American Boxing Association

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C01E2DB1138E633A25750C2A96E9C946496D6CF


That article claims it was formed in Aug of 1915, Clay, but I have found that the Amercian Boxing Association was being refered to at least a dozen years earlier than that. Whether this is the same organization or a different one that just happens to have the same name, I do not know;


"At a meeting of the American Boxing Association to be held in New York Jan. 24, a new code of boxing rules to cover the arrangement and conduct of all matches, will be submitted to the delegates for consideration, after the temporary organization is made permanent.

It is the purpose of the organizers of the association to establish a board of control along lines similiar to those of the National Cycling Association and to establish authority over all branches of the pugilistic game in the United States and Canada.

The constitution which is to be adopted, together with the new boxing rules, prescribes conditions of membership, duties of officers, dues, sanctioning of bouts, penalties for violation of rules and a board of governors to pass upon all disputes.

In the new code of rules several radical changes are to be found. It is provided that if a contestant goes down with the palpable intention of inducing an opponent to commit a foul, he shall be disqualified.

The most important change contemplated is found in the new schedule of weights for the various pugilistic classes. According to the old standards the lines of the classes at present stand: Bantam, 112; feather, 122; lightweight, 133; welter, 142; middleweight, 154; and heavyweight, no limit.

The new rules recommend a further subdivision of the heavyweight class, an increase in the weights of all classes and the introduction of a 105-pound class as follows: 105, 115, 125, 135, 145, 155, 165 and the heavyweight, no limit.

In later years few battles have been fought at the prescribed limits of weight, the contestants in nearly all cases having been a few pounds over the high mark.

In the lightweight class battles at the legitimate limit have been more numerous than in any other division."

- St Paul Globe, Jan 20th, 1902


I haven't yet found anything that came out in direct regards to that meeting from Jan 24th, but there were a few instances in the immediate years after (well before 1915) where the organization was briefly brought up and alluded to in the press as having already being "formed" and whatnot. Again, though, I can't be sure if, besides the name, it's the same one that the NY Times refered to as being formed in 1915.