Benny Leonard vs Lew Tendler

Benny Leonard retained the world lightweight championship against Lew Tendler over 12 rounds at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in Jersey City, New Jersey, on the evening of July 27, 1922. Under the law then governing boxing in the state, no official decision could be announced unless the contest ended by knockout or disqualification, and Leonard therefore remained champion when both men were standing at the finish. The broad majority of ringside newspapers awarded him the contest, though several called it a draw and a small number favoured Tendler. Referee Harry Ertle afterwards expressed the view that Leonard had won. Leonard weighed 134 pounds and Tendler 135, the lightweight limit. Estimates of the crowd ranged from more than 60,000 to approximately 70,000, filling the great wooden arena erected the previous year for the heavyweight championship fight between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier. Receipts were reported at about $450,000, from which Leonard was expected to receive approximately $191,250 and Tendler about $90,000.

The match had been delayed for more than a year and was regarded as the outstanding lightweight contest available. Leonard had held the championship since stopping Freddie Welsh in 1917 and had established himself as the leading boxer of his division through victories over Johnny Dundee, Richie Mitchell, Rocky Kansas and other prominent men. Tendler, a left-handed Philadelphian, had pursued him persistently and had built his claim with a strong body attack, an awkward stance and victories over many of the best lightweights and junior welterweights in the country. Their rivalry carried particular interest in New York and Philadelphia, where both men had large followings. Leonard had spoken dismissively of the challenger before the contest and predicted a victory inside seven rounds. Tendler said little publicly but announced that he intended to attack the champion’s body. There was also some uncertainty regarding Leonard’s form. Only a month earlier he had been disqualified against welterweight champion Jack Britton after striking Britton while he was down, and Tendler’s supporters believed the champion had become vulnerable.

Tendler began with greater purpose and immediately presented Leonard with difficulties. Fighting from the southpaw position, he stepped forward behind his right hand and drove the left towards the champion’s body. Leonard, ordinarily quick to determine an opponent’s habits, was slow to settle against the reversed stance. Tendler opened a cut near his right eye in the first round and continued to carry the attack through the early stages. Leonard sought to counter with the right hand but was often made to reach, while Tendler dipped beneath the champion’s jab and struck to the ribs and stomach. The challenger missed several wide blows in the second, but his aggression and body punching kept Leonard occupied. At close quarters the pair exchanged freely, Tendler using short lefts underneath while Leonard attempted to make room for the right uppercut and straight right to the head.

The same pattern continued through the third and fourth rounds. Tendler forced the pace, blocked or slipped much of Leonard’s early work and continued to score with the left hand. Leonard’s timing was not yet exact, and his legs appeared less lively than they had in some earlier championship performances. Blood from the cut around his eye gave the challenger’s work a more conspicuous appearance. Tendler was warned for punches which strayed close to the lower limit of the champion’s body, but he did not abandon the attack. Leonard nevertheless remained composed. He tied Tendler up when the Philadelphian came too close, placed his forearms between them and waited for openings rather than meeting every rush with a prolonged exchange. Tendler held the advantage over the first four rounds in the opinion of many observers, and some reports also gave him the fifth. His punches were not all clean, but he was doing most of the forcing and had prevented Leonard from assuming command.

Leonard began to improve in the fifth and sixth rounds as he judged the distance more accurately. His right hand, the natural weapon against a southpaw, started to reach Tendler’s face and chest. Instead of withdrawing in straight lines, he stepped to his left after punching and made Tendler turn before renewing the attack. Tendler continued to work hard at the body, but Leonard was now catching many of the blows on his arms and elbows. The champion also shortened his punches in the exchanges, landing the right uppercut and a quick left hook before moving away. Tendler remained dangerous and still advanced, but the early difference between them had narrowed. Leonard’s greater speed was becoming evident, while the challenger was obliged to expend considerable effort to close the distance.

By the seventh round Leonard had largely recovered the ground lost at the beginning. He boxed with more freedom, jabbed while circling and met Tendler’s entries with straight rights. The challenger’s face began to show the effects of these counters, though he continued to press and was still landing hard blows to the body. Leonard had not fulfilled his prediction of an early stoppage, and Tendler’s stubbornness had made the fight far more difficult than the champion had anticipated. The eighth produced the contest’s critical passage. Tendler drove a heavy left to Leonard’s head and followed with another to the body. Leonard was badly shaken, his knees giving beneath him as he fell forward and clung to the challenger. For a moment Tendler appeared close to the knockout he required to take the championship.

Leonard survived through presence of mind as much as physical recovery. While holding Tendler, he spoke to him, and the challenger hesitated instead of immediately tearing his hands free and continuing the attack. Later accounts offered different versions of the conversation, some claiming that Leonard asked Tendler why he had not struck sooner and others that he attempted to convince him the damaging blow had landed low. Whatever was said, the exchange occupied valuable seconds. Leonard remained in close, smothered Tendler’s punches and reached the bell without going down. Tendler’s failure to complete the attack was the chief lost opportunity of the fight. The champion returned to his corner hurt but with the immediate danger passed.

Leonard emerged for the ninth restored sufficiently to resume boxing. He kept Tendler at the end of the jab, landed the straight right and moved away before the challenger could set his feet for the left. Tendler still pursued him, but the force and accuracy of his body attack had diminished. The effort of the first eight rounds had begun to tell, while Leonard, now fully accustomed to the southpaw stance, was choosing the ground upon which the exchanges took place. The tenth was marked by sharper infighting. Tendler tried to regain the initiative by crowding the champion against the ropes, but Leonard met him with compact punches and turned away from pressure. The challenger continued to fight stoutly, yet he was now more frequently being struck on the way in and was unable to sustain the attacks which had troubled Leonard earlier.

Leonard strengthened his position in the 11th. He moved quickly around Tendler, scoring to the head with the right and occasionally stopping to drive both hands into the body. Tendler had no intention of conceding and kept advancing, but his punches had become slower and more easily read. The final round was fought vigorously, with Tendler seeking the knockout which alone could officially give him the title and Leonard determined to remove any doubt from the newspaper verdict. They exchanged at close range, Tendler attacking the body and Leonard countering to the head. Leonard finished the stronger, landing the cleaner punches and avoiding the challenger’s final rushes until the bell completed the 12 rounds.

No scorecards were collected, and no official verdict was announced. Newspaper opinion, however, generally held that Leonard’s work over the latter half had narrowly overcome Tendler’s early lead. Some reports divided the contest at five rounds for Leonard, four for Tendler and three even, while others gave the champion a wider margin. James J. Corbett and the Philadelphia Bulletin were among those who favoured Tendler, and several prominent writers called the fight level. The Ring later described Leonard as having won by only a shade. The result was therefore less conclusive than an ordinary points decision, but Tendler had not produced the knockout required under the conditions of the contest. Leonard’s recovery in the eighth, followed by his command of the closing rounds, preserved his championship. The unresolved arguments led naturally to a second championship meeting at Yankee Stadium the following year, when Leonard won a clear official decision over 15 rounds.