The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-13
GLEASON REJECTS
BIG PROPOSITION
Offer of $4,000 for Bar Privi-
leges at Arena Refused
NO DRINKING ALLOWED
N.orIx rbree Hundred Newspaper Men
VIII Attend the Fight-The Arena
VIII BE Made to Seat Over
10000 People
BY JEFF THOMPSON

New York, April 12.-(Special.)-1a eh
Gleason, promoter of the Jeffries-Johhson
fight, has been offered $4,000 a day io'
July 1. 2 and for the bar privileges IN
the arena to be built on the race track al
Emervville. Gleason turned down the
| offer.
short time ago a tentative oHer ior
the bar privileges was made TO Iieason
while he was in Chicago on MS way ~
this city, He said then that ne woulo nv
allow the sale of liquor at the arena o''
the day of the Jeffries-J ohnson hgnt' IL
though he said nothing about the previous
dow 1vban other fights will be held as sort
of preliminaries to the big elimaAihe D"
tie. uAo,,,a
couldn't fgure out why Gleason shooio
tnrn down a small fortune Wheh II was
his for the taking.
'.rll tell you," said he. "rhere Is soihs
IN he a great deal of feeling in tnat he ~
,rhera is going to be SO much that there
{. danoar of race riots. We shall have
the arena policed as no other similar sa.ii
erinp was ever policed before, pue III
taking no chances on booze. VI COURSE
I'VE cannot stop men from carrying orinN
In TASKS. but we are not going " se.e
any: at least, that is the intentoh no"'
If we should operate bar there VIII NC
a great deal of drinking, and the ex-
element from the liquor is likely to cause
no end of trouble"
From now on we can look for the usual
batch of false alarms from the training
camps. 1t is always the case. Some ohe
will start a rumor that Johnson mas
broken a toe or that Jeffries has tackled
mountain lion and had both his arms
cheyed off. and thus they will continue.
Rut there is too much at stake for harm
to overtake either man through careless
ness. Why there is talk of insurfng eacn
fighter and the referee for $4,000 each.
There will be 165 press seats in the arena
which will be built for the Jefries-Jonh-
son fight, and I daresay there will De
about 265 newspaper men and aleseo
newspaper men to fill them
As planned on paper the new arena is
the greatest thing In the history of fight
ing, It has been decided that it be erect
ed on the inf1eld and will be 800 feet wide.
It will have a seating capacity OF 10000.
but the plans have been left open so that
1t might be stretched into seating $1,000
persons 1t will require more than 50o0o
feet of lumber to build it. The arena Will
be divided into three octagonal sections.
Next to the ring will be the 16o press
seats. Next comes the boxes and seats
which range in price from so to SIS. The
second section will contain $40 to $50
seats, while the third section will hold
the IS seats. These are box office prices
Do not blame me for Spectator prices
afterward.
Some time ago when wrote that STAN
ley Ketchel was high-rolling and rapidly
spelling his good physique by rapid Nv
ing, his friends rose up in wrath deny
ing its truth. However, 1 know from my
own personal knowledge that I spoke
the truth and subsequent developments
have proved my words.
Ketchel seemed to lose complete control
of himself after his manager, Willus
Britt, died. Johnny Igoe has been max
ing Herculean efforts to get him back
into form, but the lure of the bright lights
and the tinkle of the piano sounded better
to Steve.
The fact that Ketchel is now out of the
championship class leaves room for a
middle weight champion. This ought to
be settled pretty soon. Langford seems the
best contender now.
Many persons do not know it, but
fighter loses weight at the rate of five
pounds to the hour in a long fight. A
heavyweight may enter the ring at 235
pounds. and after grilling 40 or 50-round
fight crawl through the ropes weighing
about 22O pounds.
When Battling Nelson met Ad Wolgast
he tipped the beam at 1873 pounds. After
his 40 rounds of fighting he weighed 1923
pounds.
There is a possibility that New Or
leans and not California may see Bat
Ting Nelson in his next star fight
Nelson has been dickering with "Mat-
tv" Baldwin for an engagement I'm
New Orleans early in June. The coast
promoters had decided to book The for
ner champion with Cyclone Johnny
Thompson for a long fight in Frisco.
The New Orleans offer carried with it
a guaranteed purse of $4,000 and SO
per cent of the gross receipts for the
winner. AS Baldwin agreed to make
1875 pounds allowing Nelson to fight