BOXING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 236, 9 November 1914, Page 2

BOXING.

LIGHT-WEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP. INTERESTING AMERICAN NOTES. According to news received by the latest mail from America, a contest of unusual interest is being held in Chicago to-day. It is a ten-rounds bout between "Freddy" Welsh, light-weight champion of the world, and "Charley" White, who trounced " Willie " Ritchie in a no-decision bout shortly before Ritchie lbsit the world's' .championship to Welsh. A Chicago dispatch says that the men are to weigh in at 9st 71b at 5 o'clock. Welsh is to receive, 32£ per cent. of . the gate and White 274 per cent. A surprising thing about this announcement is that the match is to be of ten rounds. When Welsh beat White proclaimed that lie was eager to contest the championship* and he, or his manager, expressed confidence in his ability to beat Welsh in a twentyrounds contest. Welsh announced that lie would give White an opportunity to box for the championship. Yet, we find them signing up —assuming the Chicago report to be correct —for a ten-rounds affair. That means that to win the championship this time White has to knock out Welsh inside the ten-rounds. And he has given no indication that he can do that. AN UNEXPECTED CHALLENGE.

Welsh is also being challenged from a rather unexpected quarter. - If . this challenge results in a contest being arranged,, it should provide one of the greatest light-weight battles in the history of .modern boxing. But-rrthe '/ ifV ; is &' big one. It has yet to be proved that the challenge is a genuine one, for it,.. «Orae&v,£rom 'Packey'' McFarland, the prince of American boxers, and of late McFarland's mind has, been rather variable. As most boxing enthusiasts know, McFarland occupies a rather, peculiar position in ring history. Nominally, he is a light-weight, and hq has always declared that he could "make'', the American and English light-weight limit, which is really 9st 91b, although some American holders of the world's championship have forced opponents to weigh in at 9st 71b. But McFarland's weight has never been satisfactorily proved, and the fact that, although he, is recognised as the cleverest boxer in America, a man with- a punch, too, he has never fought for the light-weight title, has intensified the suspicion that he is . not a- genuine light-weight..,,. He has fought feather-weights, lightweights, and welter-weights, and he has never been beaten in a bout in which a referee's decision was given. Three or. four months ago, McFarland married the daughter of .a deceased banker, and announced that he had retired from the ring in order to look after his wife's financial interests and his own, for "Packey" has gathered in some little wealth during his boxing career. He started on a tour round the world, with his bride, but on reaching Yokohama he decided that the safest place during these troublous times is the' United States, and so he and his Mfe turned back. He was in San Francisco for several weeks' before he spoke of fighting again. Then he suddenly paine' with (]eclar&tion that he wanted tjS wm world's- 1 lights' weight championship, and %)uld post 1 ! a side-bet of £SOOO for a fight with Welsh. This announcement was the result" of conversations with ' 'Billy'' Nolan, the former manager of 1 'Battling" Nelson and "Willie" Ritchie. Nolan is, so it is stated, to act as McFarland's manager in the quest of the light-weight title. Thrice already have McFarland 'and Welsh fought, but long before Welsh won the world's.title. Their first meeting occurred in 1908, when they met in a ten-rounds bout in Milwaukee. The referee was Malachy Hogan, of Chicago—McFarland 's home-town—and when lie gave* the decision to McFarland he was hissed and jeered. It was contended that Welsh should have been given the decision in the fifth round, when he was fouled, and that at the end of the contest he should have been given at least a draw. ' A little later in that year the pair fought twenty-five rounds in Los Angeles, and "Jim" Jeffries declared a draw. In 1910 they met in London, and again, at the end of twenty rounds, the verdict was a draw.

McFARLAND TALKS. Now let the "San Francisco Examiner" tell the story of interviews with McFarland and Nolan: — "Nobody in the world except myself knows what I weighed in matches where weighitlg-in was not required/' said McFarland. "The notion got around that I was a welter-weight. But when I make the weight I did it. I made 9st 91b for Freddie Welsh in London, and I can do it now. "I'll tell you what I will do. I will make 9st 91b at 3 o'clock for Welsh, and I will make it just as easily as Freddie will. lam always in condition, and the reason I have not made weight recently is that I did not have to, and nobody cared what I weighed as long as I went into the ring and boxed. "Welsh's manager \ (Pollock) says that he wants a side bet of £SOOO if anybody wants to box Freddie for the light-weight championship. Nolan and I will take that bet, and we will post the money—real money and not the conversational kind. I have boxed Welsh three times, and each' time I have bested him. I can do it again, and if the light-weight championship is at stake I will win in such a way that there will be no argument. \ WILL BOX ANY DISTANCE.

"Pollock has said that Welsh will box Ritchie to a finish. I'll box Welsh any distance he wants. Twenty-rounds or a finish-fight; it's all the same to me." McFarland is a young man. He is only 25 years of age, and there is not a mark on him to show that he has been through hundreds of boxing contests. His hands are uninjured, a state of affairs which he attributes to the tuition given him in the art of hitting by George Dawson and Joe Choynski. McFarland is willing to go to Australia in case the match with Welsh cannot be staged in the States. When "Snowy" Baker, the Australian promoter, was in the United States last summer he exerted his best endeavours to get McFarland to sign up for a trip to the Antipodes, but at that time "Packey" was busy with his own affairs. He was preparing to get married t and Baker could not make ar-

