The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-07
THREE B|G SCRAPS BOOKED FOR TODAY Battling Nelson Gives Negro Cans Another Chance KETCAEL MEETS PAPKE Attells and Moran's Battle Makes the Third Worlds Championship Scrap
 for Today-AlI Occur In
 California.
KETCaEL MEETS PAPKE
By JOE MURPHY.

San Francisco, SeptemDeF o.-CanlOrl'd has all the other states in the union down and taking the count when 1t comes to the pugilistie center Of the sporting world. More fights and better fights are pulled off in the Golden State than in any other bailiwiek in Uncle Sam's dominion larger purses are of- fered and larger crowds cheer the com batants
 We have been having the cream of the encounters right along, and now we are going to have the creme de la creme.
 Within a short space of one day three worlds championship battles will be fought in the state In Los Angeles on Labor Day Ketche and Papke will go 25 rounds for the middleweight title; on the same day at Colima Abe Attell and Owen Moran are set for 2S rounds for the featherweight championship, and two days later Joe Cans and Battling Nelson will meet for the third time to settle the question of the. lightweight supremacy
 Papke is not so well liked as he might be. all on account of his poor showing against Sailor Burke in New York short time ago. Ketchel is expected to add another scalp to his collection. Still, Burke didn't give the Milwaukee lad much opportunity to show what he really could do. The sailor was always grap- ping with the enemy
 The Moran-Attell battle is difficult problem. Moran put the clever Caliior- nian through 25 rounds of the nVenest fighting ever seen on the Pacinc slope. Abe says he was stalling but, well-a great number of sports who saw the fight didn't say the same. Each says ne Is going to win this time for "sartin.
 As to the really big fight of the three is Cans still the "old master" or Is he all in? It is pipe that unless ne IS % per cent better next Wednesday night than he was the last time he met Nel- son the go will never get within near ing distance of the 45th round. Cans IS about due to get his final knockout Tn the game, and the adherents of the Dane say it is coming to him on the sth-
 Still Cans is a remarkable man, one of the most remarkable that ever entered the ring. He has broken many tradi- ton in his career Cans has disproven the theory many times that the color IS the cause of his downfall, for he has Scome back and beaten some of the men who, prior to last Fourth of July, had handed him licking he should have re- membered.
 He knocked out George McFadden after George had sent him to the floor for the count He beat Frank Erne after the white man, then champion of the world had beaten him so badly in the contest in New York that he was forced to quit and acknowledge defeat.
 He lost to Dal Hawkins in 15 rounds and came pack and won from him twice by putting him out. He was bested by Mike CTwin) Sullivan at Baltimore, and then in San Francisco, and then in Los Angeles easily put the white man away
 He lost to Sam Langford, colored, and he, with Nelson, are the only men who stilp hold winnings over him that he has not come back and redeemed. Terry McFadden has a win over him, but that contest doesn't count.
 Cans apparently fears one of his own color more than he does those of the white race, for he has never asked for a return match with Langford and he is matched to meet Nelson again after a win and lose.
 Langford, it might be explained, is too big for Cans, and this perhaps was his reason for not asking return match.
 To talk with Cans is almost to become convinced that he will win the coming contest, so confident is he that he will be able to turn the tables and win back his lost title.
 Those who are most interested in the affairs of the colored man are leaving no stone unturned or sparing no expense In once again putting the coTored man in the proper condition, and, If nature will assist ever so little, 1t will be different Cans who faces Nelson this time and the one who fought him last July.
 Johnny Croll, in whose place in Ala meda Cans is training and at which place he trained for the first contest he had in California with Charlie Rochett, says that he looks to be In good condi- ton and that he works about the gym nasium with the same activity that he did for the contest of 12 years ago.
 This time Cans will be watched with the careful eyes of the critics as he has never been watched before and he will have to be in good condition to pass in Spection.