GENERAL NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1312, 17 June 1915, Page 33

GENERAL NOTES.

“Well, we have a new champion, and the sport world is well pleased,” writes the one-time famous heavyweight boxer, Joe Choynski, in reviewing the heavyweight situation. “No more negro champions, though if I were in the game I would consider myself a coward to refuse to meet the best black. It was surely a rotten fight from all accounts. I knew Johnson could not get into condition. He had a fatty heart, and it made him do the fool. Willard is naturally phlegmatic, and his youth wore Jack out. Any man over 6ft. Sin. is too big for a fighter. If Willard fights he will be dethroned before many bouts. We have a likely champion in Jim Coffey, of Dublin. Willard will no doubt rake in the coin to the tune of 1000 dollars a week for about two years, and will be the popular idol. Saw Ritchie beat Griffiths all the way recently in six rounds. Grif. could not find him. Fitzsimmons got married again, to Mrs. Emmy, a cat and dog trainer. Poor Bob!”

The heavyweights, Bombardier Billy Wells, champion of England, and Dick Smith, who had earned the right to challenge the holder of the title, met at The Ring, London, on May 31, when Wells won in the ninth round.

Jimmy Hill, the well-known Australian featherweight, met the Victorian lightweight boxer, Herb McCoy, the other night in Brisbane, but found the task beyond him, Hill’s seconds throwing in the towel in the tenth round.

A London cable announces that Bombardier Wells, the well-known fighter, has enlisted in the Welsh Regiment.

In a s boxing contest at the National Sporting Club, London, the other night, for the featherweight championship of England, Llew Edwards got the verdict’ over Owen Moran, who was disqualified in the tenth round.

Mr. R. J. Henderson, of the Akron Beacon Journal, who was at the ringside when Johnny Griffiths and Willie Ritchie fought, writing under date, Pittsburg, April 10, says:—“By a remarkable finish here Friday night, Johnny Griffiths, •; the Akron lightweight, won a draw with Willie Ritchie, champion of America. Griffiths was pushed as hard as at any time in his ring career, and during the early stages of the battle it looked as though the Californian would pile up a winning lead over the champion of Ohio. Four thousand enthusiastic fans gathered at the Duquesne A.C. to see the six-round battle between the foremost contenders for the crown now worn by Freddie Welsh. Grif-

fiths offered no alibi, so it would be inconsistent of me to attempt to explain why he did not win by a good margin over the westerner. But the truth is that for the last ten days Griffiths has been unable to do any boxing, owing to a spilt lip. Griff, met and defeated Johnny Harvey at Folumbus Monday night, but since that time the Akron boy has not drawn on a glove. He showed his lack of gymnasium boxing in that the Johnny Griffiths who met Ritchie time and again was a poor judge of distance. The first round was even, Ritchie had the second. Griff, copped off the third, Ritchie took the fourth and fifth, while Griffiths was strong in the sixth and the final round, earning a draw. After having seen Griffiths and Welsh battle in Akron, it is hard to understand how the Englishman (Welsh) ever won the title from

Ritchie. As a fighter the present title-holder is not to be compared with the boy from whom he won the crown. And at this time I would like to brand as false those rumours which rob Ritchie of all cleverness. But just a little about our Akron boy. No battler in a hemp-bound square ever made a grander finish than did Griffiths. Johnny must have realised that up and until the sixth the Californian had the advantage, for when the closing session arrived he went out and gave battle as very few of the topnotch lightweights of the day would dare to do. Griffiths took all kinds of chances as he was working for a knock-out. His fork-fin seemed to gain its old-time snap, and he drove the ex-champion from one side of the ring to the other. I do not mean that Ritchie was slipping. But I do want it understood that Johnny was box-

ing in his old-time form. In the first round, Ritchie, who throughout the bout displayed much aggressiveness, opened the cut on Johnny’s lip, and he kept playing for the remainder of the battle on the bleeding wound. Outside of Johnny’s lip, and a th n stream of gore which was early started from Ritchie’s nose, there was no sign of punishment evident upon either boxer. Even those papers which decided that R.tchie had a shade in the milling did not hesitate to say that the Akron boy showed championship form throughout. When Johnny walked into Newell’s Hotel after the bout he showed little illeffects of the tough going, and declared that he was not hurt by one of Ritchie’s blows. Ritchie landed his most dangerous blows in the fourth round, when a smashing right to the stomach seemed to fairly lift Griff, off his feet. It was then that Johnny displayed his ability to withstand punishment, for the jam in the wind did not slow up the. Akron boy in the least. He came back strong, and was doing his share of the mixing when the gong sounded. A weltknown citizen dropped dead while the fight was raging.”