Knockdowns Didn't Defeat Boxer

When I was only a 12-year-old in 1924, I knew Jack Dempsey was the world's heavyweight boxing champion, Harry Greb was top man in the light heavyweight division and Benny Leonard was king of the lightweights.

In the years that followed, many division titleholders, heavyweight Joe Louis, middleweight kingpin Rocky Graziano and flyweight titleholder Willie Pep were among the many names familiar to me. These days, however, I'm not familiar with the name of a single boxer - champion or otherwise.

The sport has lost the appeal it once enjoyed. When I became a sportswriter in 1930, local fight clubs presenting weekly 40-round boxing programs thrived in metropolitan New York and, for that matter, in most large American cities. This is no longer true.

In the New York city area, fight clubs offering a boxing card usually could be found every night except Sundays. I reported on many to our sports department in Manhattan with the aid of a telegrapher, tapping away on his "bug" ringside.

Making up the list of fight clubs were St. Nicholas Arena, Manhattan; Broadway Arena, Fort Hamilton; Golden City Arena, Brooklyn; Queensboro Arena and Ridgewood Grove in Queens; and Mitchel Field and Long Beach Arena in Nassau County. Crowds would average 2,000.

A boxing card usually would be composed of 40 rounds, with a 10-rounder as the main event. Some clubs would present a local favorite in the featured bout. Joe Gans would often be in the main event at Golden City while middleweight Ben Jeby, from neighboring Brownsville, would be featured at the Broadway Arena.

Ridgewood Grove also was the scene of pro wrestling matches every Saturday night. The integrity of these contests was highly suspect. The villain - the grappler who dominated the match and thrived on illegal strangle holds - always seemed to lose.

The biggest surprise I experienced was in boxing in August of 1981. The principals of the featured contest - staged in the suburban New York community of Tarrytown - were unbeaten Renaldo Snipes from White Plains and Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa. The undefeated Snipes had won his 22 previous bouts.

I had visited Snipes three days earlier at his White Plains apartment. He was full of vigor. He had just returned from a long bicycle workout on local highways and seemed in top condition. His aim, he said, was to rate a match with Larry Holmes, the world heavyweight champion.

Judging from his subsequent 10-round outing against Coetzee, Snipes was not ready for a title match. He nevertheless was declared the winner on points in the bout with his South African opponent. But it was a highly unpopular decision. I was amazed.

The 25-year-old Coetzee, displaying considerably more poise than Snipes, floored his rival twice. The latter was sent to the canvas in the first and fourth rounds for the mandatory counts of eight. The first knockdown followed a hard left to the head, the second, from a stiff right to the jaw. The knockdowns were the only ones for Snipes in his career.

In no round, it was generally agreed, had the victor dominated his opponent. But only one of the three officials voted for the South African.

"This is the most disgraceful decision I ever saw," said Hal Tuck, Coetzee's manager. "I just saw my boxer win that fight by a clear margin."

"All I want now is to meet world champion Larry Holmes in a bout for the title," a happy Snipes said later in his dressing room. "That's my wish."

He got it.

He met Holmes three months later in a championship bout in Pittsburgh.

Snipes proved no match for the titleholder. The fight ended in a technical knockout with Holmes the victor in the 11th round.