New-York tribune., 1921-09-16
Wilso11-Downey
Purse Held Up
By Ring Court
Jersey Boxing Commission
Holds Title Fight Was No
Contest; Wilson Testities
By lack Lawrence r

New Jerseys high court CT boxing
declared yesterday tha: seFnny Will
son, middleweight champion of the
world, was guilty Of not doing his best
In his bout with Bryan Downey at
Boyle's Thirty Acres on Labor Day
and ordered that his end Of the purse,
amounting to s35, ,0oo. be placed in q
bank pending the handing down Of the
decision Of the Boxing Commission as
t. the punishment to be inflicted. This
decision is expected to be announced
next Thursday.
Wilson was represented by q lawyer
at yesterdays hearing and it is GER
tain that the matter will be taken into
the state courts. The champion was
given an opportunity to .estify and he
declarded That he fought Downey to the
by Charles Eagan. former state Sem
ator, who informed the boxing COM
missioners that he was not familiar
with the offenss with which Wilson
was charged Eagan was quickly ac-
quMnted with these facts by Charles
McNair, chairman Of the commission,
who is conducting the prosecution
McNair charged that Wilson was guilty
Of not giving q boxing exhibition, as
called for in the contract he had signed
with Rickard.
Wilson Claims He Fought Hard
Wilson, in his statement yesterday,
said: II fought the best knew how.
I was struck on the jaw in the first
round, and for the following five rounds
did not know WHARF was. Downey
hit me log once or twice.
Il was aggressive all the way, but the
Arsh Ahn
fought with Downey in Cleveland. In
that fight he kept coming at me. In
our Jersey City encounter he kept COW
cred up and crouched SO much that it
was almost impossible for nae to hit
him. | lived up to the terms of my
contract with Mr.. Rickard and nobody
protested during the tight. Only one
man spoke to me during the fight and
that was my chief second
When Wilson was asked by a member
Of the commission whether he really
thought he was the aggressor through
out the bout, the champion replied that
he did. When ne was asked how many
times he led, he said he thought he
was leading all the time. Testimony
taken at the FIRST hearing Of the Will
son matter, which was held one week
ago, indicated that the Boston middle
weight led only eleven times. When
this was pointed out to him yesterday
ne said: "There were times during the
Labor Day bout when | was on the de-
fansive, but for the most part I was
the aggressor."
Wilson denied that any of the sec
onds who were handling him during
the bout had advised him to take things
easy. Harry Kelly, who was the chief
second in Wilson's corner, denied en-
phatically that either he or Harry My
ers, who handled the towel, had urged
the champion to fight defensive bat
tie. Kelly testified that he advised
Wilson to use tactics which would bring
Downney out Of his erouching posi-
tion and enable him to land blow
that might finish the fight. Kelly's
statements were corroborated BY Myers.
Champ Not Advised To Stall
At the first hearing it had been
that Kally and Myers told tho cham
pion during the fifth and tenth rounds
to ''go easy and keep on the defen~
sive, because the bacon is still ours"
Neither of the seconds cou.d remem-
Der yesterday having made any re-
marks that were even similar to those
quoted one week ago by members of
the Boxing Commission who were at
the ringside,
James A. Brennan and Thomas H.
defense as veteran boxing experts"
stated that in their opinion the middle
weight king put up sincere fight"
They said that they had seen Wilson
fight on other occasions, and that his
showing on labor Day compared very
favorably with these previous encoun-
ters