Emile Pladner vs. Willie Davies

Believed to be from The Globe newspaper (Toronto)

Emile Pladner 118 lbs beat Willie Davies 118 lbs by SD in round 10 of 10

• Date: 1932-06-13
• Location: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Part of a bantamweight elimination tournament to find a challenger for Panama Al Brown. Toronto Daily Star
• PDF scan of a page from Pete Sanstol's surviving scrapbooks (2009), regarding this bout.

---

"Superior punching ability, backed by an air-tight defense," gave Pladner the unanimous decision. New York Times. However, the Toronto Daily Star reported a split decision, as noted below.

It was a full night of boxing before a sparse crowd. Lou Marsh, Sports Editor of The Star, in his column entitled "With Pick and Shovel," included the following items:

Fight promoters in this town have been wondering just what it will take to bring the fans out in paying numbers. [BoxRec Note: Recall that the Great Depression was in full swing at this time.] And after last night's superb card they are still more befogged than ever.

Last night's card could not be excelled for all-round action and thrills -- and class, too. Yet it did not draw. Only 2,000 turned out.

That 2,000 spent the night in cheering -- just one jeer because Mike Barrett did not last longer against Frenchy Belanger -- and went home delighted. But the question is, will the next one draw any more to the box office.

They were shown four of the smartest bantams in the world -- in Emile "Spider" Pladner, probably the next world's champion -- in two sparkling fights. The card should have drawn at least 5,000 or 6,000, and in the old days would have drawn 9,000 or 10,000.

What is the answer? My guess is that the fans soured when they were handed big, slow, heavyweights after a diet of smart, fast, lighter men -- and disgusted when top-notchers were brought here to show against clowns and sparring partners. They did not want to see celebrities shadow boxing or boxing tankers. What they wanted was fierce, hard contests.

---

The referees were Alex Sinclair for the first three bouts, and Lou. E. Marsh (the sports editor?) for the last two. Judges for all bouts were Fred Nobert, Elwood Hughes, and William Armstrong.

Here is an excerpt from Mr. Marsh's article about the Davies-Pladner bout (the Pete Sanstol-Jimmy Thomas bout description can be found here):

Last night's fight show was a show of sinkers and of shiners. The attendance was a "shine" -- and the promoters finished in the sink -- or pink -- or red.

And most of the boxers emerged with shiners -- and a couple of those who didn't emerge with shiners finished with sinkers -- and so there you are, if you follow me....

For once a main bout was the standout of the card. This card had two "main" bouts. Both were good, but one was too good. In fact, it was so full of sizzling action that it made the other bout -- really a very clever and interesting affair -- look like a game of paty-pat in a creche.

The standout of the night's show was the battle between Wee Willie Davies, Welsh-born lad from Charleroi, Pa., now grown to a high-class bantam, and Emile Pladner of France, the European bantam champion. They call Pladner "The Spider." If Pladner is a spider, according to French standards, then I would like to see what they call a hornet in action. He can certainly sting hard, fast, and often.

Pladner won the fight by a strong finish, but Wee Willie made him battle every inch of the ten round route, and one judge considered it so close at the finish that he voted for him. The others were, of course, for Pladner.

Personally, I could not see any reason for any split in the decision, but just the same, I can appreciate the argument of the dissenting judge. This one judge gave his vote to Davis [sic] because of his superb jabbing, ducking, sparkling defensive work, and strategy. It was a treat.

On His Heels

Willie had to be a strategist or he would have been finished on the floor. Not once but four times during the show this French wildcat smacked him with lusty rights to the jaw and had him walking on his heels, but he could not get inside Davies' superb defence to finish his job via the arithmetical route.

Just at the end of the fourth, Pladner clipped Davis [sic] the first one of those hefty rights. That punch had the curtains draped all over it. Davis rocked back on his heels and one more would have flattened him, but the bell rang before Pladner could unlimber. Davis weaved wearily to his corner and it looked as if the next round might end it....

Willie Davies punched harder last night than he ever punched before in a Toronto ring -- in fact he fought the best fight of his career here -- but the French lad out-punched him and in the last three rounds was so distinctly on top that any other verdict but the one rendered would have been the well-known "robbery."

The fact is that Pladner punched the harder all the way through the piece and showed himself to be one of the best bantams that ever showed here. He should win the elimination tournament of which last night's two ten-rounders were preliminaries and give the clever colored champion, Panama Al Brown, plenty of grief when they meet for the title....