When did Bivins "duration" HW title end?

I never heard of any "duration" title and still don't know what it is. Can you explain?

 

Despite what it says on Boxrec, I don't think the first Bivins-Mauriello fight was ever widely acknowledged as being for the duration title. At the time, Joe Louis was still expecting to defend the actual title against Billy Conn the following month, so there wasn't any need for a duration champion.

After his second win against Mauriello, Bivins was generally recognised as duration champ, but arguably relinquished it by going into the army himself in 1944. At that point, there was an attempt to pitch the third Baksi-Savold fight as being for the title.

 

Sol, actually the Louis-Conn fight was from a year earlier. Louis' last defense was the rematch with Abe Simon 6 months before the Bivins-Mauriello bout. So it is highly plausible in timeline. There is a blurb on boxrec that says Louis - in uniform - presented Bivins with the Duration belt after the win over Mauriello.

 

That's what people say now, but if you look at reports from the time, no one was calling Bivins-Mauriello I a title bout, or calling Bivins the duration champion afterwards. The second bout actually was described as being for the duration title, though usually in pretty dismissive terms.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-call-bivins-mauriello-duration-title/144160731/

It was the third bout that was described as being for the duration title. I think the thing to bear in mind about duration titles in general is that they were little more than a promotional gimmick designed to sustain interest in the sport while the real champion was unavailable. They weren't taken that seriously.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/670943517/?match=1&clipping_id=144161105
https://www.newspapers.com/image/903632134/?match=1&clipping_id=144160965

 

But Louis and Conn were scheduled to fight a rematch in October 1942. The army withdrew permission in a dispute about how much money they would let two serving soldiers make from such an event.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/499662727/?match=1&clipping_id=144161578

 

That's an interesting facet to this story. What's even stranger though is, according to the article, Louis - Conn II was announced September 8th to be contested on October 12th, yet, Louis is there presenting Bivins with the Duration belt on September 15th after his win over Mauriello. The article was dated September 30th and the bout had already been cancelled. So very strange timeline here.

 

Well, that's the question. A natural reading of that blurb on Boxrec is that Louis climbed into the ring after the fight and handed Bivins a belt, but I don't think he was there at all. Certainly it's not mentioned in any contemporary report that I've seen.

He did "crown" Bivins duration champ in August 1943.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/84237216/?match=1&clipping_id=144188676

 

You say it's well sourced, but neither you nor anyone else has actually provided a source to back that up. These are the standard AP and UPI reports on the September 1942 fight, neither of which make any mention of a duration title.

https://ibb.co/xGNcw6k
https://ibb.co/k061x2J

I've already shown you one contemporary report describing the March 1943 fight as being for the duration title. Here's a much later article describing his mistreatment late in life which also mentions him winning the duration title in March 1943.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/878369897/?match=1&clipping_id=144219438

 

Made up title designed by the promoter to sell tickets that wasnt widely accepted.

 

Your "source" for the claim that Bivins won the duration title in September 1942 consists of reading it off Boxrec. As I've said, that's contradicted by multiple genuine contemporary sources. I'll post a few more.

October 1942 - Mauriello's fight with Lee Savold is described as "the first step toward crowning a duration champ".

https://ibb.co/whnKYpf

November 1942 - Bivins is described as "the newest and most consistent winner of the contenders for the duration heavyweight title".

https://ibb.co/0Z49srk

December 1942 - The winner of Mauriello-Nova is expected to meet Bivins in "a bout that would have a direct bearing on the much-billed duration heavyweight title".

https://ibb.co/8N936BH

February 1943 - Only his upcoming March 12 fight with Mauriello "separates Bivins from a second duration ring title".

https://ibb.co/gRrDXLS

March 1943 - Bivins "will make a try for the duration heavyweight championship when he meets Tami Mauriello".

https://ibb.co/CJY6nRP

April 1943 - Bivins' recent win over Mauriello "gave him the mythical title of duration heavyweight".

https://ibb.co/yhsZzS3

And so on.