International Boxing Research Organization BOX 84, GUILFORD, N.Y. 13780 Newsletter # 7 July, 1983 WELCOME IBRO welcomes new members Bruce Harris, Reg Noble, Gilbert Odd, Bob Reiss and Bob Yalen. Their addresses and description of their boxing interests appear elsewhere in this newsletter. FIRST ANNUAL JOURNAL The First Annual Journal of the International Boxing Research Organization is being distributed with this month's newsletter. Thanks very much to all the members who played a role in this publication. MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY A list of IBRO members' names and addresses appears on the last page of the Journal. Please odd Reg Noble and Bob Reiss to this list as they joined IBRO after the journal was printed. NEW ADDRESS Please note the new address for Luckett V. Davis - 552 Forest Lane. Rock Hill., SC 29730. THANKS Thanks to David Bloch, Laurence Fielding, Luckett Davis, Jack Kincaid, John Robertson and Bob Soderman for their contributions to this newsletter. Apologies to the other members who contributed material which did not make its way into this newsletter - the time factor cropping up again. The material will be used in the next issue, which hopefully, will be produced before September 1st. ELECTION OF OFFICERS A ballot for the election of officers for the 1983-84 year appears on ;:le last page of this newsletter. Dues for the 1983-84 year are also due at this time. Please mail your payment of $15 to John Grasso, Box 84, Guilford, NY 13780 along with your ballot. A LETTER Lawrence L. Roberts, No. 608, 1190 Forestwood Dr., Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5C 1 H9, has sent the following letter to IBRO. "I was pleased to receive your invitation to join the IBRO, and have given the matter my serious consideration. It has come down to this: I will base my decision on the Organization's collective response to the following statements: 1) The shortest 'title' fight in heavyweight history remains the Burns-Roche contest of March 17th, 1908. The Jeffries - Finnegan match was and has always been regarded as a simple exhibition, and the recent Dokes-Weaver farce was not for the heavyweight championship of the World as neither man was or is champion. 2) Tommy's record of 8 consecutive KOs in title defenses has never been equalled because Larry Holmes has only been generally recognized as World Champion since October 2, 1980. With the existance of twogoverning bodies who refuse to unify the most coveted title in sports, the historian must follow the old maxim that the heavyweight title can only be won or lost in the ring. Therefore, Muhammad All was still champion when he stepped into the ring with Holmes. However, there may be some weight in the argument that Holmes became universal champion upon the elimination of the WBA clown-prince, John Tate, by a man Holmes had already beaten. This would still limit his consecutive title KO streak to less than Burns' eight. 3) Tommy Burns won the light - heavyweight championship of the world when he defeated Phila. Jack O'Brien on May 8, 1907 as both men weighed less than 175 lbs. If the IBRO's collective response to these statements is agreeable I will be most interested in pursuing the matter further. Thank you." MAXIE ROSENBLOOM David Bloch supplies some additional information on Maxie Rosenbloom to supplement the record in the 1982 Ring Record Book. Additional bouts: 2/5/24 George West, NY L 4 3/22/24 Billy Vidabeck, NY • . LD 6 4/22/25 Tiger Payne, Oakland 5/6/25 Sal Carlo, Oakland D 4 5/27/25 John Burns, San Francisco D 8 9/14/32 Natie Brown, Laurel W 10 Dates for listed bouts: 11/1/23 Jose Rivers, NY KO 3 11/12/23 Kid Frankel, NY W 6 3/11/24 Jack Lynch, NY W 6 4/7/24 Joe Silvani, NY D 4 4/17/24 Jack Ford, NY W 6 5/20/24 Jim Amato, NY W 6 5/30/24 Bruno Frattini, Long Branch ND 12 7/15/24 Joe McCarthy, Long Branch ND 10 9/4/24 Lew Ferry, Long Branch ND 10 9/12/24 Alex Kid Gibbons, Plainfield, NJ ND 12 10/20/24 Tommy West, Trenton ND 8 10/31/24 Jimmy Amato, NY W 6 11/18/24 Jimmy Amato, NY W 6 12/8/24 Rocky Smith, Trenton ND 10 2 NEW MEMBERS Bruce Harris 11 Windham Loop, #4JJ Staten Island, NY 10314 Boxing Interests - professional, bareknuckle thru 1919, all classes, U.S.. and England Collecting Interests - autographs, books, programs, other memorabilia Reg Noble 8025 Crespi Blvd., Apt. 2 Miami Beach, FL 33141 Boxing Interests - amateur (particularly Olympics), professional, all eras, classes and countries, biographical data Collecting Interests - autographs, books, records, magazines Gilbert Odd Little Court, Church Lane Northiam, Rye, East Sussex England, U.K. TN 31 6NA Bob Reiss 11801 Davenport Road Los Alamitos, CA 90720 Boxing Interests - professional, bareknuckle thru 1966, all classes, U.S. and Mexico Collecting