When he challenged Jack Britton for the WW title Leonard was the 3 to 1 favorite. It was a strange fight from the get go. Leonard, ordinarily very aggresive cautiously stalked the aging Britton who wasn't known as a big puncher. Then in the 12th Leonard drove Britton to his knees with a bodyshot and while walking back to a nuetral corner Leonard turned around hit Britton to the head while he was down on a knee. Britton was declared the winner on a foul. That was totally uncharacteristic of Leonard and many observers smelled a rat. It was no secret that Leonard was friendly with Jewish gangsters in NY including Arnold Rothstein who fixed the world series in 1919. So was Leonard persuaded to throw the fight? Many years later after Leonard was dead his trained Manny Seamon said Leonards manager Billy Gibson had told him before the fight that he was not to win. SO id say Leonard took a dive.
Leonard hit Britton while the latter was on the canvas after being knocked down. Attendance: 20,000. This fight is one of the most controversial in the history of the ring, as shown by a reading of about fifteen accounts by New York sportswriters (supplied by Jack Kincaid). The writers were unanimous in having Britton well ahead after twelve fast rounds. He had crowded Leonard, cleverly outboxed him, and even marked him up. Leonard did have a good round eleven, staggering Britton twice, but Jack had a big 12th. In the 13th, Leonard landed a left to Britton's body which caused him to gasp, folding his hands over his mid-section, and go down to his knees. Jack seemed to claim a foul (although he said afterward that he didn't), but Referee Patsy Haley disallowed the claim. Britton came up to one knee and Leonard rushed in and struck him a light blow, causing the referee to disqualify Benny. Leonard claimed that this final blow was not a foul, but none of the reporters agreed. The reporters, who included Damon Runyon, Sid Mercer, Hype Igoe, W.R. McGeehan, and George Underwood, drew various conclusions about the ending. Some thought that the conclusion was staged, others did not. The spectators seemed inclined to believe that something had been put over on them, but perhaps the best approach is to take the result at face value.
It goes with the grain that to the end Nat Fleisher was as mystified as everyone else as to why Benny did it. Nat considered it totally out of Benny's character.
Its massively plausible that the story of Billy Gibson bringing Ben to tears in the locker room before the fight by stating Ben Im sorry but you cant win tonight is true.
Slakka, This is the conlusion of many in the "know" of that time.Something was amiss in that fight...Leonard had the most gifted boxing brain ,just wouldn't go against his nature, and hit ,albeit it lightly, Jack Britton while Britton was on one knee..Completely out of character for him, but if Billy Gibson told him "we can't win tonight ", Leonard knew the outcome if he defied that order by his manager...:good
Who really knows. All accounts agree that Leonard didn't display the fire and aggression that he was expected to, but there could be more than one explanation for that. Maybe he was deliberately holding back, or maybe he was just surprised and offset by an extremely cagey and skilled veteran champ making his "last hurrah." At this point we can never really know for sure.
..it was an open secret among the boxing intelligencia that benny threw that one. the reason i've read and heard the most was that he just didn't want the welter title and to defend at that weight. (i know "open secret" is an oxymoron, but it does describe specific situations...rock hudson's being gay is a good example.)