AMERICAN BOXING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 21, 2 March 1914, Page 3

AMERICAN BOXING.

SOME RECENT HAPPENINGS. j A CHAMPIONSHIP FARCE. -■'■ >" s *" (Sim Special) s SAN FRANCISCO, February 2. / What a farce the world's championships have become in the absence of an international body with strict control over boxing! There is not one title over which there is no dispute. Jack Johnson is clinging to the heavy-weight championship with one hand —his other ann is broken, —while some of the bigwigs of boxing in various countries are wrangling over the question of depriving him of it. Here in the States Willie Ritchie is playing ducks and drakes with all the laws, written or unwritten—they are. mostly of the latter" class—of championships. He is ranked as the world's light-weight champion, and he's some champion, but he shows. more anxiety to dodge the next best than ever Jack Johnson did. Willie has so many excuses to put forward for breaking out of matches arranged that no one seems to be sure which is his principal excuse. He was hitched up to meet Harlem Tommy Murphy here in 'Frisco, but after shuffling like a broken-down clogdancer he got out of it on a plea of a strained tendon, or something like that. Now he says he can't meet Murphy for some moons yet. Now it has been telegraphed from Chicago that Ritchie is to meet Ad Wolgast in a 10-rounds go there the first week in March, but no one will believe it until' after the bout is actually pulled it ever is. For sheer coolness in advancing excuses for getting out of fights Ritchie is very.asar the limit-. If ni»-manager had a boil on his chin Ritchie would probably put that forward as a reason why he could not fight. Bise and Fall. The fans of 'Frisco are sad. Their pride, Bob M'Allister, of the Olympic Club, has been hurtled from the plane of candidates for the middle-weight championship. Three weeks ago M'Al-_ lister, was stacked against" Battling Levinsky, once known as Barney Williams, who has been astonishing the Easterners by cutting a sysrathe through the ranks of middles and light-heavies. Levinsky is supposed to, be clever and to have a punch, but M'Allister beat .him up badly at Madison Square -Garden, New York. He out-boxed Levinsky, rattling his left to Levinsky's face more times than Nat who watched the affair, has been married. His right hand battered Eevinsky's body, and at the finish the Easterner was no more as a white hope. • Promptly arose a shout that M'Allister was the "it," a'great and clever boxer of the style of Corbett and Britt. San Franciscans hugged each other with joy, and .hailed the coming middle-weight" champion of the world. A Picture of Gloom. But now there is gloom. 'Frisco's hopes have been sadly cracked. Examateur M'Allister is off the list. Mike Gibbons, the "shadow" of St. Paul, is.responsible ? for it. He knocked out M 'Allister in ; thef Seventh round of their fight in I was ten pounds lighter thaii but that didn't count.' ''' v ''-.,/ : .'-,:•.•';''''-';■■•>''.* |. For four of the seven rounds the boy from the Golden Gate pelted, the older and more experienced Minnesota man almost at will. He' hit Gibbons more times in those four rounds than Mike has ever been hit before in any 10 rounds of his career. They were all light punches, however, for, clever as M'Allister is, he canuot hit. In the fifth Mike began to fight with deadly effectiveness. He shook off the eiderdown blows of the Californian, and marched in,, battering M'Allister with wicked lefts and rights. He had Bob very tired through the sixth and raised a lump over the Native Son's eye. At the opening of the seventh Gibbons walked over to M'Allister, and, as Bob led with his unerring left, the Shadow pushed it aside, seemed to hold the glove an instant, and made sure of his man, and. then slammed a right on the Coast boy's jaw. The slender legs of the Californian sagged under him, and then Gibbons was all o\er him, raining volley after volley of blows on M'Allister's face* and body. M'Allister was literally punch-drunk, and as he. reeled around there were cries from all over the house for Referee Joh to stop it. Finally, after a minute and 30 seconds had elapsed, Gibbons ripped through a right-hand uppercut, and M'Allister felt limp to the floor and was carried tos his corner in a semi-conscious condition. It was several minutes before he was able to leave the ring. " It was a; great fight, with a rather tragic, ending .for a game youngster. M 'Allister 'a. inexperience undoubtedly told against him, but he was fighting the Gibbons that the New Yorkers knew a year"ago, and hot the Gibbons of the M'Goorty fight. "Can't Break an Egg." This is Cfibbons after the scrap:— "What did I do to M'Allister? Why, I just knocked him out. He's the cleverest big fellow . I ever saw in action. He weighs lfifo, you know, and for four rounds he was twice as fast as I, and you know I am no slouch when it comes to getting around. Well, then 'he started to slow up and I got to him in the seventh. He lacks stamina, and he can't hit hard enough to break the proverbial egg. Bob can out-box a lot of them over the ten-round route at that, but I can't see how he ever lasted 20 with a rough one like Petrosky.'-' Gibbons is now right on the line for the middle-weight championship, and the argument over the title has been brought down to the claims of Gibbons, Clabby, M'Goorty, aiid Chip. Clabby and Gibbons can do the weight, but few are satisfied that the otherypair can. Hysterical Middle-weikhts. Billy Naughton has just . about summed up the "position. He says y—"The truth of the matter is that many of the leading middle-weights are becoming hysterical over the question of championship, and'the critic who designates any particular man among them as champion is .liable to be struck with a brick. It's a ticklish subject for many reasons. To begin with, no one on earth knows how many of the men who are voicing their claims are bona fide middle : weights. There are any number of sports who will tell you' right now that if George Chip is really able to do 1581bs -he. is the rightful champion. -He .certainly, khopked .o'ut..Frank. Klaus twice.jn succession, and Klaus for quite a while, called himself champion by virtue of his defeat of Billy Papke, to whom the title was supposed to revert on tjio death of Stanley Ketchel.

