Who remembers the two 1977 US tournaments that were televised & canceled?

[548273]

Have a look at this clip of Eddie Gregory vs Matt Franklin.

It's not great quality but at the 1:40 mark it mentions they are fighting a 10 round bout for "The World Television Championship"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZXLO78xuLw

[bennie]

Who here was following boxing in 1977? I'm sure you'll recall Don King's scandal ridden national tournament, which was televised on ABC. That tournament fell apart before its completion.

You'll probably recall that there was a second national tournament underway at the same time as King's. This second tournament was also broadcast on TV. But this one was televised by some obscure channel. It was broadcast at night, on weekends. It also fell apart before being completed.

The second tournament - and I don't remember who promoted it - featured Eddie Gregory vs Matt Franklin. It also broadcast Yaqui Lopez against Lonnie Bennett, and Marvin Johnson vs Tom Bethea.

Boxrec.com has some info published that confuses the two tournaments. They are making the mistake of thinking that both tournaments were one and the same thing, promoted by King. That's not true though.

Someone who remembers this era...please give me a hand. I need to dig up evidence to give to Boxrec.com's editors. The questions to answer are who were the promoters of the second tournament (not King's), what was the TV station that broadcast that competition, and why did it fall apart.

It fell apart because King was falsifying records and once he was exposed, TV pulled the plug.

[bennie]

Who here was following boxing in 1977? I'm sure you'll recall Don King's scandal ridden national tournament, which was televised on ABC. That tournament fell apart before its completion.

You'll probably recall that there was a second national tournament underway at the same time as King's. This second tournament was also broadcast on TV. But this one was televised by some obscure channel. It was broadcast at night, on weekends. It also fell apart before being completed.

The second tournament - and I don't remember who promoted it - featured Eddie Gregory vs Matt Franklin. It also broadcast Yaqui Lopez against Lonnie Bennett, and Marvin Johnson vs Tom Bethea.

Boxrec.com has some info published that confuses the two tournaments. They are making the mistake of thinking that both tournaments were one and the same thing, promoted by King. That's not true though.

Someone who remembers this era...please give me a hand. I need to dig up evidence to give to Boxrec.com's editors. The questions to answer are who were the promoters of the second tournament (not King's), what was the TV station that broadcast that competition, and why did it fall apart.

It fell apart because King was falsifying records and once he was exposed, TV pulled the plug.

Oh sorry, my bad. I was referring to the first one. Never heard of the second one.

[bennie]

Have a look at this clip of Eddie Gregory vs Matt Franklin.

It's not great quality but at the 1:40 mark it mentions they are fighting a 10 round bout for "The World Television Championship"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZXLO78xuLw

Great post. This is living proof that Saad used to box.

[548273]

A couple of lads posted about the other tournament on the thread below. At least one of them posts or did post here.

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/r ... 361/page-2