Los Angeles herald., 1892-02-28
Opinions and Wagers On
Fight Don't Align.
Nine-renths Of the Unbacked
Assertions Favor Ryan.
Nevertheless the Betting at Present
Is at Evens.
On the other Hand. the Prophets Are
Fairly Divided on the Maher- Fitz-
simmons Question, While the For-
mer, Though an Unknown Quantity,
Is Favorite in the Books.

Interest in the FitzsimmonH- Maher
and the Ryan-Needham contests is ap-
preaching fever heat as the day set for
the battles, March I'd, draws near. The
opinions of sporting men and writers on
pugilism are about equally divided as
to the outcome of the Fitzsimmons-
Maher fight, says the Chicago Times.
But everybody, with perhaps the
exception of Needham's personal
friends, pick Ryan as sure win
ner. Opinions, however, do not and
can not make any one win any more
than the betting. The fact that man
is favorite in the betting does not nee
essarily win him the battle any more
than it makes a favorite in any other
event win.
The betting in both these fistic en-
counters is about even, although there
has been few bets placed at 100 to so
on Maher. That may appear strange
when opinions are equally divided,
while in the Ryan-Needham contest
nine-tenths of the sporting fraternity tip
Ryan as sure winner, and the betting is
still at evens. That simply proves that
opinions and betting do not always travel
hand in hand. If they did Ryan would
be l to 10 favorite. 1t always shows
that men do not always bet
their money as freely or as strongly as
they express their opinions. If Maher.
as an unknown quantity, should sell
over Fitzsimmons, who has proven him
self to be game, clever, and scientific
fighter, why should not Ryan, who has
never been defeated and who has won
from Needham before, be a red-hot
favorite?
ON PUBLIC PERFORMANCE.
What makes horse, an oarsman, a
billiardist or a sprint runner favorite
if it is on the square? Nothing but
public performance. Now, if the bets
on the two coming fights were placed
according to the form previously shown
by the four principals, Fitzsimmons
would be a favorite over Maher, and
Needham, who has met and defeated
better men than Ryan has, previous to
his meeting the latter, should sell over
Ryan. The only thing that is in favor
of Ryan is that he beat Needham, and
that of course is everything from bet
ting standpoint. 1t naturally follows
that if Needham whipped better men
than RYAN did, and that the latter beat
the former, it is but natural to presume
that RYAN could have defeated every
one that Needham did, and as that is
presumably public performance Ryan
ought to be the favorite.
'1How can Fitzsimmons win against so
much weight" is a query put by Ma
hers admirers in Chicago. What dc
those same admirers know of Maher's
fighting ability that they think the
Irish champion can win in a walk? The
majority of them have never seen MaheI
and all they know about him is what
they have read or been told, and that,
at the most, has been that he knocked
out lot of would-bes. He of course put
them all to sleep in short order, but
could not Fitzsimmons have done the
same?
THE WHY AND WHEREFORE.
They either overestimate Maher's
ability or underestimate Fitzsimmons' g.
If they think that Maher can easily
punch out the Australian because he did
the same trick to, as everybody mus,
acknowledge, a lot of "mugs' in the
east then Fitzsimmons must be a mug
himself. But if, as they all admit, lanky
Bob is clever and hard man to whip
why do they think that Maher will lick
him in a round or two?
1t simply proves that they express
their opinions without sitting the ques-
ton down to bottom. When Jem Mace
was matched to fight Sam Hurst, the
sStaylebridge Infant, !" for the champion.
ship of England it was looked upon as a
feast for Hurst. One good punch was
all the "Infant" wanted to get into
Mace to win, and everybody thought he
would get it easily. Hurst had previ-
ously won the title from Tom Paddock.
A right-hand drive into Toms body by
Hurst, which broke three of his ribs,
settled the business for poor Tom. Pad
dock was larger man than Mace and
the majority of those who went to
see the fight expected to see Mace
get knocked dead in the ring. Well,
the men met. Mace weighed about 156
pounds and Hurst about 200 pounds and
stood fully five inches over Mace. There
was weight, height and strength against
science and the latter won. The long
looked-for punch that was to kill Mace
never came and Jem stepped out OF the
ring champion of England, and without
receiving a black eye. So much for
strength and weight against science.
Now, If Fitzsimmons will fight Maher
carefully and put all his science to use
and make waiting fight OF it, hitting
when he can without laying himself
open for return, his chances to win are
excellent. Should he, on the other
hand, foolishly go in and exchange hit
for hit and continue mixing it up with
the Irish champion, strength and weight
are bound to tell, and he will then lay
himself open to defeat. AS nobody
L. rxrrf -. :
himself and his trainer, Jimmy Carroll
just what tactics Fitzsimmons will
adopt, it is hard matter for anybody
to tell just how long the fight will last
WILL BE A LONG FIGHT.
Ryan and Needham will undoubtedly
spend two hours or more in the ring, al
both are very careful fighters, Ryan es-
pesially SO. Ii the latter cannot get al
Needham it is certainty that Ryan
will keep his opponent guessing to gel