The New York State Boxing Commission, the most august group ### stuffed shirts in the Empire State, decided at their last weekly clambake that Barney Ross needed a spanking. They said that unless he stopped his fight with Frankie Klick he would be suspended. Barney kept on training for his scheduled scrap and continued posing with the best looking gals who have hibernated at Miami Beach this season.
The lightweight champ had until last Friday to agree to meet Lou Ambers, recognized in this st#te as the number 1 challenger for the 135-pound crown.
The ban on Ross carries with it the warning of suspension against any fighter who battles the champ while he is outlawed here. Automatically this will put Klick on the blacklist the moment he steps into the ring with Barney next Thursday night.
Ross’ stand against the Commish is a wholesome one. It is the opinion of the popular Jewish champ that the commish has been handling things much to its one way of satisfaction. He has agreed to meet any fighter whom the fans would have him meet, provided the man named had the sanction of the commissioners. But, rather arrogantly, the lads said nix to this proposition.
ROSS NOT TITLE NURSER
Barney won the lightweight championship from Tony Canzoneri in 1933. He beat Tony again in the last months of the same year. He has been ready to meet any man who was an A-1 challenger and who was popular enought with the fight fans to gather the shekels in at the box offices for a championship fight. No such man has appeared in the last two years with the exception of Lou Ambers and Sammy Fuller.
A man certainly can be termed a title-nurser if he continually refuses to fight when the field in which he holds the championship is crowded with good men and not merely a gang of hopefuls A fighter’s first interest is to look out for the dough that can be banked as the result of any fight.
The lightweight title isn’t the only one that Barney has held. And his actions in the junior-welterweight and welterweight arenas have proved to this corner that he is a fighter who loves to fight.
FOUGHT MCLARNIN, KLICK
Last May 28, Barney became the only man in pugilistic history to hold three championships simultaneously. It was an unprecedented feat. He was the holder of the lightweight title, the junior welter—and by his decisive victory over Jimmy McLarnin he became the welterweight champion of the world also.
In the last year Barney has defended his junior Welterweight crown something like seven times. He has fought against such men as Frankie Klick, Harry Dublinsky, and others who were better than mere run-of-the-mine scrappers. He won on all seven occasions. He gave Jimmy McLarnin a return bout and lost.
More could not be asked of any man.
ACTION MEANINGLESS
The suspension of Barney Ross means nothing at all. Bill Brown said yesterday: “It’s silly. You cannot take a title from a man unless you do it in a ring. Ambers has shown himself a real fighter who wants to fight. He vindicated our choice when he beat Dublinsky the other night. We didn’t consult Illinois on our choice of Ambers as No. 1 challenger but that doesn’t matter because the Ambers-Fuller bout will clear up that difference of opinion anyway.”
So what? asks we. Barney will fight the winner of that scrap before three months are out. Everybody along Cauliflower Alley but the commission seems to know that. However, the solons are so accustomed to making the boxers toe the mark with threats of suspension, lock-outs and such that Barney’s refusal was regarded as an anarchistic threat to their peace of mind.
The Commission realizes as all of us do that should Barney fight Ambers or Fuller in the near future—as Barney says he will—the suspension is automatically removed. We suppose, nevertheless, that unless the Commish is belly-aching about something or other the fight fans will believe that they’re not doing anything at all. All of which still leaves Barney training for his Klick fight and posing with the belles of Miami Beach.
MORE BOXING BERRIES
While we were moseying around the sacred portals of the Garden—promoter Jimmy Johnston was sipping a cup of tea (with lemon) and talking of the Ross-Canzoneri, Ambers-Fuller deal. We had heard enough of this and were preparing to leave when Harry Scadron, the manager of Bob Olin, the Jewish light-heavyweight champion who supplanted another Jewish 175-pounder, popularly known as Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom.
Scadron collared us immediately and said, “Bulletin, do you know that Bib Olin is one of the most popular Jewish fighters in the land today. He is being flooded with offers from all over the country. Mind you,” he continued, “we’re not accepting any of these until after Friday night’s ten-rounder against John Henry Lewis, the colored clouter of California.”
In addition to real ring warfare Scadron disclosed the fact that Olin may appear in one or two exhibitions with Maxie Baer either before or after the heavyweight king makes a picture at Hollywood. Olin and Maxie are buddies. Baer posed all over the lot with Bob last week in Boston just to encourage the young man a bit. It is our contention that Maxie wanted to be in the limelight with a real fighter just for once.
NEWS OF THE 92ND ST. Y.
The heave – and – grunters who represent the 92nd Street Y.M.H.A. on the mat tackle the strong Boy’s Club wrestling team at the midtown sports plant tonight.
The grapplers on the “Y” team are a formidable contingent and have produced remarkable results in the first five weeks of competition. Murray Adelman, the captain of the team and the metropolitan senior 126-pound title-holder, has not been defeated as yet this season. He has been taking on the best wrestling talent in his weight division that the met arena affords and has emerged unscathed. Adelman, a candidate for the toss-and burp squad of the Maccabi team, is the most likely prospect for the American mat team that will compete at the second Maccabiad in Tel Aviv, in April of this year.
HAKOAH SPORT NOTES
The Royal Blue and White colors that wave over the Hakoah Athletic Club will be raised on high again this Sunday afternoon if the expectations of the club’s soccer team are to be taken as a sign. The Hakoah footballers are convinced that they will defeat the Swiss football club in a State Cup competition soccer game to be held at the Sterling Oval in the Bronx.
The Hakoah A.C. in its present form is the combined clubs of the Jordan and Hakoahs. These two groups merged some time ago, combining the best features of both organizations under the name of the Hakoah A.C., the older of the two.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
