Flyweight Champion Jimmy Wilde took on Frankie Mason in March of 1920 / Photo courtesy of Antiquities of the Prize Ring

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By Andrew Fruman

We're back with another edition of the History Corner.  Today, we've got news and fight reports from  March 12 to 18, for the years 1910 and 1920.  On Friday, we'll be moving on to 1930, 1940 and 1950.

Check out last week's editions of the History Corner: March 5 to 11, 1910 & 1920
& March 5 to 11, 1930, 1940 & 1950

In this edition...

• Sam Langford vs Jim Flynn - Vernon, March 17, 1910
• Abe Attell vs Johnny Marto - New York, March 18, 1910
• Jimmy Wilde vs Frankie Mason - world flyweight title, Toledo, March 12, 1920
• Plus plenty more fight reports and pugilistic news of the times...

1910

March 13…

Lightweight champion Ad Wolgast (pictured, Antiquities of the Prize Ring) confirmed the stance taken by his manager Tom Jones, stating that he would not defend his title against a black fighter…

As far as I am concerned the negroes are through with the fight game. The time for me to make this announcement is right now. There are no black men in the lightweight division now who have a chance with the champion and therefore I want to draw the color line now to show the public that it is not because I am afraid of any negro.

I do not think any good ones will be in the game while I am, but even in there should be some good colored boy pop up in the near future and look like a coming champion, I will not fight him. I will fight any white boy living, who deserves a championship fight at 133 pounds ringside.

Ad Wolgast

March 15…

Jack Goodman won the newspaper decision from Battling Hurley in a closely contested toe to toe struggle at the Fairmont Athletic Club in New York.

From the tap of the bell Hurley, with head down, slashed into his clever opponent, churning the air with wild, badly directed swings, hoping that one of them might connect with Goodman and send him to the floor. Goodman met this vicious attack coolly and slashed the Passaic Cyclone’s face his left eye was bruised and closed – and his face chopped and scratched.

There was never a moment when either of them let up. Drawn on the basis of a close decision, it might be said that Goodman, because of his cleaner blows and fine ring generalship had slightly the better of the rough milling, but to those who delight in the tumultuous slam-bang of the give-and-take scrap, it was an even thing.

– New York Times

March 17…

Sam Langford knocked out Fireman Jim Flynn (pictured, Antiquities of the Prize Ring) in the eighth round of a scheduled forty-five at the Jeffries’ Arena in Vernon, California. The bout had been the most anticipated bout ever staged in the Los Angeles area, but proved to be a total mismatch as Langford’s superior skills ruled from the opening bell until the brutal ending.

Buoyed with confidence after his 10 round newspaper victory over Langford back in February, Flynn had bragged all week of what he would in the ring, but was outclassed to the point that Los Angeles Times writer Harry C. Carr had this to say about the opening round…

Flynn fought gamely and desperately; but his pitiful awkwardness and glancing, uncertain blows did no harm. It was about like a girl having a baseball throwing contest with Christy Mathewson.

Before the round was over, Flynn was bleeding and in distress. It seemed impossible that bone and flesh could stand such appalling assaults.

Harry C. Carr

Carr added that…

Flynn fought like a maniac, but Langford was marvellous. His blows snapped in as though they worked on giant springs. You could hear them crack as they struck.

Langford had not been in the best on condition for the previous meeting, and many had been suspicious of his performance feeling that he’d intentionally gone easy, but on the occasion was reported to be in the best shape of his career.

Langford (pictured, Library of Congress) toyed with Flynn, brushing aside his rushes, picking his spots and taking his time in handing out a beating. Flynn’s seconds kept imploring their man to keep his hands up, but when the Fireman did so, Langford proceeded to batter him around the mid-section.

In the seventh round, with the contest becoming increasingly hopeless, Flynn was told by his corner that Langford was tiring. Flynn was so weak by this stage, that the remark drew a laugh from the Boston fighter. During the round, Langford staggered Flynn with a right to the chin, and it was clear to those watching at ringside that the end was near, although Flynn may have hastened the finish by whacking Langford after the bell.

This was reportedly unintentional though as Flynn was so out of it that he appeared unaware the round was over. Langford swore and responded with an angry look, but did not fire back before heading back to his corner.

Flynn had fought a clean fight to that point. He had promised to do so ahead of time, and had been further warned by referee Charles Eyton before the contest that the rough stuff that went on when the fighters met previously would not be tolerated.

The finish came a minute into the eighth round. After evading one of Flynn’s rushes, Langford turned to local sportswriter Beany Walker, who had written that Langford had easily been beaten by Flynn in the previous match-up, to let the newspaper man know the end was coming..

They went into another gentle clinch in the center of the ring and Langford broke from this and backed slowly toward Flynn’s corner. The long-looked-for opening was coming. The tired and beaten Flynn hurried toward the retreating Langford, and as he did so the roof fell in with a crash and Flynn tumbled into the deep dark abyss.

Langford met the oncoming fireman with a terrific right uppercut on the chin. If Flynn had been standing erect the blow might have knocked him out of the ring, but as he leaned toward it his weight stopped the force of the blow, in a way. Flynn fell forward on the floor on his face and as his nose struck the canvas the blood came again and he lay until counted out.

– Grey Oliver, Los Angeles Times

Flynn managed to get to his feet a few seconds after the knockout, before being lead to his corner and an ammonia bottle stuck under his nose. He was not fully aware of his surrounding though and "put up his fists desperately" when he saw Langford walking across the ring to shake his hand.

Flynn absorbed so much punishment during the bout and was in such a poor state at the end that the bout's headline in the following day's Los Angeles Times story by Harry C. Carr read: Sickening COLD, GORY HORROR, PITIFUL, REVOLTING.  Carr wrote that Flynn's appearance, "was too bloody, and torn and swollen to be described in polite society."

