All Big Venues put on MOUNTEVANS TITLE Matches fairly regularly-and KINGS HALL
BELLE VUE MANCHESTER was no Different!
As with CAIRD HALL in DUNDEE and RAH in the SOUTH- A Contest with a BELT at
stake was usually a Sure-Fire Draw-as a lot of Popular Wrestlers were Champions in their
Weight Bracket!-Indeed I saw a few of these Matches myself in the 1960's and 1970's!
BUT I NEVER heard of let alone WITNESSED a Title Contest in a Big Hall for a FOREIGN
BELT!! Well believe it or not this actually DID happen!!
On SATURDAY 6TH JULY 1963 at KINGS HALL BELLE VUE...The Feature Bout was...
a Contest for the FRENCH WELTERWEIGHT TITLE and BELT!!
Between the Holder- RENE BEN CHEMOUL and the Challenger-JULIEN MAURICE!!
Surely this must be UNIQUE in BRITISH Rings?? Not really OUR Jurisdiction-surely??
Was this Match 'contrived' just to Showcase BEN CHEMOUL??-How many BRITISH
Wrestling Fans actually CARED Who was the FRENCH Champion at ANY Weight??
It's a Big Curio-and to my Knowledge-surely a One-Off??
Who knows Different then?-Here's the ' Match Day' Programme!!-It's Scheduled for
15 Rounds!!-75 Minutes!!-Guess Who Won??
MAIN MASK
Looks like Prince Kumali outvillained Hussey, too. Must have cleaned up his act when he became South American.
Championship or not, Julien Morice wasn't doing any more than his 25 minutes!
Good old "Ivor" Penzekoff making an appearance as well!