SMALL MEN MOST IN DEMAND.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1246, 5 March 1914, Page 28

SMALL MEN MOST IN DEMAND.

FURNISH BEST SPORT. Starting with Jack McAuliffe, the Queensberry art has produced some very remarkable lightweight boxers. Though in the old days the lightweights did not monopolise the limelight, latterly the lightweights have

been making the strongest appeal to followers of the game, and, barring the Jeffries-Johnson affair, the lightweights have been the prime favourites with the boxing fans for many years.

In McAuliffe’s day John L. Sullivan and Jack Dempsey probably took preference over the great little Brooklynite, but at that McAuliffe was not without his drawing power.

And McAuliffe was a sterling little warrior. Old-timers who saw the great Jack mix it with his opponents will tell you that his equal at the 1331 b. notch never put up his hands before him in defence of the lightweight title'.

Brooklyn Jack’s bouts with Billy Myers, Jen Carney, and that sort were classics, and Jack McAuliffe is the one man alive to-day who retired the leal undefeated lightweight champion of the world. No one ever gained a decision over the Williamstown cooper, and he met the best men of his day.

McAuliffe was a podgy specimen of gloveman, and a lad who loved life as lived in the cafes and about the sporting resorts. For thirteen years McAuliffe held the title, and when he saw he was getting a bit old for the game ne passed it on, and retired. To-day McAuliffe is a vaudevillian, and those who have seen him behind the footlights say that he will be a topliner before he quits the stage. Personally, McAuliffe is the smartest boxer the writer has ever met. He is not very well posted in book lore, but in what constitutes life McAuliffe has all the versions.

Following McAuliffe as the lightweight champion came, “Kid” Lavigne, the wonderful scrapper from Saginaw, Mich. Lavigne was not as big a man as McAuliffe, but he was a great box office attraction, and if you want to start an argument just tell some veteran of tne ring game that any oif our modern lightweights would have a “look in” with the great Saginaw Kid. But before you tell this to a veteran be sure and be on your mark and ready for a quick start.

Lavigne fought the great Joe Walcott, the Barbadoes terror, twice, and held him as good as even on one occasion and bettered him the next time. You don’t see lightweights taking on welters nowadays, do you, and what a welter that Walcott boy was. The great Saginaw Kid exceeded the speed limit in his mode of living, and as a result cut short his reign as king of the lightweights by several years. Lavigne is now conducting a boxing school at Detroit, Mich. Frank Erne followed Lavigne as the king of the lightweights, and they say that Erne was the most polished lightweight the world has ever known. Erne was a smart fellow, a regular Beau Brummel, and a patron of the race tracks. While he was champion

Erne made a trip to Paris, and on that trip he wrote his pugilistic obituary, for ne was never much account after he returned, and was easy for men whom he could have beaten easily before he made his trip to Lay Paree.

Joe Gans won his title from Frank Erne up at Fort Erie when he knocked the once great Erne out in a punch. All points considered, probably Gans was the ideal lightweight, though at that he was never really at his best as a 133-jpounder. He was such a marvel with the gloves, even when he was in the sere and yellow,, that a noted cartoonist dubbed him the “Old Master,” and he carried this name with him until his last battle with that dread disease (consumption), and even now when the fans bring up the memory of Joe Gans they still refer to him as the “Old Master.”

“Battling” Nelson succeeded Gans as the title holder, and in many respects he was the most remarkable of all the lightweights. He was practically impervious to punitshment. In Nelson’s lexicon there was no such word as “quit.” No matter how badly they battered Nelson he was always on the job for more. He possessed more xecuperatiye power than any boxer, light, heavy, middle, feather, welter or bantam, that was ever in the ring.

Nelson has been in the ring 17 years, and he is still pegging along. He recently married a sweet little cartoonist of a Denver paper, but still the retirement microbe has never entered his vitals. Ad Wplgast came as Nelson’s successor. He beat Nelson for the title at Point Richmond, Cab, just over three years ago. During the three yeais that he held the championship Wolgast was the most wonderful drawing card in the ring, and even now he is still a topliner from a boxoffice standpoint. Willie Ritchie, the only man in the entire history of pugilism who won a title on a foul, is tne champion of today. Willie is a bright boy and a game one.

The one beauty about the lightweights is that they always put up a beautiful battle. It is indeed seldom that a championship changes hands in this division without a memorable struggle. There is usually a great deal of excitement attending the settlement of a title in the lightweight division. The lightweight boxers hit just hard enough to suit the spectators; they usually possess great assimilative powers, and they are rapid workers. And as a general rule there are usually more good lightweights in the field at the same time than appear in other divisions of the Queensberry realm at a similar period.

That explains the great popularity of the lightweights to-day, and is the reason 1 that the promoters are always so anxious to sign a pair of classy lightweights for a main attraction.