Art Donovan, was he at all partial to Joe Louis?

I'll rip this to pieces later.I'll just content myself with two observations for now.
ONE .Mike Jacobs was NEVER referred to as Yussel the Muscle,that term referred to Joe Jacobs ,Max Schmeling's manager.
TWO.In the first Louis v Godoy fight one judge voted for Godoy
10 rds to 5, One judge voted for Louis 10 rds to 4 [one even ,]and Donovan the referee voted for Louis 10rds to 5.
So Donovan gave Godoy ONE MORE ROUND Than the other judge that voted for him. Thats two bits of misinformation demolished.

WATCH THIS SPACE.:good

 

Obviously the burden of proof must be on the person making the allegation.

 

Don't hold your breath then.

I've found loads of inaccuracies in this .I'm going to enjoy blowing it completely out of the water.

 

my take

Baer fight--The film shows no "rabbit punch" so it is difficult to see what the author is talking about. What happened is that neither Donovan nor Louis heard the bell which was weak--note that they did not hear it correctly in round 1 either--and so the fight went on after the bell. Baer got up and lunged toward Louis who hit him ON THE JAW with a right cross. As Donovan had waved Baer on, it is impossible for me to see how Louis could have been DQ'd on this one. Ringsiders near the bell had heard it ring and one jumped into the ring in his street clothes. As Baer was utterly finished, Hoffman grabbed on the DQ idea like a starving wolf going for a steak, probably to gin up controversy in hopes of a rematch. But the mistake was Donovan's, or perhaps those who installed an inadequate bell. Baer got his rematch and went out in the first.

*by the way, what exactly would have been the reason for Louis to foul Baer at this point. Baer was done. And also, Schmeling was not DQ'd by Donovan for hitting Louis after the bell in the fifth round of their 1936 fight. (three seconds after the bell according to Nat Fleischer in his report on the fight in The Ring)

Farr fight--a somewhat moot point as the two judges also voted for Louis.

Schmeling fight--I don't know where these quotes come from, but here is what Schmeling wrote in his autobiography:

"The German ambassador got in to ask me whether the punch in the back had been an illegal blow. He knew nothing about boxing, so I explained to him how I had grabbed the ropes and turned during the rain of punches. As I turned, Louis threw that devastating right that had probably been aimed at my heart. It was too late to stop the punch, so I took it in the back.
'But objectively speaking, that was an illegal punch.' the ambassador persisted. I explained to him that according to American rules, any punch above the beltline was legal. And since I couldn't see the punch, I really couldn't tell if he could have stopped it or not. In any case, it wasn't a question of a foul. It had been my mistake to turn, which only shows how far gone I was at that point."


***Frankly, this article was so factually inaccurate (the phantom rabbit punch) that it makes one wonder about the motives of the writer and his bias.

 

Arthur Mercante, sometimes referred to as the dean of histories ref's, thought a good ref had the best view of what took place in each round. His method of scoring, breaking each round into three separate results is still the best I've read of.

 

Right I'll make a start on this load of bollocks.

1".Art was Mike Jacobs’ main man. Jacobs, aka Yussel the Muscle"

WRONG Yussel The Muscle was the nickname of Joe Jacobs,Max Schmeling's manager famous for such garbled quotes as "we wuz robbed we should have stood in bed"

2".after Tex Rickard died suddenly in 1929 from a busted appendix. Jacobs had been Rickard’s moneyman. He wasted little time in taking over Madison Square Garden and other Tex Rickard promotions."

WRONG It was Jack Dempsey who temporarily stepped in, took over the promotions and held the fort. Jacobs did not gain control of MSG until 1937,when he ousted Johnston.That was 8 years after Rickard died.

3."Jacobs needed Art Donovan. He was the boxing instructor at the New York Athletic Club, as was his father, former American Middleweight Champion Mike Donovan. The son was soon put on Mike’s weekly payroll as a referee. In that way he was always available when his services were needed"

WRONG. Donovan was on the payroll of the NY Boxing Commission NOT Jacobs.

Why would Jacobs need him?
Donovan was available simply because he lived in NY all his life.

4."Jacobs was the exclusive promoter for Joe Louis in those days and also owned ten percent of Joe’s contract."

WRONG Jacobs did not become Louis's promoter until 1935 Louis fought for various promoters prior to that including the premier one at the time Jimmy Johnston .
Jacobs never owned any percentage of Louis what he did to secure a title fight for Louis with Braddock was to agree to pay Joe Gould, [Braddock's manager,]and Braddock 10% of the gate from all Louis defences of his title should he beat Braddock.

5".If a fight was close, or a tough call had to be made, Art was there. He was to make sure that Mike’s fighters got a fair deal. It was a very fine line for Donovan to walk. He was kind of an insurance policy"

WRONG Louis had tough fights with , Bob Pastor who took him the distance and made him look rather ordinary, it was at MSG Donovan was the referee.The rematch was at Briggs Stadium Michigan and the referee was Sam Hennessy.

