Jack Britton W-DQ13 Benny Leonard. Was his a case of a faked low blow?

Mendoza · Jun 11, 2015

Was the verdict fair?

Mendoza · Jun 11, 2015

Was this a case of a faked low blow? From what I have read, I think so.

mcvey · Jun 11, 2015

Mendoza said: ↑

Was this a case of a faked low blow? From what I have read, I think so.
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Well you haven't read much that's obvious. The fight was the basis for Hemingway's classic short novel," Fifty Grand!"

burt bienstock · Jun 11, 2015

Yes, it was a "fake" fight as revealed by Benny Leonard's trainer Mannie Seeman, who told of this many years later after Billy Gibson, Leonard's manager and Benny Leonard, were dead. Seeman was in Leonard's dressing room just before the bout and gravely said to Leonard words to the effect. Benny you cannot win tonight ". the shocked Leonard wept upon hearing this but had to go along, and though beating the bigger Jack Britton and dropping Britton in the 13th round, ran to the fallen Britton and clouted him on the side of the head, prompting the referee to disqualify Benny Leonard
promptly...The audience was shocked as Benny Leonard was a cool customer and never lost his temper before...Those days in the roaring twenties you could easily lose your life, disobeying the mob...

burt bienstock · Jun 11, 2015

burt bienstock said: ↑

Yes, it was a "fake" fight as revealed by Benny Leonard's trainer Mannie Seeman, who told of this many years later after Billy Gibson, Leonard's manager and Benny Leonard, were dead. Seeman was in Leonard's dressing room just before the bout and gravely said to Leonard words to the effect. Benny you cannot win tonight ". the shocked Leonard wept upon hearing this but had to go along, and though beating the bigger Jack Britton and dropping Britton in the 13th round, ran to the fallen Britton and clouted him on the side of the head, prompting the referee to disqualify Benny Leonard
promptly...The audience was shocked as Benny Leonard was a cool customer and never lost his temper before...Those days in the roaring twenties you could easily lose your life, disobeying the mob...
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Correction please : I meant Billy Gibson, Leonard's manager
SAID to Leonard' "Benny you cannot win tonight". Mannie Seamon revealed this after Leonard died in 1947, while suffering a fatal heart attack refereeing bouts as St.Nick's Arena...

Mendoza · Jun 12, 2015

burt bienstock said: ↑

Yes, it was a "fake" fight as revealed by Benny Leonard's trainer Mannie Seeman, who told of this many years later after Billy Gibson, Leonard's manager and Benny Leonard, were dead. Seeman was in Leonard's dressing room just before the bout and gravely said to Leonard words to the effect. Benny you cannot win tonight ". the shocked Leonard wept upon hearing this but had to go along, and though beating the bigger Jack Britton and dropping Britton in the 13th round, ran to the fallen Britton and clouted him on the side of the head, prompting the referee to disqualify Benny Leonard
promptly...The audience was shocked as Benny Leonard was a cool customer and never lost his temper before...Those days in the roaring twenties you could easily lose your life, disobeying the mob...
Click to expand...

I found this:

They sparred rapidly and ineffectively in the 13th. The only incident was when both of Leonard's feet shot from under him as he stepped back, and he sat down with great violence. It was a pure slip.

When they resumed they went at it as they had done for 12 rounds, until Leonard rushed Britton in the open ring, and directly in front of where we sat with Ed Hughes, The Eagle cartoonist, on one side, and Frank Blunt, who was covering for the Associated Press, on the other. In the rush Leonard led both right and left, and the left landed on Britton's body, well above the belt. There was not an iota of foul in the blow. That is positive, and one who saw it was fair, as plainly as we saw it was fair, was Referee Patsey Haley.

Haley's action in beginning to count out Britton, and his direct statement to us and others after the affair, showed that he never for a minute believed Britton had been hit low.

Acting out of his bluff of a foul, Britton dropped his hands to his waist and slowly sank to the floor, but as an actor he is a joke. He exclaimed that he was fouled, but gave no physical indications that he had been hit below the belt or had even been hit hard above the belt. He went down to his haunches, then to his right knee.

Leonard ran around Referee Haley and swung a right to Britton's jaw, which blow had no great sting, at that, but it knocked Britton off his haunches and he flopped down somewhat upon his back.

Britton, instead of acting the part of a man suffering from the agony of a foul, plus a right swing to the jaw while on his knees, was extraordinarily full of pep. A man who has been fouled seriously enough to drop him in a bout in which his title is at stake, is not usually able to talk fluently, to wave his hands in argument and to turn to the reporters, drawing their attention in eloquent language to the contention that he had been struck while down. All of that Britton did.

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Jack Britton W-DQ13 Benny Leonard. Was his a case of a faked low blow?

Mendoza Hrgovic = Next Heavyweight champion of the world. Full Member

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Jack Britton W-DQ13 Benny Leonard. Was his a case of a faked low blow?

Mendoza Hrgovic = Next Heavyweight champion of the world. Full Member

Mendoza Hrgovic = Next Heavyweight champion of the world. Full Member

mcvey VIP Member

burt bienstock Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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Mendoza Hrgovic = Next Heavyweight champion of the world. Full Member