Just before Baer defended his title against James J Braddock in June: In an article I picked out 2 paragraphs BALLSTON SPA DAILY JOURNAL, BALLSTON SPA, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1935 PAGE 6 SPORTS SLANTS By Henry McLemore United Press Correspondent NEW YORK, May 10 (UP) - The International Boxing Union, that fine old-world society for the preservation of honor among thieves, has, from it's headquarters in Paris, ruled that Max Baer no longer is the heavyweight champion of the world. Further into article states: Having removed Baer as champion, the I.B.U. announced a tournament to locate a new titleholder. It also announced - and with a bit of pride - that six sterling heavyweights - Charles, Obie Walker, Don McCorkindale, Jack Pertersen, Walter Neusel and Walter Hower had entered the tourney. http://fultonhistory.com/highlighte...lton%5fform%2ehtml&.pdf&openFirstHlPage=false Did the so called tourney die an instant death?
I can't see it having been very credible with those men in it. Hamas, Carnera, Lasky, Schmeling, and Levinsky were the top contenders of the day, and not one of them was in the tournament.
The IBU is a joke, iirc they once recognized Lee Savold as Heavyweight champ of the world. They're biased against americans because they think that our system was biased towards them, despite americans just being the better boxers at the time
On October 10, 1935, 5 months after the date of the referenced article, Pierre Charles (65-22-8), fought George Godfrey (98-20-2) in Brussels, for the IBU Hvywt Title, with Godfrey winning on points. Charles was 32 years old, and Godfrey was 38 years old. (the original "George Godfrey" fought back in the Bareknuckle Days i the late 1800's) The second George Godfrey was the 20th fighter to hold the colored heavyweight title. Boxing's second George Godfrey fought ring legend Sam Langford three times. Godfrey, who was 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall and weighed between 220 and 260 lb (118 kg) during his career, dwarfed the 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) Langford. Despite his advantage in size, height and weight, Godfrey was knocked out in two of the three matches in 1920 and 1921. He did manage a draw in his first bout with Langford in 1920. Godfrey is said to have been instructed by promoters on a number of occasions to carry opponents if he wanted to receive more important fights. He was outpointed over 10 rounds by future champion Jack Sharkey in 1926, was also outpointed by contender Johnny Risko in 10 rounds in 1928, but outpointed Paolino Uzcudun in 1928. IBU Title Godfrey would go to Europe later in his career and win the International Boxing Union World Heavyweight title. In late 1934, the IBU had ordered world champion Max Baer to defend his title against the reigning European champion, Pierre Charles of Belgium. When Baer instead opted to fight James J. Braddock, they withdrew recognition of him as champion. Subsequently, the IBU matched Charles with Godfrey for their version of the title with the fight taking place in Brussels, Belgium on 2 October 1935. This content is protected The IBU then recognized Baer's successor, James J. Braddock, as champion.
P Seems like a solid organization now! I found their website, here are their current heavy weight rankings: HEAVYWEIGHT== Champion - VACANT 1 UK Tyson Fury 2 USA James Toney 3 BEL Alexander Ustinov 4 GER Alexander Dimitrenko 5 UK David Price 6 USA Brian Minto 7 USA Malik Scott 8 POL Andrzej Wawrzyk 9 ARG Matias Ariel Vidondo 10 CHI Zhang Junlong 11 USA Eric Molina 12 ARG Fabio Eduardo Moli 13 UK John McDermott 14 JAP Kyotaro Fujimoto 15 USA Rick Roufus
Great post - I checked and was going to post myself. Charles won EBU in June against Vincenz Hower and then fought Godfrey as you stated for IBU title. Thought it was interesting as never heard Baer was stripped of this recognition although meaningless in the scheme of things.
