Modern-day boxing can not legitimately declare to be higher than boxing previously. The truth is, when it comes to the technical talents and talent stage we see in the present day, it’s doubtless worse. However one factor has undoubtedly improved: file preserving. Prior to now, a bout might happen and if it wasn’t reported within the native paper for some purpose, any proof of the competition would rapidly disappear. The converse was additionally true. Boxers and their imaginative managers might pad the file with bouts that by no means occurred in an effort to make the fighter in query seem extra formidable, and thus extra marketable.
However nobody disputes the truth that gentle heavyweight champion Battling Levinsky was one of many true “iron males” of boxing, a extremely energetic fighter who loved a two decade lengthy profession throughout a time when “extremely energetic” meant combating a dozen instances or extra in a yr. In 1914 alone, Levinsky fought 36 instances, and all of these contests have been verified. Evaluate that to in the present day the place 4 or 5 bouts is a busy yr for many pugilists.
Levinsky’s official file is daunting sufficient. It states that he scored 196 wins, together with newspaper choices, in 287 bouts. That implies that a median yr for the fighter whose actual title was Barney Lebrowitz concerned nearly 30 matches. However till his dying day, Levinsky maintained that he truly participated in additional than 5 hundred contests, and there’s actually no means of figuring out for sure whether or not his declare is bogus. However within the many years since, boxing historians have combed by municipal information and outdated newspapers to try to decide the reality, and in consequence the colourful story of what Levinsky achieved on January 1, 1915 is now broadly considered simply that, a narrative.
Levinsky had the model to be as energetic as he was. A fast, slick, defensive genius, he possessed unbelievable stamina and thus might field and transfer spherical after spherical, sustaining little punishment as his opponent ineffectively chased him everywhere in the ring. His supervisor, “Dumb” Dan Morgan (the ironic nickname referring to the actual fact Morgan by no means stopped speaking), boasted for all to listen to about Levinsky’s talent and defensive prowess, in addition to the truth that it was all the pieces he might do to maintain him out of the ring. “He’d battle each single night time if I let him,” claimed Morgan.
As if to show the purpose, on New 12 months’s Day, 1915, Morgan, based on legend, organized for Levinsky to make not one, not two, however three separate ring appearances. Maybe “Dumb” Dan wished extra consideration paid to his fighter after the wonderful file he had posted within the yr simply completed. Regardless of the case, as a publicity stunt, it labored, and sports activities followers on the time accepted the story at face worth.
In response to the legend, late within the morning of January 1st, 1915, Levinsky boxed ten quick rounds with one Bartley Madden on the Broadway Athletic Membership in Brooklyn. After lunch, Morgan and Levinsky went to Manhattan the place Levinsky boxed one other ten rounds, this time with Soldier Kearns. Following the second battle, the intrepid pair made their method to Grand Central Station and boarded the practice to Connecticut the place that night Levinsky took on Gunboat Smith in a scheduled twelve rounder that was declared a draw.
Like all the nice boxing promoters and managers, Morgan was nothing if not a teller of tall tales, a well mannered means of claiming the person was an incessant liar. Latest searches have turned up nothing on the alleged bouts with Madden and Kearns. The truth is, Madden was inactive for all of 1915, whereas Alfred (Soldier) Kearns did battle with Levinsky that yr, however in July, not January.
However on the time individuals thought the story true, it solely including to Levinsky’s fame as one of the crucial energetic boxers within the sport’s historical past. After which a younger reporter had the temerity to ask the bold younger pugilist: “Mr. Levinsky, why do you insist on such a demanding schedule?” A question to which the battler — with an air of incredulity, as if a extra silly query might scarcely be conceived — bluntly replied: “I like cash!”
The next yr Levinsky, whose file boasts battles with such greats as Tommy Gibbons, Gene Tunney, Jack Dempsey and Harry Greb, would win the world gentle heavyweight title from Jack Dillon. He would maintain it till 1920 when he was defeated by Georges Carpentier. — Robert Portis
