El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-05-19
PAPKE IS ERRAT|C
IN FIGHTING CAME
Puts Up Fine Fight One
Time and Poor Effort
Another.

San Francisco, Cal, May 2O.-Some Of
us would like to know if the Austria
liam critics think any better of Billy
Papke than they dii before he downeu
the rising young Antipodean fighter,
Dave Smith Papke's ring work
ridicu1ed by the experts down. .yon-
der from the very beginning They
pronounced the Illinois Thunderboit"
a false alarm the first time they saw
him put up his hands. By the time
Dave Smith had won from him on a
foul and hard headed cyclone Thomp-
son had made a punching bag out OF
him, the Australians we're puzzled to
imagine how Papke lad ever made any
heaiway with his fists in his own
country. They considered him the
poorest apology for a worlds champion
they ever had laid eyes on.
1t was rather humiliating for some
of US who had seen Papke at his best
and who had warned the Australians
to be on the lookout for high class
exponent OF Queenseerry pastimes- But
it's a long lane that has no turning.
and now that PaDke has come back to
apologies or explanations is done away
with.
Always a BIT Uncertain.
Of course, if Papke had kept up his
poor work to the very last in Australia
and if it had become necessary to say
something in defence of the good re-
ports of him sent thither in the first
place, VIC could have fallen back on
the fact that Billy has been an uncer-
tainn proposition from the time he
first stepped into a ring. The cham
pfor lin and outer some call him. but
that carries with it a suggestion OF
chronic crookedness and I don't think
that Papke is sinner enough to de-
serve reputation of that kind. The
fact remains, however that Billys
record is a hodSepodge of strikingIy
brilliant perfoI mances and the mos,
Wretched snowings.
The ketchel Affair.
What a beating he administered to
dashing Stanley Ketchel at Los An
gcles-had him beaten from the first
clash, as matter of fact-and what
faint hearted display he made in sub
sequent fights with the Michigan
Assassin" In one of their affairs In
San Francisco, the merest tyro Of a
watcher might have discovered that
Ketchel simply kept going on his cour-
age. Both hands were crippled ana ne
just waved his elbows in the latter
rounds for the purpose of intimidating
Papke. who might have had both
arms broken for all the fighting he
attempted. Ketchel earned the de-
cision and Papke was called, by some
a poor general and by others chicken
hearted middleweight
Hugo Kelly has shown Papke in all
his fighting moods. 1t has been Hugo's
privilege to travel the full 20 rounds
distance with Billy, and it has been his
the fierce lightning punches that
Papke cuts loose on occasions.
Papke certainly kept up his reputa-
ton as an in-and-outer across the seas
las his early performances with Dave
Smith, Cyclone Thompson and others
will show But he wound up his Aus
tralian career in a blaze of glory
that is if his winning fight with Dave
Smith is to be his last in Kangaroo
Land.
When Papke was in disgrace in San
Francisco owing to a bad looking fight
with Joe Thomas, l asked him how he
accounted for the fact that in some OF
his fights he seemed the personffica-
ton of force and speed while in others
he was as slow and ineffective as the
traditional ice wagon.
Papke Admits Defects.
II can't tell why it is so, but I'm
willing to admit it's a true BILL" said
Papke. There are times when 1 simply
can't get started, try as 1 may. 1t was
that way with Joe Thomas and 1 was
that way when 1 fought Ketche1 both
times in San Francisco
From which it will be seen that
Papke is quite ready to admit that his
ring performances are not by any
means of an even character.
1t was often said that Ketchel was
the only man of his poundage Papke
really feared and for this reason, now
that Ketchel has passed away, it is
believed Papke will make things hum
in the middleweight division when he
returns to his native heath.
But it is as we'll to remember that
Sam Langford keeps insisting it is easy
for him to come in as a middleweight
and, if Langford goes about proving
his claim in a business like way. 1t
seems as though Papke will have a
second Ketchel to reckon with