Boxing

BOXING

The Rise in Popularity

Throughout all weight divisions, from flyweight to heavyweight, the 1920s produced splendid boxers, including two of the greatest fighters of all time: heavyweight Jack Dempsey and light-weight Benny Leonard. Before World War I, boxing in the United States had been largely regarded as disreputable, practiced by rough characters in saloons and attracting spectators of uncertain character. After the war many of the laws that had banned boxing were rescinded, and the sport was brought under the control of commissions intended to reduce the undesirable criminal and gambling elements so often associated with it. With legal impediments lifted, boxing spread rapidly throughout the country and became one of the popular athletic spectacles for both the privileged classes and the common man.

Dempsey's and Rickard's Long Shadows

Jack Dempsey was one of the most compelling boxers in the ring and thus contributed to the rising interest in the sport during the decade. Promoter Tex Rickard helped elevate the financial rewards for boxers and bring a new glamour to their matches. The undisputed champion of boxing promoters, he produced the first million-dollar gate in the Dempsey-Georges Carpentier fight and then set up later matches that generated even more revenue. For the second Dempsey-Gene Tunney fight in 1927 the gate was more than $2 million, with Tunney receiving the record sum of $990,445 as his cut. Rickard's efforts increased the "take" of fighters in general as well as turning boxing into a sport that drew larger and larger crowds throughout the decade.

The Lighter Weights

In the flyweight class (not over 112 pounds), Frankie Genaro, Pancho Villa, and Fidel LaBarba, a gold medalist in the 1924 Paris Olympics, were three standout fighters. Among the bantamweights (not over 118 pounds) Panama Al Brown, Pete Herman, and Joe Lynch were three of the best. The featherweight class (not over 126 pounds) was loaded with talent: Johnny Dundee, Eugene Criqui (a Frenchman), Louis "Kid" Kaplan, Benny Bass, and Christopher "Battling" Battalino, who won the title in September 1928 and held it until March 1932. In the lightweight class (not over 135 pounds) Benny Leonard is ranked as one of the greatest fighters of all time. On 28 May 1917 at age twenty-one, Leonard won the world lightweight championship by knocking out Freddie Welsh at the Manhattan Athletic Club in the ninth round. Leonard held onto his title for the next seven years and retired undefeated. Among his most memorable bouts were those with lefthander Lew Tendier. They first fought on 27 July 1922 at Boyle's Thirty Acres in Jersey City. Tendier buckled Leonard's knees with a smashing left in the eighth round, nearly knocking him out. Leonard, struggling to maintain his feet, held on to his opponent and asked if that was as hard as he could hit. Tendier, evidently surprised by the remark, did not take advantage of his opportunity, and Leonard won by a decision. In their next bout in 1923 Leonard won easily. The welterweight division (not over 147 pounds) included several excellent fighters. Edward "Mickey" Walker won the title in a fifteen-round decision over Jack Britton in New York in 1922. Four years later, on 20 May 1926, Pete Latzo decisioned Walker for the welterweight crown in Scranton, Pennsylvania, only to lose on 3 June 1927 to Johnny Dundee in New York. In 1929 Jackie Fields took the title from Dundee in Detroit.

The Middleweights and Heavier

Among the middle-weights (not over 160 pounds) were Tiger Flowers, Mickey Walker (who had moved up from the welter-weight division), and Harry Greb. Flowers, the first black to hold the title, defeated Greb for the championship in February 1926, successfully defended against Greb in August in a fifteen-round decision, and then lost in Chicago to Walker on 3 December 1926 in a controversial ten-round decision. In addition to Gene Tunney—who relinquished his light-heavyweight crown on 23 February 1923 to enter, in 1925, the heavyweight division—the light-heavyweight division (175 pounds) featured memorable fighters. Mike McTigue defeated the Senegalese Battling Siki for the crown on 17 March 1923 (Saint Patrick's Day) in Dublin, Ireland. The light-heavyweight title passed from McTigue to Paul Berlenbach to Jack Delaney to Tommy Loughran, who won it in New York on 7 October 1927 and retained it for nearly two years until he moved up to the heavyweight division.

The Heavyweights

The heavyweights have always had more crowd appeal than boxers in other weight classes, and Dempsey and Tunney were the dominant figures of the decade. Dempsey was heavyweight champion from 4 July 1919 until 23 September 1926, a remarkable seven years. Tunney beat Dempsey twice and, defending his title only once, retained the heavyweight crown from 23 September 1926 until his retirement in August 1928. Jack Sharkey became the third heavyweight champion of the decade when, on 27 February 1929, he won a ten-round decision over William L. "Young" Stribling. The Golden Age of boxing was over.

RECEIPTS AND ATTENDANCE FOR DEMPSEY'S MAJOR
CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHTS

DEMPSEY-WILLARD

Official gross $1,188,603

4 July 1919, Bay View Park Arena, Toledo, Ohio

Dempsey's share (including movies)—$509,000

Scheduled for Twelve Rounds

Firpo's share $156,250

RESULT: The bout ended when Willard could not answer the bell for the fourth round.

Promoter Tex Rickard

Official attendance 19,650

DEMPSEY-TUNNEY

Official gross $452,224

26 September 1926, Sesquicentennial Stadium, Philadelphia

Willlard's share $100,100 guarantee

Scheduled for Ten Rounds

Dempsey's share $27,500 guarantee

RESULT: Tunney won a ten-round decision.

Promoters Tex Rickard and Frank Flournoy

Official attendance 120,757

DEMPSEY-CARPENTIER

Official gross $1,195,733

2 July 1921, Boyle's Thirty Acres, Jersey City, New Jersey.

Dempsey's share $717,000

Scheduled for Twelve Rounds

Tunney's share $200,000

RESULT: Dempsey knocked out Carpentier in the fourth round.

Promoter Tex Rickard

DEMPSEY-TUNNEY

Official attendance 80,183

22 September 1927, Soldiers Field, Chicago

Official gross $1,789,238

Scheduled for Ten Rounds

Dempsey's share (guaranteed) $300,000

RESULT: Tunney won a ten-round decision.

Dempsey's share (from movies) $4,000

Official attendance 104,943

Carpentier' share (guaranteed) $200,000

Official gross $2,658,660

Promoter Tex Rickard

Dempsey's share $425,000, plus $25,000 from film rights

DEMPSEY-FIRPO

14 September 1923, Polo Grounds, New York

Tunney's share $990,445

Scheduled for Fifteen Rounds

Promoter—Tex Rickard

RESULT: Dempsey knocked out Firpo in second
round.

Official attendance - 82,000

Source:

Nat Fleischer, Jack Dempsey (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington Houce, 1972).

Sources:

James P. Dawson, "Boxing," in Sport's Golden Age, edited by Allison Danzig and Peter Brandwein (New York: Harper, 1948), pp. 38 85;

The Encyclopedia of Sports, fourth edition, edited by Frank G. Menke (New York: Barnes, 1969).