The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-02
BAT NELSON HAS
 NOT LEARNED ART
 OF LOSING WELL
BY ". w. NAUGHToN

l years of continuous fighting I can say in all seriousness that am 100 per cent bet ter now than have been at any time dur ing my career. Like good wine, think have improved with age" "-Extract from Bat Nelson, February 21, 1910. T was not in condition and I knew I could not get into condition on February p, last. When they continued to demand fight I put the figures so high that l never thought they would accept them. - Extract from Bat Nelson, December H, 1910.
 l The above are excerpts from two inter views in which Bat Nelson was the man interviewed. The statement in which he sets forth that he was not in condition for his fight with Ad. Wolgast and knew he could not get into condition was made in Detroit December 21. The interview in which he says he was 100 per cent better ! than at any time in his career was given to the writer on February 21, the night before the contest with Wolgast. In which interview did Nelson speak the truth?
 He is generally regarded as a defeated champion who deserves well at the hands of the public for the reason that he has always given the public a square deal and a run for it's money.
 | If he really said in Detroit on the date named that he was not in condition and knew he could not get into condition for the WoIgast affair, he did not give the public d square deal on that occasion. | He allowed the public to bet on him. He went further. He encouraged and stimu- lated such betting by telling the writer for a publication he was 100 per cent better than he ever was in his career. He added that he was "25o per cent bet ter" than when he boxed Wolgast before | in Los Angeles.
 For all that, what he said in February and later in December is strongly at vari- ance. I believe that in his heart Nelson attributed to him at Detroit he was simply talking through his hat
 l I believe the durable Dane was sincere
 in what he told me that he was trained to perfection and spelling for fight that was going to make wolgast look like | 30 cents.
 | I remember when Terry McGovern was
 1oored by Young Corbett that Thanks giving afternoon at Hartford. When Terry hit the boards with a dull, distinct thud and his second yelled to him to stay down, he bounced up again and began putting against the ropes, as though he wanted to walk out of the ring and across the heads of the crowd. Now, a fellow who is used to being knocked down would have remained on the carpet and taken as much of the count as the law allowed. It was a new experience to Terry and he did not know how to act
 He wanted to keep up and doing and in his dazed condition it was the easiest thing in the world for the rd-punching
 little Denverite to give him his quietus.
 In the same way this thing of being punched into submission is comparatively q new experience to Bat Nelson and he
 has not learned the trick of acknowledg- ing defeat gracefully
 He knows how to explain victory and
 to give the other man credit for being
 "a good, game fellow and all the rest of it, but he does not seem to know how
 to change gear and view things from the standpoint of a loser. Maybe if he con- tnues in the game he will become more of a philosopher and leave himself less open to censure.
 | Ad Wolgast, according to all accounts has demanded the sum of 2,500 as one of the conditions on which he will agree to box Owen Moran in the spring. It Wolgast is left alone the chances are he will change his terms. It is as plain as the nose on ones face that the import ant matches of 1911 will be confined to the lightweight division. There is no dearth apparently of 136-pound men and it will be easy enough to keep the pugi- listic ball rolling and allow MT. Wolga st
 to continue sulking in his tent
 San Francisco's latest contribution to the lightweight class, MT. "One Round''
 Hogan, is a youngster who will make friends for himself wherever ringside
 crowds are gathered. In his work he is neat without being showy. He is one of
 the best two-handed boxers developed in
 the city in many years and would be able
 to give a good account of himself with
 even Omen Moran, Freddie Walsh or Abe
 Attell for an opponent.
 There are other far western lads who
 are coming along nicely. Antone La
 grave who is probably a pound or two
 above the lightweight scale, is improving right along while Frankie Burns, who was Hogan's rival in their "amateur
 days" is thought by a great many to be the most promising lightweight colt in
 sight