Arena Champions

Now, I have a question. We have at least three men who reportedly held the Arena Belts and were DM British Champions.

McManus - welterweight and Dale and Fields - middleweights.

Is there any credible evidences that there were other DM British champs.

And by saying others I specifically mean champions of some other weight divisions, lightweights let's say or heavyweights.

And since Dale himself was their champ...I assume the very first champ of the DM pro wrestling company, my question is the early DM how big and influential it was in the South, are we talking late 1940s?

Thank you. WHAT A THREAD AND WHAT A BELT!

Yes please Ost, that would be interesting to see.

Not missing any point Ruslan:

• The magazine recognised Jack Dale as British Middleweight champion, then mentioned title switch to Harry Fields.

• Harry Fields was then said to have been awarded the Arena belt as well as being recognised as the British middleweight champion.

• We haven't found images of Jack Dale with a belt.

• We haven't found images of Harry Fields with an Arena belt.

• Arena was a magazine published by Dale Martin promotions.

As mentioned I don't know how many times before. Dale Martin could not have Joint Promotion champions in 1952 because they were not in Joint Promotions. I've said enough on this subject.

Thank you for making this post. Though, my friend, you are clearly missing the point. These two are NOT related anyhow. One thing is ARENA BELT HOLDER and another thing is BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP RECOGNITION BY DALE MARTIN. Enjoy the prove of the above said.

HARRY FIELDS the holder of the Arena Belt.

HARRY FIELDS - British Champion Wrestler recognized by DM.

Thats really interesting Ost. So just three champions over a two year period. More of a DM proportional tool that would no longer be needed after they joined Joint Promotions.

Some photos.

This is what I can write about Arena:

• It followed on from Combat magazine, a mixture of wrestling, boxing and physical content, Charles Mascall was editor

• Unlike Combat, Arena was published directly at 313 Brixton Road i.e. Dale Martin promotions print shop

• The back page ad was reserved for Dale Martin advertising. Similar to how MAT magazine reserved the back page for Norman Morrell promotion advertising

• There were at least 9 issues. I don't have them all but issue 9 is the latest I have. In total I have six but am missing at least the other 3 known issues.

• In Issue 3 they mention that they would present 3 champions with Arena Gold Belts. There were no pictures or physical descriptions of these belts.

• The three weight classes they recognised were light heavyweight, middleweight (Jack Dale), and welterweight (Mick McManus, having defeated Eddie Capelli was mentioned in the magazine). Later they mentioned Harry Fields held the middleweight title and Arena Gold Belt (again, no picture of such).

• They did mention Alan Colbeck was the Mountevans champion at welterweight.

• In the magazine they also mentioned Jack Quesick was the Southern Area welterweight champion.

• The magazine seems to have a short run from 1950 to late 1951 (they describe the opening of the 1951-1952 season).

I will add some photos to follow.