Evening star., 1912-09-01
BY T. S. ANDREWS.
special Dispatch to The Star.

special D1Spatch 10 1ne StAf.
MILWAUKEE,. Wis, August 3i.--Are
the fghts-or, rather. boxing boLts-of
the future. where championship is at
stake, to be of limited ten rounds? To
hear what some OF the champions and
near champions have to say regarding
the matter one would imagine that all
fights Of the future are to be arranged
and decided that way. There have been
many columns printed of late about
proposed championship battle between
Mike Gibbons. the clever st. Paul 15O-
FOUNDER. and Eddie McGoorty. one of the
claimants to the middleweight crown, the
same to be staged in New York city, and
the number of rounds to be ten. Gibbons
has come out in a statement announcing
that he would not meet McGoorty unless
he got his price for championship bat
tie. Now. can you imagine Paddy Ryan.
Yankee Sullivan. Charlie Mitchell, Joe
Goss, Joe Goddard. Bob FftZsimmons and
John L Sullivan, not counting numerous
other stars of a decade ago. fighting for
q championship with the limit placed at
ten rounds? Not on your life! 1t is all
right for Gibbons and all the rest or the
present-day stars to talk about ten round
contests and all that, but when they be-
gin to advertise them as champion affairs
it Is going a bit beyond the limit. And be-
sides, no decision is given in any of these
contests. unless there should happen to be
q knockout by either one.
The fighters of today are not satisfied
with trying to commerclallZe the boxing
game to such an extent that the follow
ers are beginning to distrust the honesty
of ir, but they want to make ten-round,
no-decision contests appear as champion
ship events. 1t Is tsme TO call halt.
believe In limiting the number OF rounds
in all boxing matches, and figure that the
twenty ty-round limit for bouts where cham
pionships are at stake Is about right, but
never the six or ten round analrs. Ihe
British boxing authorities for years have
set the limit for championship matches
at twenty rounds, and they are pretty
near hitting the nail on the head 1t Is
also practically the same with the re-
Gently proposed Johnson-Jeannette match
in New York. 1t was advertised as
championship match by the papers, and
that is probably what started lot Oh
agitation against II. although the boxing
commission would no doubt have taken
the action they did irrespective or these
reports. However, the match was moth
ing more than the regulation ten-round
contest permitted by the state law, and,
as members OF the commission stated. .
The bout was stopped for the good OF
the sport" AS to whether either John-
son or Jeanette could have scored a de-
csive victory In that tirne, OF course.
was open question, Dut IL WIS 1O-tC-l
bet that the boxers would have never
done other than to box the ten rounds at
a lively clip and let her go at that. They
know each other TOO well. having met
many times, TO settle matters so quickly.
1t is certainly pretty soft for the present.
day scrappers TO go into these bouts and
get the money, compared with twenty
and twenty-five years ago. when tney
were obliged to fight real championship
battles TO finish. AS stated above.
don't favor finish fights, but ] 90 believe
in at least twenty rounds for contests
where q title Is at stake.
II is not amiss just now to state that
some OF the fighters shift the weights in
the various classes TO suit their own con-
venience. Mike Gibbons claimed the well
terweight championship when he had alb
s6lutely no right to ii, because he could
not make the recognized weight--145
pounds ringside or 142 at ) O'Clock. Re-
Gently Mike announced that he was
through with the welterweight class be-
cause he had grown too big for II, and
that in the future he would take on mid
dleweights and make bid for the mid
dlewe eight title Then the St Paul boy
discovered that he did not gain the
weight expected by a good iay-off, that
and that he proposed to stick to the well
ters and retain the championship BY
what right has he the title at 151 or 100
pounds? None whatever, but ii sounds
well in arranging matches to have a title
TO go with il. | do not want TO under
rate Gibbons ability as fighter, fog he
il great boxer without a doubt, but 1t is
simply used as illustration to show
what methods are followed these days.