Henry Arrested on Fight Fix Charge: Bare 5,000 Bid to Bobby Jones, Daily Racing Form, 1954-06-05

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Henry Arrested on Fight Fix Charge Bare 5,000 Bid To Bobby Jones Coast Middleweight Asked To Throw Next Fridays Bout With Joey Giardello NEW YORK, N. Y., June 4 UP. The District Attorneys office announced today that heavyweight Clarence Henry of Philadelphia had been arrested on a charge of offering 5,000 to middleweight Bobby Jones of Oakland, Calif, to "throw" next Friday nights fight with Joey Giardello at Madison Square Garden. Henry is a well-known fighter who formerly campaigned out of Los Angeles. His arrest today grew out of disclosures made Wednesday to the New York State Athletic Commission and the District Attorneys office by Jones, that two men had attempted earlier in the week to bribe him to lose the fight to Giardello. Robert K. Christenberry, chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, first reported the bribe attempt, today. Two Make Separate Visits Christenberry made the announcement at todays weekly meeting of the commission. He said he had been informed of the attempted offer by two different men who called on Jones at the Plymouth Hotel early this week. The two men, who made separate visits to the fighter, were complete strangers, Jones told the chairman. The chairman said that Jones and his eastern representative, Bobby Melnick, came to the commission Wednesday seeking Dan Dowd, executive secretary of the commission. They were acquainted with Dowd because of contractual and weigh-in business. Dowd was out of the office on commission business at the time. Accordingly, Jones and Melnick went to International Boxing Club headquarters in Madison Square Garden where they told managing director Harry Markson what had occurred. Markson immediately phoned Christenberry, Jones, Melnick and Markson then went to Christenberrys office and unfolded the story. "The matter was of such importance that I immediately referred it to the District Attorney," Christenberry added. . Melnick brought Jones to the commission office Wednesday as soon as he heard the fighters story because of the rule on the commission books, which provides that a fighter must immediately report any bribe offer directly to the commission. Failure to make such a direct report caused Rocky Graziano to have his license revoked in 1947, before he won the world middleweight crown. In that same year the then welterweight champion, Sugar Ray Robinson received a suspension for delaying a report to the commission.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1954060501/drf1954060501_2_3
Local Identifier: drf1954060501_2_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800