[JCWeb]

WBA Title: Again, in a very competitive division, the WBA belt did not change, as Jack Blackburn rang up four sucessive title defenses in 1907, all by unanimous decisions, over USBA Champ Young Donahue, CBU Champ Fighting Dick Hyland, and then over the top 2 contenders, Battling Nelson and Jewey Cooke. Blackburn has now won 10 in a row and made 8 successful title defenses. Going into their bouts with Blackburn, Nelson had won 7 in a row and Cooke had won 6 straight, so the champ wasn't ducking anyone.

NABF: A much more topsy-turvy situation, as Harlem Tommy Murphy took the title from Matty "Bunker Hill Bearcat" Baldwin with a UD 12 then lost it to Young Erne in a MD 12 (a fight that was set up by Young Erne's win in the earlier fight-of-year candidate versus Kid Fredericks).

USBA: Title for the third time went to Jewey Cooke, who took the crown with a solid UD 12 win over Young Donahue -- it was Donahue's first and only defense of the title he won in 1906.

CBU: Canadian Fighting Dick Hyland made two successful defenses versus TC Art Singletary (KO 7) and fellow Canadian Mike Ward (UD 12). He has now made five successive defenses.

GBU: Jem Driscoll moved up from FW to take the crown from Singletary (TKO 4) but lost it in the very next bout to up-and-comer Freddie Welsh via UD 12. Welsh then defended with a TKO 4 over Singletary, who has become everyone's favorite punching bag.

EBU: Battling Nelson defended once, squeaking out a SD 12 in London against Jem Driscoll, the hometown favorite (this was right before Driscoll became British champ).

Rankings (including perf pts and changes from last year):

Champ Jack Blackburn 27-3-1 (12) 1209 pts NC
1. Battling Nelson 42-7 (26) 943 pts NC
2. Jewey Cooke 49-10-1 (28) 865 pts NC
3. Frank Erne 39-17-4 (28) 711 pts up 1
4. Freddie Welsh 14-1 (9) 701 pts new
5. Jem Driscoll 30-4 (25) 681 pts new (was #2 at FW)
6. Young Donahue 21-4-1 (7) 586 pts down 1
7. Harlem Tommy Murphy 16-5-1 (8) 542 pts up 4
8. Fighting Dick Hyland 17-4-2 (12) 538 pts up 1
9. Matty Baldwin 18-6-1 (14) 514 pts down 6
10. Young Erne 24-9-3 (11) 503 pts up 2

Of the top guys, all are at Prime except for F Erne who moves to Post in 1908 (his last year IRL) and Welsh who is still at Pre-Prime. Other LWs moving to Post-Prime in 1908 are Tim Callahan and Kid Fredericks. Welsh's only loss was by TKO to up-and-comer Ray Bronson, now 15th ranked at 12-1-2 (7). Frank Erne secured his position with a MD10 win in December over his namesake, Young Erne. Top ten dropouts from last year are Arthur Douglas (was #6), Fredericks (was #7), Chicago Dave Barry (was #8) and Callahan (was #10). Performance points-wise, the top 10 here is not quite as strong as the WW, only 10 above 500, but with 21 at 300 pp or more, top to bottom the LWs are perhaps the deepest division right now. Top TC is Mike Dempster at #26 with 15-3-2 (4) mark, 131 pp.

Looking ahead to the future, Leach Cross is 10-0 (6) while Charley White and Ad Wolgast are both 8-0. KO Brown is already 5-0 (3) after just one year in action. Set to join the fray in 1908 are Jack Curley, Lockport Jimmy Duffy, Special Delivery Hirsch and Paul Koehler.