Louis had a close call against Billy Conn in their first fight before stopping him late ,he has behind on all cards when he scored the ko.The fight was at the Polo Grounds and the referee was Eddie Joseph, he had Conn up by 7 rounds to 5 at the time of the stoppage.
The rematch was at Yankee Stadium and Joseph was again the third man.

Now If Jacobs was concerned about Louis losing and willing to put a so called crooked referee in there, why didn't he put Donovan in these contests and hold them at MSG?

8. "This time Baer pulled himself up on the count of nine. Then the bell rang to end the round. A split second later, as Buddy turned to his corner—ITALICBANG!—Louis landed a solid right to the back of Baer’s head. Buddy went down for a third time. Actually there were two fouls committed here by Louis. First, Baer was hit after the bell. Second, the punch landed on the back of Buddy’s head near his left ear. It was a rabbit punch. Donovan just ignored it."

WRONG Film of the fight shows that Louis landed whilst Baer was coming towards him not walking away and the punch was not a rabbit punch it was a right to the side of the head.

Baer was gulity of holding and hitting at times but Donovan did not penalise him.Donovan could have stopped the fight anytime after the first knockdown in the last round ,he gave Baer every conceivable chance.

What the writer of this crap, and Mendoza have missed is that one of Louis's entourage entered the ring before the round was over the reason was he was sitting near the bell and could hear it, neither Donovan, Baer ,or Louis heard the bell.

If there were any grounds for a DSQ on Louis's part that guy entering the ring was it.

In passing was there ever a cleaner fighting Heavyweight Champion than Louis?

9." Schmeling later said that “It was the very first punch that Louis landed that beat me. It was a right swing that caught me on the left kidney. It absolutely paralyzed me…It was a foul blow absolutely.” Decisions like this were the reason Mike Jacobs kept Arthur Donovan around. It was not the only time he may have saved Mike’s meal ticket. "

WRONG I'd like to see the provenance for this quote because Schmeling ,in an interview from his hospital bed stated that Louis beat him fair and square.
Schmeling turned away from Louis and a punch that Schmeling himself said was directed at the front of his body landed on his kidneys.

Below is Donovan's own account of the second Schmeling v Louis fight.

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10."From the early ‘30s to the mid ‘40s Arthur Donovan worked twenty Joe Louis fights in New York, and fourteen championship fights in total".

WRONG Donovan worked 11 of Louis's championship fights. The first was the Farr fight ,and the last the Mauriello one.

11.Donovan raised Farr's hand after the Louis fight.
WRONG he went over and congratulated Farr on his brave performance and as he touched Farr's glove Tommy began to raise his arm, Donovan hastily dropped it.


Louis damaged his right hand early in the fight and film of the fight shows him using it sparingly, in his autobiography he stated he felt that with two good hands he would have ko'd Farr.
Farr never pretended he had won the Louis fight ,the only fight he felt he had won in the States was against Braddock ,when Braddock staged a late rally to nick the verdict.


12.You say Donovan's score card for the first Godoy fight was"very poor".
Since no one alive has seen this fight in its entirety I must credit you with second sight similar to your verdict on the Louis Walcott first fight which you have also not seen in its entirety.
As a matter of fact Donovan gave Godoy one round MORE,[10-5,] than the other vote for Godoy which was 10-4 by George Lecron.Tommy Shortell gave the fight 10-5 to Godoy You say he never worked a Louis fight again as a consequence of this.I'm not surprised! BTW He had only worked one previously, the Carnera fight.

13. " Other factors not associated to Donovan which might have benefited Louis. One of Joe Louis managers was mob connected and served time. Boxing had a huge problem in the 1930’s with fixed fights."
WRONG John Roxborough had been a numbers runner he was not"mob connected" and did not have any part of fixed fight indeed Jimmy Johnston who was then the promoter at MSG and the number one man said he would put Louis on his bills and steer him to the title but he would "have to lose a few" Roxborough flatly refused.

Braddock's manager Joe Gould was mob connected ,closely associated with Owney Madden and was waiting outside to pick him up when Madden came out of Sing Sing. Freddie Beshore was mob controlled ,so was Gus Dorazio, and the mob had a piece of Max Baer, Louis still beat them

14 ".If you hoped to fight Louis in New York, you got Donovan as well."


WRONG The following Louis fights were in NY .

Conn1. Referee Eddie Joseph
Conn2. Referee Eddie Joseph
Simon2. Referee Eddie Joseph,[ maybe he was on Jacobs payroll too?]
Buddy Baer 2. Referee Frank Fullam
Godoy 2. Referee Billy Cavanaugh
Davis .Refeee Billy Cavanaugh
Burman.Referee Frank Fullam



In Summary Louis needed no help from referees, judges , or anyone else to achieve his victories,and if you gave him a close fight he gave you a rematch and kod you.

You have smeared a great champion,[not for the first time, ] and a Hall Of Fame referee who was never disciplined by the NY Boxing Commission or asked to answer any charges of wrong doing.

Can we now see an end to this bull****?

N B. Donovan's son is Art Donovan the Hall Of Fame player of the Baltimore Colts. I don't think he would be very pleased if he read your fairy tale smearing his Father.I sincerely hope he does.