rangementa to bring the wizard of the ring to the land of the Southern Cross. "Talking about weight," said Nolan, '' McFarland to-day weighs two pounds less than Ritchie did when I took 'NjTirge of him. Yet Ritchie made 9st f a iingside for Wolgast, and was strong enough to go sixteen rounds and win the bout, after taking considerable punishment. "Any time 'that 'Harry' Pollock shows an inclination to send his light--1 weight champion into the ring w r e are ready to talk terms with him, and we will post just as much money as Pollock and Welsh want to offset,. 'Packey' is in his prime, and we can make the weight which Pollock has asked Ritchie to agree to. Also, he will not reduce far enough to affect his strength. 'Packey' is a light-weight, and if given a chance will win the title which everybody that follows the game knows should be hisalthough few of the fight-followers know that ; he is a legitimate light-weight. When the mail left, Welsh had not replied to McFarland's challenge. A COMIC CONTEST.. The Sydney '' Bulletin''. waxes merry over the Christie-Marchand bout: — " 'Knock Out' Marchand's first.exhibition in Sydney against D.arcy was somewhat humoroiis, but his xneeting with ' Gus' Christie was a Howling joke. That he would have smashed Christie had' he been able to land any one gf his wild haymakers goes without question; but nobody but a cripple or an idiot would wait for his tremendous wallops to arrive. On every occasion that he made contact with Christie, the latter, a by : no-means skilful side-stepper, was all 'but' out of reach, and Marchand merely grazed a swinging door. Christie show T ed to better advantage than he did in his initial fight, boxing and ducking with far greater eare'and some excellence.' Wherests before he had been merely a slogger, he was" now a slogger and somewhat of a boxer. His blows sent the ''Frenchman''to the fidor 1 with a terrific he wsfcs all,but 'gone, but the 'gbng came to the'rescue. - 'Hoyf-: ever, it made no difference; The Frenchman 's heart was apparently 'beaten, 'arid' in the third round he : made a most wretched display,'which ended in his - be 1 ing knocked half oitt/ of the ring, feus" pended like a bag of chaff over the middle rope. Then, apparently fearing a : heavy Yankee charge in the rearj - he. toppled through the ropes and sprawled down on the notebooks of the pressmen to a thunder of derisive laughter. ; Having gone right outside the ropes, referee Harald Baker immediately disqualified him,* and, as far as. Sydney is concerned, Marchand's brilliant career was over. - Still, there is room for him on the nor'-east frontier of France. • But if the scrap 'is over before he can rea<Jh the spot; "writer adjures him to see a 'circus-master—*-his future lies in the isawdusted ring l . There he should be a brilliant success.< His bit* terdst Critics were the other French: boxers present, who felt • that their reputation! and drawing:power were being I ;seriously impaired by this weird ■ vagariatt. ?' 1 * .u HOW LEVINSKY feEAT SMITH. . Ai New-York dispa-tch, dated October, 9,. thus tells the story of '' Gupboat' Smith's battle aftei.-'.*lie /r cleared out of England , to, <-iavoid- -meeting "Young" Ahearn:-'—',? 'Battling,'• Jjevinsky, of this city, .outpointed and out: fought 'Gunboat' Smith, of California, in a ten-round bout here to-night. Levinsky weighed 12st 41b. Smith was ten did fill the

leading in the first four rounds, in each of which he had a fair. margin. The fifth round was even, bafejCrom the sixtK'i on lijad it (jpfrfjus own way.s lii thd early ; roundsi;; iJevinsky made' ho attempt at leading. He avoided several of SmitPs rushes, and, contented himself with blocking' cleverly and 1 He hardly used his right in'sthese rounds, and depended on '• left books and upper cuts. Both men were severely punished about the body. - LeVinsky woke ifp in the-sixth, into the"'Gunner' with .lefts tb the body. Smith landed, occasionally, but Levinsky had all the better of it, rushing ' Gunboat' hard -toward the end.''

STRAY NOTES, , "Sam" Langford reckons he will re--tire from bo^ ; the end of the present year. B of taking up farm-> ing. Bandsman Blake, a well-known English middle-weight, does not seem to have found the war exciting enough. Having been wounded, lie was returned to .England for repairs. That, however, was not sufficiently distracting, so he married a Miss Punchard!

"Young" Ahearn, the young English middle-weight who created such a stir in the Old Country, and who was matched with Georges Carpentier and "Gunboat" Smith, only to find these matches not materialising, is now in the United States. Johnson managed to get out of Germany. He was in London last month, and also in trouble again, this time for using obscene language in a public place. .It is reported" that "Johnny" Scliiff, the American feather-weight, who was recently in Australia, where he was beaten by New Zealander Frank Ellis, - has become a member of Johnson's entourage. It was reported some weeks ago, in a cable to an Australian paper, that Charles Ledoux, bantam-weight champion of Europe, had been killed in action. The latest files to arrive from England, however, state that there has been no confirmation of the report that Ledoux was killed. Indeed, one or two journals state that he was seriously wounded, but was still alive. It was also reported that Georges Carpentier, who had joined the aviation branch of the French Army, had been seriously wounded, but this was discredited. Adrien Hogan, a well-known French middle-weight, was so seriously wounded while fighting for his country, that he will never be able to enter the ring again. Hogan had quite a notable career in the ring, but his successes were due rather to his punching power and ruggedness than to skill. He was a bank clerk before he found that he could earn more money as a professional fighter. Amongst the few men who have won against him are "Jeff" Smith and "Young" Ahearn, each of whom wrrs too clever for him. Some years ago, before he became a professional boxer, Hogan was a fine exponent of Grseco-Roman wrestling; indeed, he was* the best amateur in France in that style of wrestling.