Interests - books, photographs, programs, record books, magazines, clippings from magazines and newspapers especially color clippings thru 1966. Currently disposing of collection and interested in hearing from collectors wishing to acquire same. Bob Yalen 300 Cold Spring Road Apt. CM 11 Rocky Hill, CT 06067 CLYDE GRAY John Robertson forwards the following correction to the record of former British Commonwealth welterweight champion Clyde Gray. Although the 1981 Ring Record Book lists his 1/27/70 bout with Humberto Trottman in Toronto as a fifth round win by disqualification, the disqualification actually took place in the sixth round according to the report in the Toronto Globe & Mail. Trottman was disqualified for hitting referee Sammy Luftspring and Luftspring retaliated with a few blows of his own before order was restored in the bout which took place at the Royal York Hotel. 3 MR. GILBERT E. ODD Thanks to the efforts of Bob Soderman, Mr. Gilbert Odd is now a member of IBRO.: Some background on Mr. Odd as extracted from the book jackets of several of his works: (From Ring Battles of the Century, Nicholson & Watson, London, 1948):' "Gilbert E. Odd has a sporting background, the manufacture of cricket bats being the family industry, for his grandfather and father played no small part in the development of the modern cricket bat. The more exciting sport of Boxing, however, proved a greater attraction, and after a brief interlude in the amateur ring he became a boxing journalist. "The first contests he reported were at the Blackfriars"Ring' (since then a casualty of the Blitz) when he was only seventeen and for the last thirty years he has kept the closest acquaintance with the boxing game and its associates. He has seen boxing in almost every arena in the United Kingdom and in many other countries and has been a feature writer fcro the majority of the London and Provincial newspapers. "He is regarded as an authority on ring statistics and has the records and achievements of every fighting man, past and present, at his fingertips. He possesses a most extensive boxing library of books and photographs and devised and compiled the 'Boxing News Annual,' now in its fourth year - the only boxing record book published in the country. "He is married and has a nine - year - old son, Graham Harvey, whose second name is a tribute to that fistic master, Len Harvey, one of the author's greatest friends." (From Debatable Decisions, Nicholson & Watson, London, 1953): "Gilbert E. Odd has been a boxing writer for over thirty years, starting as a ringside reporter in his 'teens. He has seen practically every fight of note in this country during that time and been inside almost every boxing hall. In addition, he has watched boxing in many other countries and in 1951 flew to New York to report the famous return contest between Randolph Turpin and Sugar Ray Robinson, a detailed description of which, together with his personal views on the referee's decision, are contained in the opening chapter of this book. In a lifetime devoted to the Noble Art, he has amassed considerable data and is regarded as an authority on boxing history and the personalities of the great game. He has contributed to most of the national press and in 1948 assumed the editorship of 'Boxing News'. He also devised and compiled the 'Boxing News Annual and Record Book', now in its ninth year. "His first book, 'Ring Battles of the Century', was highly successful and received great praise from the critics because of its close adherence to fact; its vivid punch - for- punch description of the ring battles under review and the true-to-life pen pictures of the fistic personalities involved. "His second book, 'Was the Referee Right?', opened a new field in boxing literature, presenting the reader with problems that confronted the referees of some famous fights and inviting him to decide for himself what he would have done in similar circumstances." (From Jack Johnson - In the Ring and Out, Proteus (Publishing) Ltd, London, 1977): "The doyen of British boxing writers, Gilbert Odd has been a student of his chosen subject since 1920. A former editor of Boxing News and its predecessor, Boxing, he has made a formidable contribution to the literature of the Noble Art, most recently by publishing the first full - length study of Bob Fitzsimmons. "For the task of editing Jack Johnson, Odd has been able to draw upon the personal experience of having met the legendary champion and watched all his important fights over and over on film. His perceptive afterword to this volume surveys the era that Johnson personified and provides a balance to the super-ego of the man that Odd rates as 'the most highly-skilled Heavyweight Champion of them all, not excepting Muhammad Ali'.