THE BOBCAT
the first of six consecutive victories, a winning streak that led the Bobcat to a bout with Beau Jack, the New York State Athletic Commission lightweight champ. The super-popular Jack had won the vacant title with a third-round knockout of Tippy Larkin. Despite other fighters’ claims to the title, the NYSAC champs were usually considered the legitimate world champions. That’s how much power Madison Square Garden wielded. T here was a capacity crowd of 18,343 at the Garden the night of May 21, 1943, to watch a pair of future Hall of Famers do their thing. Jack was a 13-5 betting favorite and got off to a good start. “Jack, from the first second, sailed into his opponent and flailed away with a right uppercut that Montgomery couldn’t evade,” wrote Joseph C. Nichols in The New York Times. “Bob got down on the back foot and threw a right hand. Bang! Beau shook like a leaf,” said Gramby. “That was the turning point of the fight. It was one of the best rounds I’ve ever seen.” By time the match was over, Nichols changed his mind, writing, “Before announcer Harry Balogh was able to inform the crowd of the outcome, everybody in the house, particularly Montgomery, knew the lightweight division had a new champion.” The Bobcat didn’t complain about his purse of $14,033, which today would be approximately $296,953. Goodness knows how it was carved up. “I’ll never forget that night,” said Montgomery. “It was the greatest feeling I ever had. They had a party for me afterwards, but I couldn’t make it. Both of my eyes were swollen closed. I took me a hot bath with some Epsom salts and went to bed.” Two days after winning the 135-pound title, Bob went back to work at the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, where he was a blacksmith’s helper. World War II was raging, and every able-bodied man had to join the armed forces or work at a defense-
Beau Jack fight, November 19, 1943. According to the Associated Press, “Beau regained the 135-pound title by outpointing Bob Montgomery in a furious 15-rounder at Madison Square Garden … Montgomery put on a whirlwind finish in the last five rounds. In the last two rounds, especially, Montgomery seemed to be on the verge of a knockout triumph, but somehow Beau stood up to cart off a unanimous decision.” “I didn’t feel too bad when I lost,” said Bob. “I was young and had a return contract to fight him again. I knew I would win it back.” T renton, New Jersey, prospect Ike Williams (a future Hall of Famer) was inconsistent at first, but starting with a six- round decision over Vince Delia on November 3, 1941, he put together a 34-fight unbeaten streak. One of his victims was Montgomery’s friend Johnny Hutchinson, the neighbor who persuaded Bob to become a boxer. Hutchinson’s best days were past, and Williams gave him a spiteful beatdown on November 8, 1943, at the Philadelphia Arena. Hutchinson was knocked down three times in the first round and once more in the second by a punch to the heart that knocked him out. Bob was pissed about the beating Williams gave Hutchinson and vowed to give Ike an even worse thrashing when they met on January 25, 1944, at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall. The grudge match attracted 14,602 paying customers, which must have warmed the cockles of Herman Taylor’s heart. The Bobcat dominated virtually every round, unrelentingly attacking Williams’ body, taking his legs and siphoning his gas tank. It was Montgomery at his barbaric best. “Fans were screaming ‘Stop the fight … Stop it … He’ll kill him,’” wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer’s John Webster. “Some said Montgomery was washed up,
had lost his punch, but he didn’t show it as he prepared the coup de grace . He never looked better as a finisher as he did in liquidating the lurching Ike. “Virtually defenseless, Williams was struck by a long right to the jaw. He pitched forward, as points of his body raced for the floor, and his head easily arrived first to dangle over the ring apron, his long, thin body bringing the lowest ring rope down to the canvas.” All told, Bob knocked Williams down three times in the 12th and final round. After Ike’s third trip to the canvas, referee Ernie Sesto counted him out at the 2:49 mark. Just like in a corny B-movie, after the fight was over, Bob hollered, “I got him for you, Hutch.” Less than a month later, it was Montgomery’s turn to get knocked out. Cold. Brooklyn’s Al “Bummy” Davis unleashed his heavy artillery in the first round, knocked Montgomery down and stopped him in 63 seconds. At the time, it was the fastest knockout in a main event since MSG opened in 1925. “I just got hit,” said Montgomery. “But I shouldn’t have fought the guy in the first case. Of course, it wasn’t me who took the fight; it was the people around me.” Fortunately, the loss didn’t interfere with Bob’s upcoming rematch with Jack. Back then, fans were more concerned about the quality of the fights, not records. A good fight was a good fight, and Jack and the Bobcat could not have a bad fight if they tried. Just two weeks
after his loss to “Bummy” Davis, the Bobcat was back in the ring for his third match with Jack. Despite Montgomery’s instantaneous knockout loss to Davis, 19,066 fans turned up at Madison Square Garden, the venue’s largest indoor crowd of the season. The rubber match was another thriller, a rip-snorting, give-and-take rumble. Montgomery built an early lead, and Jack frantically rallied in rounds 10, 11 and 12. Then Bobcat came back in the final two rounds, landing fierce blows to the body. “To most observers, there was no question about Montgomery’s triumph,” wrote Joseph C. Nichols in The New York Times. “Yet when announcer George Kobb declared judge Marty Monroe had voted for Jack, 8 rounds to 7, that resulted in hoots of disagreement with Monroe’s card. The crowd became still when informed that judge Billy Healy had decided in Montgomery’s favor, 8 to 6 with one round even, and when referee Young Otto’s ballot read the same as Healy’s was made public, the house roared with approval.” T he United States entered World War II on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Shortly after regaining the lightweight title from Jack, Montgomery entered the U.S. Army and was stationed at Kiester Field in Mississippi. “Kiester Field was all right, but if you wanted to go to town, you had to
related job. When asked if he did any hard work at the shipyard, Bob replied, “We’ll just leave that alone,” and chuckled. Montgomery was contractually obligated to give Jack a rematch, but as was the custom in those days, champions usually fought non-title bouts between defending the belt. The first of Bob’s four non-title paydays was an easy sixth-round knockout of Al Reasoner at Pelican Stadium in New Orleans, July 4, 1943. The Big Easy, however, did not provide anything in the way of southern hospitality.
“At that time, in New Orleans, blacks were only allowed to fight blacks,” said Montgomery. “My manager, Frankie Thomas, stayed somewhere over in the white section. I only saw Frankie at the gym. I had to stay at the Northside, a black hotel. It wasn’t a hotel really. It was just a place to sleep. But I didn’t let it bother me. You had no choice. You had to accept it.” The other three non-title bouts were unanimous decisions over Frankie Willis and Fritzie Zivic and a sixth-round TKO of Petey Scalzo, October 25, 1943, less than a month before the second
go to Biloxi,” said Montgomery. “Everything was segregated. Everything. Bars. Hotels. You couldn’t hardly go to a grocery store unless you went to a black grocery store. I only went to town once the whole time I was there. You didn’t even have a place you could go to the bathroom. You had to go out in the backyard.” Back in New York City, promoter Mike Jacobs had a brainstorm. To raise money for the war effort, he would match Montgomery and Jack in a fourth
“They had a party for me afterwards, but I couldn’t make it. Both of my eyes were swollen closed.”
76 RINGMAGAZINE.COM
RINGMAGAZINE.COM 77
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker