Salt Lake Telegram | 1938-01-06 | Page 12 | Three World Champs See Crowns Lost During' 37

Three World Champs See Crowns Lost During 3 37 7 By PAT TAT ROBINSON International News Sports Writer NEW NEWYORK YORK Jan 6 Three 6 Three world champions champion were dethroned in the rin rifle rine in 1937 five others successfully defended their titles Small Montana dropped his bis flyweight flyweight flyweight fly fly- fly fly- weight title to the Benny Lynch Hen Armstrong Arm Arm- Henry r y strong knocked f fout out Petey Sarron Sarron to win the featherweight featherweight feath- feath r era eight title f i Joe Louis i. i f knocked out Jim f Braddock for the w J h heavyweight e r 0 1 S championship and de defended ended it j against Tom Tommy my J. J Farr Lou Ambers re retained reo tamed his lightweight lightweight light light- wei weight ht bauble by by- turning back his chief rival Pedr in a Armstrong dull bout Barney Ross had his hands full fullin fullin fullin in gaining a close decision over Ceferino Garcia to keep his welterweight welterweight welterweight welter welter- weight crown Freddy Steele the middleweight boss and John Henry Lewis the light heavyweight king had no trouble retaining their thrones chiefly because of lack of sufficient competition The outstanding fighter of the year was Armstrong This little negro went along week after week fighting anybody and everybody who would meet him featherweights featherweights feather feather- weights or lightweights and scorIng scoring ing one sensational knockout after another Many veteran judges of boxing believe Armstrong could have won the lightweight and welterweight ight titles about as s easily as he won won th the featherweight title if tf he had had a ashot ashot shot at Ambers and Ross He probably probably ably will get a crack at Ambers Amber next year The year also saw Max the German heavyweight ex-heavyweight champion champion cham cham- pion who knocked out Louis tw two years ago go get the prize runaround of the year Max thought that when he am and Braddock signed a contract to fight figh for the title the contract was something something some some- thing more than a scrap of paper But by the time the powers that tha be in the fight racket a flock o of lawyers and a court got through with him he discovered he was still out on a limb Louis got the title shot and th the title titIe and Max got another contract for a title fight in 1938 More important than any fight figh however was the retirement o of Madison Square Garden from boxing boxing box box- ing and the rise of Mike Jacobs Jacob and his Twentieth Century club t to the spot held for so many years b by bythe bythe the Garden So long as the Garden controlled the champion champion champion-as as it itha had hadi i since the days of Tex Tax Rickard Rickard-it Rickard held the whip hand in boxing When the Gardens Garden's expensive battery o of legal talent failed to make th the Braddock contract stick the Garden decided to get out o othe of the game