American Boxing Association

[Cmoyle]

"December 19, 1916 Billy Miske vs. Jack Dillon, Broadway A.C., Brooklyn, NY D NWS 10
Boxrec comment: Shortly after this bout the American Boxing Association met in Cleveland and awarded the Light Heavyweight Title to Dillon. Newspaper reports vary as to the winner, but the New York Evening Telegram favored Miske."

By any chance does anyone know the circumstances surrounding this organization awarding the light heavyweight crown to Jack Dillon? It seems very odd to me given the fact that Battling Levinsky defeated Dillon in a contest dated October 24th in which the lightweight title transferred to Levinsky according to Boxrec, and that Miske won a newspaper decision over Levinsky on that October 30th. Then Miske wins a newspaper decision over Dillon on December 19th and this organization awards Dillon the light heavyweight crown shortly thereafter?

I'm also wondering about the American Boxing Association. Does anybody know much about that organization, i.e., when it was formed, etc. I couldn't find anything about them when I did a very quick search on Google.

[Sam Dixon]

I'm also wondering about the American Boxing Association. Does anybody know much about that organization, i.e., when it was formed, etc. I couldn't find anything about them when I did a very quick search on Google.

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That article claims it was formed in Aug of 1915, Clay, but I have found that the Amercian Boxing Association was being refered to at least a dozen years earlier than that. Whether this is the same organization or a different one that just happens to have the same name, I do not know;


"At a meeting of the American Boxing Association to be held in New York Jan. 24, a new code of boxing rules to cover the arrangement and conduct of all matches, will be submitted to the delegates for consideration, after the temporary organization is made permanent.

It is the purpose of the organizers of the association to establish a board of control along lines similiar to those of the National Cycling Association and to establish authority over all branches of the pugilistic game in the United States and Canada.

The constitution which is to be adopted, together with the new boxing rules, prescribes conditions of membership, duties of officers, dues, sanctioning of bouts, penalties for violation of rules and a board of governors to pass upon all disputes.

In the new code of rules several radical changes are to be found. It is provided that if a contestant goes down with the palpable intention of inducing an opponent to commit a foul, he shall be disqualified.

The most important change contemplated is found in the new schedule of weights for the various pugilistic classes. According to the old standards the lines of the classes at present stand: Bantam, 112; feather, 122; lightweight, 133; welter, 142; middleweight, 154; and heavyweight, no limit.

The new rules recommend a further subdivision of the heavyweight class, an increase in the weights of all classes and the introduction of a 105-pound class as follows: 105, 115, 125, 135, 145, 155, 165 and the heavyweight, no limit.

In later years few battles have been fought at the prescribed limits of weight, the contestants in nearly all cases having been a few pounds over the high mark.

In the lightweight class battles at the legitimate limit have been more numerous than in any other division."

- St Paul Globe, Jan 20th, 1902


I haven't yet found anything that came out in direct regards to that meeting from Jan 24th, but there were a few instances in the immediate years after (well before 1915) where the organization was briefly brought up and alluded to in the press as having already being "formed" and whatnot. Again, though, I can't be sure if, besides the name, it's the same one that the NY Times refered to as being formed in 1915.

[Cmoyle]

Thanks Sam