Here's a Most Interesting Programme Dated for This Weekend's Newsletter from ST. GEORGES
HALL in BRADFORD!!
We Have a Very Good Card with 5 Bouts!!
However Just Look at The Main Bout!!-It's a BILLY ROBINSON versus KENDO NAGASAKI
Confrontation!!-with The Former 9 Months into his Tenure as BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT Champion!!
The Previous Owner-and Obviously Attendee!-Has Annotated The Programme with Details!!
He Reports That 'KENDO RETIRED in Round Two!!
Now in the Normal Course of Matters This would Constitute a TKO WIN for ROBINSON!!-So KENDO
would Have LOST The Bout!!-But He DIDN'T UNMASK!!???
Wonder What They Announced to The BRADFORD Audience Here???
BILLY JOYCE also On This Bill!!
MAIN MASK
Round 2 is of interest and possibly suggests something went wrong, though the early ending could have been part of the pre-planned story to protect Kendo. And there's little doubt that it was pre-planned. We have now encountered quite a few of these Nagasaki v Robinson matches that ended with questionable wins on both sides .
This is 1967. Nagasaki had been a professional for less than three years. Promoters saw potential in him but he was still a newcomer. They had doubts about his long term prospects. They hadn't the confidence to put him on tv. Prior to the Howes match they didn't realise he was a man they needed to respect. Robinson had been endowed with the British and European championship. They knew he was a worthy champion though had questions about his drawing power.
Matches between the two of them were attractive to us fans at the time. But to allow one of them to come out on top would have killed one of the geese killing the golden eggs.
Great find, Main Mask.
I just wonder about the accuracy of the notes on that programme. Surprising to see Zaranoff going over against Billy Joyce; surprising to see the British champion getting a public warning. The results of the top bout are not clear to me. And the £250 for the main event?
It's such a tease, isn't it? The simple word "Retired" obviously doesn't tell us about the circumstances, the controversy, the excuse for not unmasking.
Being Round 2, it's not hard to imagine that something went wrong.
But I imagine we shall never know.
An interesting bill Main Mask. Other than the cracker Robinson v Nagasaki contest maybe not the most scintillating of programmes, but for a Leeds fan there would have been an interest in seeing Alan Sergeant,, Syed Saif Shah and Josef Zaranoff. In those days wrestlers working outside their usual areas were a real attraction.
Yes Masambula and Arras I would have looked forward to even though there would be no doubt Masam would come out on top one way or the other.
Nagasaki and Robinson did the rounds. Whatever was announced, and whatever the result, would have been planned in advance.