[JCWeb]

Titles and Title Bouts

WBA: Tommy Loughran extended his five-year reign with five more successful title defenses, to bring the total thus far to 17. His 1930 victims were: Jack “Bright Eyes” Delaney (TKO 14), Roleaux Saguero (TKO 7), Gypsy Daniels (TKO 7), Maxie Rosenbloom (UD 15) and Len Harvey (UD 15).

NABF: This belt changed hands twice during the year as Jack Delaney took the belt from the Cuban, Roleaux Saguero (TKO 3) but then, in a surprise, USBA Champ Lou Scozza dethroned Delaney (TKO 5).

USBA: Lou Scozza successfully challenged Young Firpo to take this belt (TKO 11) and defended twice, winning both bouts – versus Battling Slim Ryan (KO 8) and Lou Bogash (TKO 5) – inside the defense. Then, Scozza stepped up to claim the NABF title. Thus, this title is vacant heading into 1931.

CBU: Brit Len Harvey continued his long-standing reign (going back to 1924) with his eighth successful defense, taking the measure of Canada’s Charley Belanger (UD 12).

GBU: Gypsy Daniels, who took the title in 1927, finally defended in 1930 – twice. His victims were Tom Berry (TKO 12) and Charlie Tonner (TKO 2).

EBU: Harvey continued to retain this title, although he made no defenses in 1930.

OPBF: Lack of credible LH contenders in this part of the world means this belt remains dormant.

LH Division Profile

Total: 131 RL: 85 TC: 46

RL by Career Stage:
End - 7
Post - 15
Prime - 38
Pre - 18
Beginning - 7 (4 New)

Rated: 61
800+: 17
500+: 29
200+ : 48

Jan 1931 Rankings (Perf Points and Changes from Jan. 1930 in Parens):

Champ: Tommy Loughran 43-4-2 (17) (1836) (NC)
1. Lou Scozza 28-2 (21) (1290) (+8) (NABF Champ)
2. Jack Delaney 37-8-2 (23) (1184) (NC)
3. Len Harvey 35-6-2 (14) (1155) (-2) (CBU, EBU Champ)
4. Roleaux Saguero 29-12-2 (27) (976) (NC)
5. Maxie Rosenbloom 24-6-4 (10) (969) (NC)
6. Young Firpo 19-5-3 (14) (951) (-3)
7. Paul Berlenbach 24-7 (18) (941) (+3)
8. Ad Stone 33-6 (21) (939) (-1)
9. Harry Greb 51-16-4 (27) (913) (-3)
10. Jimmy Slattery 29-10-1 (11) (880) (+3)

Others: 37. Gypsy Daniels 28-16-2 (18) 375) (+6) (GBU Champ)

Top Ten: Everyone at Prime except Saguero and Stone (both at Post) and the evergreen Greb (at End). Loughran has now won 12 in a row, and he has remained unbeaten since 1925. Scozza won all six of his 1930 encounters to move up to the #1 contender spot, including a UD 10 over #2 Len Harvey. Jack “Bright Eyes” Delaney ends up as #2 despite winning only two of four of his 1930 bouts. Harvey impressed in a UD 10 win over Rosenbloom, but since then he has lost his last two. Saguero had an 11-bout unbeaten streak snapped, and – despite losing his only two bouts during the year – remains at #4. Rosenbloom made no progress, going 2-3 for the year, his best win a UD 10 over Young Firpo. Firpo slid down the rankings; he has not won a bout since early 1929. Berlenbach re-established his credentials with a KO of Lou Bogash and a UD over Stone, but a UD 10 loss to Slattery reminded observers of his inconsistency against the top contenders. Stone had a KO win over Mike McTigue but fell short against Berlenbach. Greb continued to hang on, holding Firpo to a draw and taking a SD from Young Tony Marullo despite being at the tail-end of his career. Slattery bounced back with two wins to regain his top 10 status.

Other Notables: Only one change in the top 10, and this time it was Young Tony Marullo falling all the way from #10 to #17 after suffering consecutive defeats to Greb and Eddie McGovern. George Manley has gradually moved up the list, winning four of his last five to end the year at #12. The hot property in this division is unbeaten Tiger Jack Fox, now 18-0 (14), ranked #14 in his first time on the list. Other newcomers are Joe Knight, who debuts at #21, sporting a 15-1-1 (9) mark, and Battling Bozo, who has emerged at #26 with a perfect 15-0 (8) career start. Another LH to be watched closely is Fred Lenhart, who has won all his bouts the past two years to move to #17 after compiling a 17-2 (12) record. Bob Olin, who suffered his only two career defeats at the hands of Knight, is a bit further down the list, at #31 after getting off to a 12-2-1 (7) career start. Belgian Gustave Roth is an impressive 21-1-1 (10) but is only ranked #36 because of an early setback (loss to a TC) that hurt his PP total. GBU Champ Gypsy Daniels moved up with a UD 10 over Pat McCarthy but is looking for more higher-rated opponents to provide an opportunity to move up even further.

Prospects: Many of the prospects with at least 10 bouts under their belts in this division have suffered losses – Bob Godwin (11-3, 5) has lost to Knight, Tiger Jack Fox and Bozo; Danny Devlin (11-1, 10) lost to Tony Shucco; Shucco (11-1, 7) suffered a DQ loss to a TC opponent; German Adolf Heuser (10-1, 6) was actually knocked out by a TC; Billy Jones (10-1, 10) was a Devlin TKO victim. Bucking this trend was Dave Maier, who feasted on TC opposition and then impressed in a KO 7 win over fellow prospect Ray Tramblie, to end the year at 10-0 (9). Al Stillman ends the year at 9-0-1 (8); off to good starts are Marty Simmons (6-0, 3 KO), Billy Papke Jr. (5-0, 4KO), Norman Conrad (4-0, 3 KO) and Al Gainer (3-0, 2 KO).

Retirements:

“Duluth” Jimmy Delaney (USA) 1919-30 29-16-1 (18) No Titles Highest Rank: 8
Frank Farmer (USA) 1911-30 35-32-4 (20) NABF, USBA Champ Highest Rank: 5
Jeff Smith (USA) 1910-30 47-25-6 (19) No Titles Highest Rank: 2 (also at MW)
Tom Berry (UK) 1918-30 22-21-2 (9) EBU, GBU Champ Highest Rank: 20
Sergeant Jack Lynch (USA) 1920-30 21-21-1 (17) GBU Champ Highest Rank: 37

Looking Ahead: Loughran’s dominance of the division has him being talked about as a future HW contender (moving up to challenge for the HW title while long-time MW king Mickey Walker would move up to LH) – something that happened in real life. Not much in the way of credible WBA title contenders at this point, although top prospect Tiger Jack Fox is set to challenge for a top 10 spot in 1931. Belgian Gustave Roth, despite his low ranking, seems likely to emerge as a a challenger for Harvey’s EBU title. One of the interesting aspects of this division is the relative paucity of serious contenders outside of the US; only four of the top 35 ranked fighters are non-US based fighters. Only four newcomers slated to debut in 1931 but one of these – John Henry Lewis – should be a really good one.