Boxing appeal rejected

Press, 27 December 1985, Page 26

Boxing appeal rejected

NZPA-AP New York An appeal that would have reversed Kid Gavilan’s hotly disputed August 29, 1951, welterweight championship victory over Billy Graham has been rejected by the New York State Athletic Commission. Gavilan retained his title in the split decision and for years afterward Graham was called the uncrowned welterweight champion of the world. In a rematch 13 months

later, Gavilan beat Graham again, this time by a wide margin. . Supporters of Graham had urged the commission to consider reversing the 1951 decision after publication of matchmaker Teddy Brenner’s autobiography, “Only The Ring Was Square.” In the book, Brenner recalls a conversation with Irving Cohen, Graham’s comanager, who quotes Arthur Schwartz, a judge for that bout, as saying in a

deathbed confession that the Graham-Gavilan fight was fixed.

According to Jose Torres, chairman of the commission, Schwartz’s son learned of the investigation and volunteered the information that his father could not have made a deathbed confession because he died suddenly, collapsing on a railway platform. He presented an obituary notice and his father’s death certificate as evidence to support that version.