the Sambo stereotype. In other instances, the language of some athletes was reconstructed to the point where the reader would think the athlete had a second job as an English professor.
The content created by videographers is free from that bias. More of them will inevitably join the BWAA and similar organizations in the future.
Photo: Nat Fleischer is flanked by Sugar Ray Robinson and Tony Zale at the 1947 boxing writers dinner.
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