Records With Many "No-Decision"s

boxen · Post by **boxen** » 26 Apr 2003, 23:43

I had a question about this topic on Current Scene which has bled over to this
page. It seems that more better boxers of the 1920s and 1930s (people like Harry Greb) had many NDs on their record. Does this come from fighting exhibition bouts maybe, or is it just promoter sleight-of-hand? Any historians?

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 27 Apr 2003, 01:09

This comes from the era in which decisions were not given, on the silly reason that with no decisions there wouldn't be any gambling, hence no fixes. so, the most acceptable means of deciding who won was what were called "newspaper decisions", meaning that the fighter the sports writers thought won was considered the winner. Sports writers , when they were sober, were considered at least a tad less corrupt than officials. Gamblers often paid off on the newspaper decision, so if a writer was too obviously on the take, he found himself typing his stories with his feet while his arms were healing in their casts.

The only way a champion could lose then was by a knockout. so a guy with a concrete chin or great defensive skills who managed to win a title had an easier time keeping it.

Classic case of it working for a fighter both way. Benny Leonard knocked out the clever Freddie Welsh to win the lightweight title. one of his toughest defenses was against Lew Tendler, in a 12 round fight, which some people...including writers, thought Tendler won... but..it was a no decison. When they fought the second time the no decision rule wasn't in effect and Leonard won by 15 round decision, which he won clearly.

boxen · Post by **boxen** » 27 Apr 2003, 15:29

Thanks Jaclem. I tried to look online for an answer, but didn't know to search for "newspaper decisions".

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 01 May 2003, 18:33

I'm bringing this to the top because this question came up again in my heavyweight trivia quiz.

some fighters at this time had more ND fights than decision ones. Really nuts, when you think about it. In fact it's nuts even if you don't think about it.