The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-06
FELTz The WINNER
HIS BOUT WITH KELLY LASTED
TWENTY-FIVE ROUNDS.
HAD KELLY ON THE RUN.
THE BOSTON LAD WOULDN'T STAND
UP AND FIGHT.


fed with the Bout-ISeIiy Wanted
the Ring Larger-Bout Would
Have Been Even More of Foot
Race Then-BOth Men Kept Strong
Throughout, and There Was No
Blood Let-Snvannah Lad Wants to
Take FeItz On.
Tommie Feltz made good his title as
bantam champion last night by get
ting the decision over Jimmie Kelly az
ter twenty-five rounds of fighting and
running at the Theater. The crowd
seemed very well satisfied, however,
and made no holler. 1t tumbled to the
very evident fact that Kelly thought
that was about the only way he could
last twenty-five misunderstanding him
self about the ring, and seemed to
consider that he had right to look
after his end of the bout in whatever
way pleased him best. This view of
it was not universal, though, for he
was called a big stiff" and many
other equally as melodious and con-
sideraby more approbrious names.
The boys fought at catch weights,
but the disparity was so marked that
it was seen that Feltz, unless it had
been for his great science, his strength
and his splendid form, would have
been handicapped. Kelly had hight
and reach over the Brooklyn lad, but
that didn't make him a match for the
bantam champion.
One of the best houses that has been
seen at boxing match for a long
while gathered. The preliminary, which
was pulled off but little after the adj
vertised hour for the bout to COM
mence, was between Walter Heron
and Tom Flanagan, both Savannah
lads. 1t was to have run six rounds,
but Heron fouled Flanagan in the
fourth. 1t was foolish thing to do, If
done purposely, for he had his man
going without that owen Ziegler, who
acted as referee in that and the star
bout. very promptly gave Flanagan
the decision.
Ziegler prefaced his Introduction of
the lads who appeared in the prelim-
mary with a talk that was evidently
intended for the information of the
preachers who have their eye on the
fistic attractions at the Theater, and
seem disposed to break them up. Zieg-
Ter said there was no such thing as
a prize fight in the United States, and
that there had not been one since 1888,
when Sullivan and Kilrain fought at
Richburg, Miss. That was a prize
fight, and the last that has been seen
in a city in this country. These bouts
held at Savannah, Ziegler said, are
not fights but boxing matches, fought
with tive-ounce gloves. They are not
to a finish. They are simply scientific
boxing matches or glove contests, and
the speaker advised his hearers in flu
ture, not to say that they were going
to see prize fight, but boxing match
or a glove contest.
Soon after the, preliminary was over.
the principals of the star bout entered
the ring, Feltz appearing first and get
ting little the better of it in the
way of hands. In his corner were AL
McMurray, Jack Daily and Harry Will
hanson, while Kelly was looked after
by Kid Davis, Tom Rafferty, and Jack
Bennett
1t looked for a while like Kelly
wasn't coming to the scratch. Nothing
had been said about it in the articles
under which the men met, but the size
of the ring had been reduced from
twenty to eighteen and a half feet.
Kelly objected. He wanted the ring
kept at twenty feet, because he relied
upon footwork to keep him out of
trouble with Feltz. He gave in on the
point, however, and the ring was not
enlarged. If it had been, there is no
telling what might have happened. AS
1t was, Kelly was on the run almost
the entire game. He might as well
have had the race track at the Fair
Grounds as a twenty-foot ring.
For the first two rounds the lads
mixed it up in fine shape. From the
sound of the gong at the jump they
roughed it in both rounds. They came
together in clinches time after time,
and Ziegler had to break them by main
force. Both looked as if they were on
the point of fouling, and 1t was not un-
til the third round that they settled
down to tactics that were pursued al
most throughout the bout. Even in the
third there was some pretty fast fight
ing, both men landing heavy blows,
and the conclusion of the round was
marked with applause.
In the fourth Kelly started his
monkey-on-a-chain prancing, with
Feltz in the place of the hand organ
man. This performance was not so
marked as it became later, when the
crowd and Feltz got very tired of it.
The only round in the fight that was
Kelly's was the fourth. He landed
right and left, one to the jaw and the
other to the wind, in quick succession,
and then drove his right twice to the
face. That was the only time that
Feltz looked as If he cared very much
about Kelly's punches.
Feltz gathered himself together in
the next round in fine shape, and
showed strong. He put Kelly on the
run. and had him chasing around the
ring. When Kelly couldn't run from
with head down and butting him into
the ropes.
In the seventh the honors were pref
ty even, but in the eighth Kelly
showed speed in the legs again, and
the spectators got sore. They began
kissing him, but he wasn't affected by
that. Tommie wearied of chasing
him and stopped deliberately, putting
his hands down and asking Kelly what
he was afraid Of The ninth was much
of the same story, the crowd flinging
choice epithets at Kelly and inviting
him to stand up and get killed
Whats the mater with YOU" asked
Feltz. contemptuously, "ain't you big
enough?" mo" answered Kelly
with the grin that would win him the
BOBBY prize in any beauty show, and
stuck to his tactics.
Kelly took n bracer in the next
round, forcing the fighting for a min
ute, but then decided he needed exer-
else. slide, Kelly, slide" said some
ono IN tha Crnxvd Naorixy al A. ,,ozA