Evolution of the Billy Fox LtHeavywt. 1948 Title fight Sham

Evolution of the Billy Fox LtHeavywt. 1948 Title fight Sham
(with Ezzard Charles the logical #1 LtHvy Contender)

Found this October 13, 1947 Pittsburgh, PA newspaper clipping re: a "Billy Fox vs Joey Maxim proposed fight postponed until late 1947 "
https://news.google.com/newspapers?...ZEyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UGoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2842,3277863

"Billy Fox's proposed Oct 20th, 1947 fight against Joey Maxim was postponed
until late Dec. 1947 due to an "injury" to Joey Maxim in training".

Then this happens:
Nov 11, 1947. Billy Fox TKO's Jake Lamotta (Lamotta admits later the fight was fixed)

March 8, 1948. Gus Lesnevich K.O.s Billy Fox

1947-11-14 : Jake LaMotta 167 lbs lost to Billy Fox 173¾ lbs by TKO in round 4 of 10

• Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA
• Referee: Frank Fullam

Newspaper Reports
"The technical knockout which Billy Fox scored over Jake LaMotta in the fourth round last night caused raised eyebrows in the boxing industry today. Widespread reports of a fix, which received official recognition, robbed, for the time being at least, the glory which naturally would have gone to Fox for becoming the first boxer ever to knock out the tough battler from the Bronx.

1948-03-05 : Billy Fox 172¼ lbs lost to Gus Lesnevich 175 lbs by KO at 1:58 in round 1 of 15

• Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA
• Referee: Frank Fullam

World Light Heavyweight Title
Fox was knocked down twice.

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: Ezzard Charles 175 lbs beat Elmer Ray 192 lbs by KO at 2:43 in round 9 of 10

• Location: Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Referee: Tom Kenneally

"Hammer-fisted Ezzard Charles racked up a knockout over Elmer Ray today and called for a shot at light heavyweight champion Gus Lesnevich. The fast moving Charles hanged the aging Ray right out of heavyweight boxing with a left hook at 2:43 of the 9th stanza." -United Press

• Elmer Ray was the 2nd ranked heavyweight in the world going into this bout

• Chicago Promoter Irving Schoenwald wired Gus Lesnevich a $50,000 offer to defend his title against Charles in an outdoor show in Chicago for that summer

 

I didn't have time to extrapolate all the details like the great additional info you provided.

I just found that little article about the Joey Maxim fight cancellation and knew exactly that Fox would soon be fighting for the title, through "hook or crook".

 

Excellent overview.