Aug. 14, 1964 - Billy Daniels (right), a sometime barber from Brooklyn, unranked as a heavyweight fighter, scored a split decision victory over Doug Jones of New York at Madison Square Garden tonight in a stunning upset.
Jones, ranked by the World Boxing Association as the No. 1 heavyweight challenger for the title, was a 3-1 favorite to beat Daniels, a last-day substitute for injured Tony Alongi, in the 10-round bout.
Until Daniels staged a last-half rally that apparently swayed two officials, the match was unexciting. There were no knockdowns and very few power punches. The winner bled slightly from a cut on his left eye from the eighth round to the finish.
Daniels scored mostly through the last four rounds. The favorite, who was outweighed 187 to 194¼, tried for 10 rounds to get Daniels to hold still long enough to get hit. Occasionally, Jones found the target with left-right combinations to the head. But he didn’t do enough in the early rounds, and Daniels’ rally won the cheers of the 3,000 ringsiders.
Daniels clobbered Jones with a hard right to the body and left hook to the head early in the seventh. Billy also scored with a jarring short left hook to the jaw late in the round.
Daniels got a bit tigerish late in the eighth after he started to bleed and popped Jones’ head solidly with a straight right. This blow, probably the best thrown by either, made Doug’s eyes pop.
The winner scored with three lefts to the body in the ninth and hit Jones with an overhand right to the jaw in the tenth. That punch definitely had the crowd rooting for the underdog. When judge Al Berl’s 6-4 card in favor of Jones was announced, the fans let loose with catcalls.
Fortunately, the cards favoring Daniels — referee Zack Clayton, 5-3-2; and judge Johnny Bran, 5-4-1 — had already been announced. It was Billy’s first win in over a year.
A ringside poll of writers showed eight scoring a victory for Jones, five for Daniels, and one called it a draw.
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