re: Ernestine Jones – (Smith) Stops Cathy “Cat” Davis in the Third Round

Photo by Jack Pokress/WBAN given permission to publish photo.

In what was a questionable “changed decision” AFTER a fight that took place on June 7, 1978, in Atlanta, Georgia – Ernestine Jones TKO’d Cathy “Cat” Davis in the Third Round.   After Davis was clearly stopped in the bout, her manager contested the fight and it was declared at a later date as a “no contest.”  This was another incident concerning Davis as to the questionable things going on in Davis’ boxing career that were raised.  Regardless, we have pulled the original write up (below) as to what happened in that fight where it was clear from this report that Jones outclassed Davis in this fight.

AND…If you THINK that this fight should have been reversed to a NO CONTEST,    read this article that we archived on WBAN:  Blurb from this article: “Cat is also not what she appears to be. And her manager-boyfriend, Sal Algieri, stands accused of trying to fix her fights, of controlling a fake  “commission” that regulates women’s boxing, and of using phony  names for her opponents. When Algieri boxed professionally himself, 15 years ago, he admitted throwing a fight.   Moreover, Davis’s last bout—staged June 7, 1978 in Georgia, a state that has no boxing commission— was apparently promoted by her own lawyer—an unethical conflict of interest.  Cat’s opponent, a “gym rat” from Chicago named Ernestine Jones, says she was told by Algieri to lose, but,  instead, she knocked Cat out. Jones is a black woman.   Ernestine’s purse was a $535 check made out to her manager.   Payment on the check was stopped by the fight’s promoters, Robin Suttenberg, who was Cat’s lawyer at the time. Robin claims she was not “the actual  promoter,” that the actual promoter was Arthur Appleman, under the name Pyramid Promotions. Arthur Appleman is a lawyer who happens to share the same office, room 1066 at 233 Broadway, with Robin Suttenberg. Appleman admits that he and Suttenberg “are very close friends.” He admits Robin signed the canceled check for Pyramid Promotions but insists that she “has no legal connection to Pyramid Promotions. I am the only officer and director.  

Quotes from News:  Madison Wisconsin State Journal, June 9, 1978, Page 54: Title:  “Cat Meows” – Comments:  Connie Smith of Chicago sneers after knocking down lightweight womens boxing champion Cathy “Cat” Davis of New York in the first round of their bout in Atlanta.  Smith WON the NON-TITLE fight with a TKO in the third round.