At Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 2, 1951, The nationally televised main event bout between Harry "Kid" Matthews and Irish Bob Murphy was fought at a terrific pace and featured lots of action. Matthews' hard punches to the body were cited as a major reason why he won a clear decision after ten rounds. Although this was a highly anticipated bout, the gross gate receipts were only $23,970. with the attendance being 6,922. The net receipts after taxes were about $18,000. Matthews and Murphy received $6,932. each for the fight. They each got 25% of the net gate and the standard main event fighter's television fee of only $2,250. Jack Hurley, Matthews' manager, thought that it was terrible to have boxing shows being televised so that people could watch them for free in their homes or at the local bars. History shows that the attendance and gate receipts went down drastically at many American boxing clubs after television came into being on a large scale. A staggering number of American boxing clubs went out of business as a result. Hurley seem really perturbed at the low standard television fee for main event boxers. When Hurley was negotiating for another possible bout for Matthews with Al Weill, the I. B. C. and Madison Square Garden matchmaker, the latter would not budge from that standard fee. As a result, Hurley went his own way with Matthews, the latter being an extremely popular fighter, especially in the Northwestern part of the United States. - Chuck Johnston
Matthews should have fought Maxim for title. instead Hurley cashed out Maxim against Marciano Matthews was a decent fighter whose record was padded with an extreme bunch of stiffs, but he proved his worth at 175 with the win over Murphy
Hurley said he was very careful in picking opponents for Mathews always selecting styles that would make him look good,he favored come forward guys that liked to attack as they show cased Mathews countering style and fast hands.Murphy fit the bill.
