Does anyone have information about this fight and whether it went ahead? There's a photo of a poster for the fight in James Morton's book about Turpin and Freddie Mills. If it is the same Irish Bob Murphy who challenged Joey Maxim for the World Light Heavyweight Title then the bout with Turpin would have taken place on 14th December 1957 as Murphy died in 1961. Boxrec lists Turpin's fight with Eddie Marcano in 1963 as being an unlicensed bout and I would imagine that his 1964 fight with Charles Seguna was another. It seems odd that Turpin would have one unlicensed bout in 1957 and not have another for six years. Does anyone have any information about other unlicensed bouts Turpin might have had?
Booth Fights were often Pro's verse other Pro's and many of those fights were classed as Pro Matches on many a Brits Record. While others didn't get put on ones record, they weren't all sanctioned, but it many cases were counted as though they were... How else do you think British fighters racked up 250 - 400 fights. and visiting US fighters wanted to see the Booths too. Ali included. the Midlands, where Turpin lived, was Ron Taylors or the Taylor families Booth. So might have happened in that sense. But just an educated guess on the matter.
It said it was regulation 20, para 25, which gave them the power to prohibit a contest not in the interest of boxing. It was basically that Willie Pastrano was considered to be at a higher level in a higher weightclass "Pastrano is world class, in the top division; Turpin is no longer in that class—in a lower division" They said that people wanted to see it didn't matter as "Midland crowds would havd flocked to see Turpin fight Marciano" Turpin's maginer responded saying "I cannot understand the decision, because the board would obviously have allowed Turpin to fight Joe Erskine, or Erskine to fight Pastrano. So why this ban?"
Hard to say, it's possible there was more going on, such as *PURE SPECULATION* someone higher up wanting to ban boxing and seeing a former star getting battered in a mismatch would give them ammo.