And there was no one, by the way, anxious to knock the chip from the Klaus shoulder until Chip did it. "The writer doubts Chip's ability to mak«LsSe middle-weight limit, and feels the same in the cas6 of M'Goorty. In the recent bout between M'Goorty and Dave Smith in Australia, the weight was 1601bs at 2 o 'clock in the afternoon. This is away above the middle-weight notch, but considering that M'Goorty and Smith boxed for three titles—the middle, light heavy, and heavy —it is a pretty fair composite notch. Clabby, who can do 158 ringside with ease, is a mighty fine prospect for the middleweight championship, but he has not won the title yet." Gibbons and MTarland. The middle-weight title is not the only thing engaging Gibbons's attention. Recognised- as -the best welterweight in the States—some reckon he's the world's champion—he's got to step lively now that Packey MTarland has avowedly come out as a welter. The pair have not been long in getting to business. Early this month they are [to box ten rounds in New York. Although it will not actually affect the title, as the distance is only half the championship routej the bout will have a decided bearing on the settlement of a vexed question. A Shattered Husion. Another of" Arthur Pelkey 's illusions has boen shattered, and the bottom has been knocked out of the stock of the big boob whom Tahmy Burns heralded, j with much fanfare of trumpets, as the ! one and only white hope. Now he j hopes to rehabilitate himself some by his Australian trip. Fight fans here have -put Pelkey in the pork and beans class of fighter through his knock-out on January 24, of Kid Kenneth, pride of the oil-fields. The disturbance was at Taft, and it was oyer in less than six IQlMlis* Kenneth ' stepped in from long range and swung up the blow that proved Pelkey's undoing, for he went down for eight counts and arose only to-be sent again to the 3?at>with a right and left to the head. A third time he came up, but had been on\liis feet less than three seconds when another deadly uppercut sent him down for the final count. The fight went slow for five rounds. Kenneth began swinging almost immediately, but his blows went so wild as to seem a strategy of the game. He was instructed to go slow for the first five rounds. Pelkey slightly outboxed his conqueror, landing more frequent blows. Through the-^advantage given him by his great reach, he was able to rock Kenneth's head occasionally. He also did slightly better work in the clinches. Kenneth was never distressed by the punishment and did more than his share of the leading and landing several effective Kenneth's powerful jaw and wonderful stamina were not called much into requisition. ~, .Who. said —*^? Some, , pretty fall "guff" was handed out in one of our courts the other day. Talk of a shark swallowing shark bait! Here's a despatch which came through froift Los Angeles:—. "Practically all of the so-called knockouts are on paper. Prize-fighting, or boxing, is not a brutal sport,'' today declared Charle's Eyton, referee of the Jess Willard-" Bull "Young match, in the trial of Willard and nine others on a ©barge of prize-fighting in 1 violation of the laws, of California. Eyton testifies that boxers did not always try to knock out their opponents, and said Packey M'Farland was an example of a man who seldom won by the knock-out route. When the prosecution read a list of men whom M'Farland was reputed to have knocked out, defending counsel conferred with. Harry Gilmore, once manager for M'Farland, and then announced that Gilmore had just told him that he had invented most of M'Farland's record of knockouts to make it look formidable and to make the boxer a drawing card. To make the prize-fighting accusation a clear-cut issue before the jury, Joseph Ford, Deputy District Attorney, dismissed all charges algainst Thomas J. M'Carey, a boxing promoter. Ford intimated that the same action would-be taken in regard to all the other defendants except Willard. M'Carey testified that, before any fight is started in the Vernon arena the text of a decision by Superior Judge Frank R. Willis is read to the principals. This decision is the principal hope of the it is held that Ad Wolgast and George Memsic, in their meeting here two years ago, took part in a "boxing contest" and not iu a prize fight.