 

One thing that I will say about Donovan, is that he tended to tailor his approach to the fight that he was officiating. If a fighter had a reputation as a clean fighter, then he would protect them. If two fighters were mutually intent upon fouling each other, he often left them to get on with it.

 

Yes he did.

Fritzie Zivic recounts in Heller's" In This Corner", how he and Armstrong fouled each other ,and Donovan stopped the fight briefly to say"if you fellows want to fight this way its ok by me."

 

"nothing he ever did in the many matches he was in with Louis went against Louis."

I don't think this is true. He did not give Louis extra time to recover from the after the bell fifth round blow by Schmeling in the 1936 fight. I think he could have, and perhaps even should have.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is Nat Fleischer in The Ring on that punch:

"In the fifth round, the end became apparent more so than at any time of the fight except the actual windup, when Schmeling caught his rival with a perfect clout on the chin three seconds after the round had ended. Neither the referee nor the fighters had heard the bell and so powerful was that punch that it made Louis's legs take a rubber appearance and befuddled Joe's brains to such extent that he never came out of the stupor.

"That punch was the turning point of the fight. In my opinion, it ended every chance that Joe had of coming through to triumph."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

*Now neither this punch nor the Louis after the bell punch in the Baer fight were fouls in my judgment because neither the fighters nor the referee heard the bell.

But the Schmeling punch was, or at least possibly was, critical, while the Baer punch came after the fight should have been stopped with Baer helpless and unable to defend himself.

 

Utter bull****. None of these threads denigrating Louis can be remotely tied together.

It is no "coincidence" that Louis' fights with Godoy and Walcott are incomplete. Mike Jacobs rarely, if ever, released complete films of ANY fight he promoted that went more than a few rounds. Walcott 2 isnt complete. Is that a controversial fight? Conn-Louis 1 isnt complete. Armstrong-Ambers and Armstrong-Garcia arent complete. There are numerous other examples, particularly from Louis' own career of fights which Jacobs' promoted and had filmed which arent complete. It wasnt some conspiracy it was to make the films more marketable.

The idea that Louis was a dirty fighter, or somehow participated in shady fights is ludicrous. There was an enormous amount of scrutiny on Louis because he was black and following in the footsteps of the disgraced Jack Johnson. For gods sakes the guy was told to not even smile after victory for fear of offending white people. You think if he had been a dirty fighter or participated in fights that had even a whiff of intrigue about them that he wouldnt have been attacked immediately by either the press or his opponents?

Even the kidney punch to Schmeling is a joke. It was Schmeling that turned his back causing the punch to land illegally. Louis could do nothing in that situation and frankly the damage was done before that kidney punch had landed (which is why Schmeling was cowering along the ropes with his back turned to begin with).

Laughable bit of character assassination.

 

As for the idea that Louis was a dirty fighter, his backers seem to have insisted on strict officiating for his title fights.

They probably took the view that he would win by default when the rules were enforced, but that liberal officiating might favour a weaker fighter.

 

I'd like some proof for the underlined statements,as Edward Morbius has pointed out no fouls are evident in the footage.
What proof have you that Louis's camp picked the judges for the first Walcott fight?

The judges were Frank Forbes and Marty Monroe, and the referee was Ruby Goldstein, a close friend of Louis's ,they were in the Army together.Goldstein voted for Walcott 7-6 [2 even]
Forbes voted for Louis 8-6,[1 even] Monroe 9-6 for Louis.
In other words a close fight.
If Forbes was handpicked by Louis's people and saved the title for him it is strange that he was picked to officiate in another Walcott fight against Rex Layne, there is no recorded protest from either Walcott or his camp for this fight.

So let's see now , to add to smearing Donovan ,Louis and his managers you have by inference now accused two respected judges in Frank Forbes and Marty Monroe.
Lets take a look at their credentials

Forbes worked many big fights including
Ali v Folley
Tiger v Torres
Robinson v Fullmer
Basilio v Demarco
Tiger v Griffith
Archer vFullmer
Ali v Jones
Basilio v Saxton
Saddler v Pep x2
Patterson v Johannson
Ortiz v Rosi
Ali v Banks
Charles v Marciano
Benvenuti v Griffith
Jack v Greco

He also cast the lone vote for Billly Graham in his fight with Gavilan a fight Graham was considered by most to have won.

Was Forbes in the pocket of all these and other champions?

Forbes judged 143 fights over 3 decades his reputation and experience is impeccable.


Marty Monroe officiated at
Maxim v Nardico
Lesnevich v Mauriello
Larkin v Graham
Belloise v Abrams
Jack v Montgomery x2
Pep v Terranova
Charles v Ray
Lamotta v Zivic
Christoforidis vLesnevich
Ambers v Armstrong
Lesnevich v Pastor
Robinson vAbrams
Armstrong v Zivic
Cerdan vAbrams
Bivins v Bettina
Soose v Overlin
Ross vJannazo
Conn v Bettina
Jack v Angott

He judged 75 fights over 3 decades and his standing equals that of Forbes.