The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-01
N. B.A.T TO CHANGE
ITS TITLE RULES
Seeks To Prevent Repetition
Of Arbitrarily Taking
Crowns From Champs
By SID FEEDER

By SID FEEDER
NEW YORK, March 81 Up -
Not that there's any particular IN
tent to lock the door after the horse
has gone for a walk, but the Ma
tional Boxing association is planning
to change it's rules to prevent a
repetition of the recent silly bust
ness of arbitrarily taking titles from
champions.
Certain members Of the N. B. A.
realize the organization 10 o e d
slightly less than brilliant in knock
ing the lightweight crown off Lou
Ambers' capable brow and separat'
ing Joey Archibald from his feather
weight title.
AS a result, it was learned today
from a source in the MIA itself,
these fistic fathers are going to poll
their e b er commissioners
throughout the country to make the
rule concerning title defenses more
elastic"
Eventually, it is expected, the
change will lead to a plan by which
Ambers may regain the 135-pound
championship, despite the MIA
designated title bout between Davey
Day and Sammy Angott in Louis
vile on Derby eve. 1t may also de-
velop a series of bouts ending up
in a tussle between Petey Scalzo,
who received the associations bless
ing as featherweight boss, a n d
Archibald.
$50 the MIA is going to put some
elastic in its rules" said AL WE'LL,
manager of both Ambers and Archi-
bald. We'll, when they get the
elastic in there, they ought to use
it for garters to hold up their socks.
They certainly looked like they need
ed it the way they've been on the
merry.go-round lately"
The rule in force now holds that
the organization has the power to
make a champion defend his crown
against a specific challenger, or, in
the event it does not name a parti-
cular candidate, the titleholder may
take any one of the top three on the
MIA ranking list in his division. The
proposed rule change would elm
mate the first half of this picture,
with the MIA leaving it up to the
titleholder to pick one of the top
three men.
Had this been the case recently,
the current daffy lightweight set-up
would not exist. Ambers signed re.
Gently to take on Lew Jenkins of
Sweetwater, Tex, in May in defense
of his title. Jenkins, ranked by the
MIA now, was just another guy
named Joe" at the time of the sign
ing, although he had won nine
straight fights in New York and had
knocked out more than half his
rivals. AS a result, the MIA order.
ed Ambers to meet Day, off his vic.
tory over Angott some months ago.
When Ambers took Jenkins instead,
the MIA took his title.
AS plans now stand, If Ambers
get by Jenkins, the MIA may try to
get the Day-Angott winner to waive
his title claim and take on Lou
later.
The featherweight fuss is just as
bad, although Archibald doesn't hold
the same high esteem in his divi
sion. He took a close decision over
Harry Jeffra last fall in Washing.
ton-the MAS very back yard
Some MIA officials howled that the
verdict was unfair to Jeffra and or
dered Archibald to give the Balti
more fighter a return match. Well
signed for that one only last week,
but in the meantime, the MIA once
more went into its shift. Out Of this
one came the designation of Scalzc
as the man the titleholder should
meet. So the MIA took Archibald's
title away.
Now, in trying to straighten this
one out, it is reported the NBA al
ready has had scalzo sign contracts
to meet Jimmy Perrin of New Or
leans in his first defense, and the
Archibald-Jeffra winner in his
second.