Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-11-22
| SIMMS
Won In First Round.
Gave "Kid" Lavigne His
First Defeat.
A Knock Out Blow
Settled Matters.
Lavigne's Manager Tried to
Raise a Row,
But The Crowd Was With the
Akron Man.

Art Sinms, the undefeated Akron
lightweight, knocked out kid" La
vigne of Boston, the champion feath-
erweight of the New England states,
in two minutes and f1fty-nine Sec
onds before the West Side Athletic
club at Massillon last night,
Lavigne has fought 40 battles
within two years and had never suf-
fered defeat until Simms put him to
sleep.
The men entered the ring and
shook hands at II 30. After spar
ring for nearly a minute they began
to mix matters. Sinms landed
good swing on Lavigne's face and
the latter retaliated. Lavigne
caught Simms on the neck with a
right cross and Simms rushed the
"Kid' to the ropes, administering
series Of terrific blows.
Just rs Lavigne struck the ropes
Sirnms shot in q right hand blow on
jaw, which concluded matters.
The Boston lad fell limp, dazed
and helpless over the ropes, his head
striking the floor. He made sort
of mechanical effort to get to his
feet, but without success, as the ref
cree, Ed. Mexican, the well-known
Cleveland ball player, counted ten.
The referees decision was that
Simms had achieved a clean cut
knockout.
Martin Flarity, the manager of
Lavigne, picked him up and carried
him TO his room. where restoratives
were given to revive him. Flarity
was snorting mad, stating that he
had brought his man here to fight
ll6 pound man, but that Simms was
much heavier. He also said that the
"Kid'' got his leg tangled in the
ropes and in falling to the floor his
head was bumped badly, which
dazed him. 1t could easily. be seen,
however, that Lavigne was knocked
out clearly; also that the Boston
man got good bit of pun
ishment in the last ten seconds of
the fight. Simms was highly elated
over his victory.
The managers of the two pugs had
a little trouble before the fight was
pulled off. Flarity wanted SIS dol
lars for his man and only $50 was
posted. Tuohey stated that FIarity
agreed to ''shaYe" off s25 as the at
tendance was not as large as expect
ed. Flarity refused to have his man
fight until the $75 was posted, which
was done at Simms expense. A few
the fight as fake, but such
talk came from irresponsible sources.
On account of the brevity of the
fight, Simms and his sparring part
ner, Curley Supplies, gave a three
round exhibition, which was clever
and entertaining. They were ap-
plauded loudly.
As part of the preliminaries,
Geo. Tuohey, the master Of cere-
monies. announced the first bout at
9:l5 o'clock between Fred Colley of
Akron, and kid McGlynn of
Cleveland. The men, were to fight
six rounds, but Coiley was practi-
cally knocked out in the fourth
round. Colley out-pointed his op-
ponent during the three rounds. In
the fourth round he lost his temper
and wanted to make quick work of
McGlynn. When 40 seconds of the
round had been fought Colley got a
jaw breaker which fioored him. He
jumped up quickly only to receive a
second jab on the jaw and he hit the
floor again. THE referee then sent
McGlynn to his corner and gave him
the decision.
Jack Palmer of Akron and Eddie
Forman of Canton fought four
friendly rounds.
The ten round bout between Chas.
O'Donneil and VIM. McDetrick,
both of Akron, caused much laughter
because Of McDetrick's awkward
ness. His side steps and overhsnded