According to my notes his lineal FW title record is 24-3-3 and officially he reigned as FW champion for over 8-years, though there is an argument he should be credited with 2 x shorter reigns, dependant on your view of whether he lost to Tommy Sullivan legitimately or on a foul. He won more lineal FW title fights than anyone in history and only his successor, Johnny Kilbane had a longer reign (11-years), though Kilbane was nothing like as active, with a 2-1-2 record in FW world title fights. In fights contested at FW he beat past prime ATG George Dixon (who he went 1-0-2 against in total), Johnny Kilbane (1-1), the brilliant Owen Moran (2-0-2), Harry Forbes (3-1-2), Jimmy Walsh (4-0-1) & Charley White x 2. That is a splendid win resume. I consider him a lock as a top 6 ATG at FW, along with Pep, Saddler, Saldivar, Sanchez & Dixon.
Very controversial character and best known today as a possible conspirator in the Black Sox Scandal, which was fixing the results of games in the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds by gangster Arnold Rothstein. He was charged but not convicted, his alleged role being the go-between who approached players on behalf of Rothstein. He is also reputed to have been involved in fixing fights.
Abe Attell was spiteful, ruthless and a natural born champion. He ruled the featherweight division for almost a decade before Kilbane came to the throne, meaning that between them, the two spent most of the first quarter of the twentieth century atop the pile. Attell staged more than twenty defeneces. He was a monstrous champion who left a scar on the division’s history. There is some weirdness though. The key fight is his 1904 defense against Brooklyn’s tough Tommy Sullivan, lost by way of a controversial fifth round knockout. The knockout punch – Attell was knocked out – was a left uppercut, driven to the beltline with such force it was said to have lifted him from the canvas and reintroduced him to it face first; Abe claimed to have been fouled. The referee called a doctor to the ring and he examined the brutalized party; in fact, three physicians in all examined Attell while he writhed in apparent agony in full view of an agitated crowd and none found any evidence of his being fouled, at which point Sullivan was named the winner. Attell, however, completely ignored the judgment of the referee and continued to defend “his” featherweight title just as if the loss had never occurred. Such were the vagaries of title politics in “the good old days” that his claim was generally acknowledged. Meanwhile, BoxRec lists no title defenses of the title by Sullivan. If you fall on the side of Sullivan here, the timeline was restored when Sullivan was defeated by the mysterious Hugh McPadden, who then retired, allowing Attell to pick the title up once more by beating Jimmy Walsh in 1906. Even this treatment, which sees Attell credited with two shorter title runs rather than the longer one he is generally accounted with, renders Attell’s raw statistics stunning. No featherweight managed more lineal defenses, even if he was a little too keen on no-decision bouts for the taste of some. His decision to sit on the title rather than defend it between 1909 and 1912 was also unfortunate but in the end few champions at any weight measure up to him.
I just want to say what hasn't been yet said here and acknowledge that he was, for whatever greatness in the ring, and whatever lack of morality outside or inside of it, a pretty boss standup comic.
