The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-03
CBy James J Corbeet, Former Heavy
 r-ueEnI,t (yl,arnr,icn Of flne. XNnr.ld.N

NBT James e4- OsOED6IGs EOFD16T d08Ny-
 weight Champion of the Worldly Written For The Evening Farmer )
 Willie Ritchie. the lightweight champion who has not done any 'champing' since winning the title from Ad Wolgast, may be seen in a New York ring within the next month. Efforts are being made to match Will lie with Freddy. Welsh, the British title holder and proud possessor of a belt ern nbIematic of the worlds light weight championship Although Freddy hasn't a legitimate claim to the title 1t must be admitted that the belt is a beautiful specimen of the jewellers art
 Not to digress. Willie and Freddie may put on the gloves for a ten round bout if Billy Gibson, match maker for the Madison Square Gar den promoters, can prevail on Billy Nolan and Harry Pollock, managers of the twoachampions, to agree on the division of the spells
 Ritcfaie can have a fat guarantee to box welsh, but whether the amount offered will meet with NOlans esu- mate of the worth of his fighter as drawing card is a question. It is said that Nolan asks S15,ooo, which is Quite-some money in these hard times Pollock's demands are quite modest in comparison
 If Gibson fails~t to land Rirc11ie he viii try to get Harlem Tommy" Mur- xhv to s.sub'' for the high priced champion The New York boxer is again in the glare of the calcium as result of the slzillfuI manner in which he recently handled Ad Wolgast, the foPmer bear cat of the division
 The critics are using Murphy's vic tory to can attention to the suppos- ed deterioration among the. light Teights, and thereby discredit Ritch- 1e as champion Their content1on- seems to be that present day boxers do not compare in. skill. with the ex- merits Of a decade ago, and they point fo the result Of the Murphy-W Wolgast battle in support of the argument.
 This is not new stuff by any means. Seldom Is a newly made champion given the credit due for the victory which has placed him at the head Of his division The public is not sat isf1ed that the newcomer is all that he should be until he has successfully defended the title several times Vol zragt.4 s7ou may rem sSnber, was called sscheese championv not so very long ago. but 9 review of the A41ch1ganders career will show that he was close Tn the standard of excellence set by his pred ecessors Ad was not the most skiIlfuI performer in the game, but his rugged strength and aggres- siveness made up for what he lacked along scientific lines.
 My opinion is that there Is some first class material among the present lot of 133 pounders- Ritchie LOOKS like the real goods in spite of the fact that he won his title on foul- He was leading up to the time or the disqualification and would undouoted- ly have been given the decision had the fight gone the limit, admitting he couldn't score a Knockout
 It was not so much the winning from a champion who had already shown signs of. retrogressfon that es- tablished Ritchie's claim to class His previous record indicated that he was a "conaer'' in the ranks of the light weights He had scored victories over the clever Jack Britton, Young Erne, Joe Mandot and several other good boys True, some of these de cisfons were of the popular or news paper variety, but convincing enough 10 prove the youngsters quality But it was the twenty round match with Freddy Welsh that stamped Willie as a boxer of great merit. Although Freddy was given the battle on points it was a very close thing, and his showing in that engagement is to my mind the Californian's greatest achievement in the ring, not except ing the ..win@ from Wolgast. He made the clever Welsh step his fast est to earn a shade A bout over the same distance might result differ ently now for Willie is no longer a novice
 I believe Ritchie will prove his worth when he resumes boxing Boys of the Mandot, Rivers, Cross and Mur- pFly kind should not give him much trouble He has most to fear from the clever type of miller-like Welsh or Brfttor1. These two lads have skill enough to make matters interesting for anyone in the division, with the r,rsssfble exception of Packey McFar- land. who looks like the daddy of them all. doubt if Ritchie could be induced to give Mcfarland a bat tie.
 Little has been heard from 1NcFar- land lately. His interest in pugilism seems to be waning. There is 9, re- vfvsl of the rumors that Packey and Mike Gibbons may be matched at one of the local clubs before long, but l don't place much stock in the story. In announcing the St. Paul boxers plans for the future. Manager Eddie Reddy recently stated that Gibbons would do the bulk of his fighting in The neighborhood of -150 pounds, which would kill any chance of Pack ev boxing him; at the extreme limit the Chfcagoan would hardly scale over 14O or 142 at the most, and he would be foolish to grant the speedy and clever Gibbons such an enormous weight advantage. PaclCey didn t have to exert himself in preparing ~or the recent bout with Jack Britton and yet he entered the ring at 140. Now if Mike would agree to make 145 I believe Mcfarland could be induced fo talk business None of the light 1vafrl1ts will have anything to do with I9ackey and if he intends to stick to --------- xx--aR T0RTT-E2E r1RT1SS