I a trainer revealed a secret dive before death

This sounds interesting. I can't wait to find the answer out.

 

Benny Leonard's manager?

DIdn't he tell Benny 'you can't win this fight' before the Britton fight, and Leonard intentionally got himself dq'd?

I think I read that somewhere. I take it with a grain of salt. As a rule these near death confessions seem sketchy, i.e. Doc Kearns' plaster of paris' revelation. Kearns detailed how he allegedly doctored Dempsey's wrapsin the Willard fight. Ring magainze or someone followed the instructions with strict detail. The plaster they came up with crumbled at the sightest touch.

There are other examples of managers and trainers spouting seemingly outrageous claims years or decades after the fact. Archie Moore was famous for exagerating his tales. There are others.

 

Many years after Benny Leonard was dead his trainer Manny Seamon said Leonards manager Billy Gibson had told him before the fight with Jack Britton that he was not to win.

 

Leonard and Gibson both passed in 1947, Britton in 1962.

 

Benny Leonard is so great - even when he takes a dive, his opponent is on the canvas.

 

Was Jack Britton who died in 1962 not a participant?
I could not find any bioagraphal infromation on Mannie Seamon. When did he pass. If it was before 62. I would call this post missleading.

 

Thanks, Burt. I love these questions. Always learn something new.

 

In the Ray Arcel A Boxing Biography, it states that Benny Valgar stopped Mannie Seamon in the 2nd round, but Seamon used the name of Frankie Wilson.

The story goes to say the Valgar's opponent failed to show up and the solution was to draft as his opponent Arcel's predecessor as his trainer, Mannie Seamon.

If you look at Valgar's record you will see that on July 12, 1918 he stopped a Frankie Wilson in the 2nd round. It also says that there not sure if correct Frankie Mason--Frankie Wilson was entered incorrectly as being Valger's opponent on this date.

Benny Leonard and Benny Valgar were both managed by Billy Gibson, an astute handler of fighters who also managed the career of future heavyweight champion Gene Tunney. The two Bennys often sparred with each other in the gym (what a fan treat that must have been!) but never met in an official fight.

You can also go to the following article from a book on Gene Tunney:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Tp...&sa=X&ei=6UjCUOmwJuHo0gGP-oEg&ved=0CF0Q6AEwBg

On ancestry.com they do list a Mannie Season who was born on August 15, 1897 and died in March of 1983 in New York.

 

B ,I beleive I am right in saying this was the basis for Hemingway's great short story,"Fifty Grand".

 

1983! Wow it sounds like he could have given Moses a run for the money.
Once the Leonard/Britton fight was brought up I tried to find information to conferm rather or not it was the right answer. One site I found, and I don't have the link. Suguests that Britton claimed the knockdown was a foul, but the reff and everyone else who saw the punch saw it as clean. During the count Leonard it Britton who slumped down. It suguests that Britton was also in on the fix. In some way or another.