Flynn was rewarded handsomely for the punishment he took, as was Langford for dishing it out, with the fighters taking home $5700 each.

March 18…

World featherweight champion Abe Attell took a beating over the last three rounds from lightweight Johnny Marto (pictured, Library of Congress), but hung to the finish to earn the newspaper decision victory.

Marto fought viciously as usual, with reliance not so much on his cleverness or science as in his ability to withstand Attell’s attack. In this belief he was borne out by events, and he finished in palpably better condition than his opponent.

– New York Times

Attell used his superior skills of hand and foot to easily outpoint Marto over the first seven rounds, but took a steady beating in the clinches from kidney punches which gradually weakened him.

The ninth and tenth rounds were all Marto’s. He forced Attell around the ring, landing repeatedly with left and right short arm swings on the face, but never on the part of the jaw that would have meant a knockout.

- New York Times

In the opinion of the Times, had the bout gone a few more rounds, Attell would likely have been stopped.

1920

March 12…

A bill was passed in the Kentucky senate to legalize twelve round no-decision bouts. The measure passed through the house a week earlier by a vote of 22 to 12. All that remains is the governor’s signature to sign the bill and appoint an athletic board of control to supervise boxing in the state. Under the terms of the bill, 5% of gate receipts from fights will go to a state school fund.

  *  *  *  *

Before a full house of 3,700 spectators at the Ringside Auditorium in Toledo, Welshman Jimmy Wilde (106 ¼) successfully defended his world flyweight crown in a furiously fought 12 round no-decision bout against Frankie Mason (106 ½) of Fort Wayne.

According to the newswire report from Toledo that included a round by round description of the fight, Wilde was a clear winner, taking nine of the twelve rounds, with two even and Mason (pictured, Antiquities of the Prize Ring) only winning the fifth.

Opinions as to the winner…

• "Wilde won easily." – Sam Hall, Chicago Herald-Examiner
• "Wilde won seven rounds." – Joe Williams, Cleveland News
• "Wilde easily the winner, although Mason fought a great battle." – Tom Andrew, Milwaukee Journal
• "Wilde won." – Oliver Pecord, the referee of the Willard-Dempsey bout
• "Wilde easily winner." – C. W. Howard, Toledo Times
• "Mason won by a shade." – Promoter Addison Q. Thacher

Wilde’s clean punching and aggressiveness, along with his defense impressed the newspaper writers. Despite having the worst of it in the opinion of the writers, Mason maintained a confident smile throughout the bout, and said he thought that" he had Wilde going."

The referee of the contest, Chicago sportswriter Ed Smith, said after the fight that he’d never seen a fighter more willing to mix it up than Wilde, but when asked what his verdict would have been, the official said it was a very even match but "was not at liberty to announce the winner" under the rules outlined by the commission.

Pictured right is a page from the autograph book of promoter Addison Q. Thacher, signed by Jimmy Wilde on the day of the fight.  Courtesy of Antiquities of the Prize Ring.

March 15…

Canadian featherweight Frankie Fleming easily handled Buffalo fighter Dick Atkins at Massey Hall in Toronto…

Fleming proved as elusive as a shadow, and he made Atkins look foolish by the easy manner in which he evaded his punches. He dodged in and out with careless abandon, and "Fighting" Dick was plainly at a loss to understand his defense and attack.

Several times Atkins was on the verge of collapse, and that he succeeded in going the route was more owing to the generosity of the featherweight champion than because of his own ability. He stood up to his guns, however, like the plucky boxer that he is, and was a long way from being disgraced.

– Globe and Mail

The show also featured a pair of well matched local fighters going at it, with Teddy Joyce just edging out Benny Gould. The Globe & Mail reported that Joyce received "considerable punishment" crowd was very vocal in disputing the decision.

*  *  *  *

Despite suffering from a strained tendon in his ankle, Ralph Brady of Syracuse closed strongly over the final two sessions to secure a 12 round draw with hometown fighter Frankie Britt at the Bristol Arena in New Bedford.

Both fighters were dropped once, with Britt tasting the canvas in the fifth round and Brady going down in the ninth. The newswire report mentioned that the Syracuse fighter had "technically" been knocked out twice, as the bout was stopped on a couple of occasions due to Brady’s troublesome ankle. The majority of the spectators were of the opinion that the decision should have gone to the local man.

It was a busy week for Brady, as only three days earlier he had defeated Philly fighter Joe Tiplitz in another 12 rounder in Baltimore.

March 16…

At the Cirque de Paris, former world champion Johnny Coulon made an unsuccessful return to the ring against European bantamweight title holder Charles Ledoux (pictured, Antiquities of the Prize Ring). The once great Chicago fighter was described as being "only a shadow of his former self" and was outclassed by the Frenchman before being stopped in the sixth round.

* * * *

In a 12 rounder at the Armory A.A. in Boston, southpaw Pal Reed made it two wins in a row over fellow Massachusetts fighter George Robinson (pictured, Library of Congress). The middleweights had met five months earlier in Framingham.

The battle was one of the most rugged that has been held in Boston for some time. From gong to gong, in every round, the pair exchanged rights and left to face, jaw and body.

It was a succession of left hooks that Reed kept sending into Robinson’s stomach that made the latter weary. The colored boxer did his best work at close range. AT the end of the ninth round, Robinson was very tired. Reed seemed tired too, in some of the sessions.

– The Boston Globe

For more great boxing photos of the past, make sure to visit Antiquities of the Prize Ring.

Check back later in the week for more of The Boxing Bulletin's History Corner as we move on to the years 1930, 1940 and 1950 for the week of March 12 to 18.

e-mail Andrew Fruman