The Hawaiian gazette., 1913-11-21
Practically Every Fistic Star Pre-.
sented With One Has Met
With Misfortune.

There seems to be growing sen.
timent among fighters 10 the effect
that the presentation of belts EN-
blematic of championships are apt to
bring bad luck to the recipients
"Take the Lonsdale belts given by
the National Sporting Club of Eng
land, - said veteran sporting man,
land see what has usually happened
to the holders. No sooner do they win
the trophy for the first time than they
get pounded to powder in the next
scrap they have. Ledoux hung it on
Digger Stanley just after the Digger
was hailed as belt champ of his native
land. Mddleweight Jack Harrison
COPIED off belt, came over here and
McGoorty walloped him out in punch
And you all know what happened to
our friend Bombardier Wells, heavy
weight champion of John Bull land, and
the proud owner of another of the
Lonsdale waist adorners. Both PalZer
and Smith plastered the Bomb into a
state of coma and he hasnt yet got
over wondering how it happened. Give
him one more belt and send him over
here again and he d probably be killed
Mccarthy Had Hoodoo.
"But it isn't the Lonsdale trophies
alone that carry a hoodoo along. How
about some of our own belts, made and
presented to pugilistic heroes2 DOM
you recollect who Tom McCarey pre-
scented the last belt TOT Why, none
other than poor Luther Mccarthy, who
wound up his short lived smuggling
career at Calgary. Mccarthy won that
belt by whipping Kaufman, Flynn and
Palzer in succession, and he was mighty
proud OF it. But six months after he
came into possession of the trophy
death claimed him.
"Do you remember once when Jim
Corbett thought he would retire from
the heavyweight throne, before FitZ-
simmons beat him! He picked out Pc
ter Maher the big Cet as the next
best to himself, and Makers New
! DIRK friends were so tickied at having
Nick champ that they presented
! Peter with some kind of belt.
don Z know what became of Makers
1 trophy, but ! do know that the very
next scrap he had was with Fitz, and
the red-top knocked him kicking with
one punch.
Conley Fell Under Spell.
/ In 1910 frankie Conley and Monte
Attell met on the coast in n battle sup
posed to be for the bantam title.
Neither one of them came within jump
ing distance of the bantamweight lin
it, but the bout was billed as cham
pionship affair and McCarey gave a
belt for the victor, who happened to be
Conley After that everybody Conley
tackled kicked him almost to death.
Owen Moran, Johnny Coulon. Joe Cos
ter, Patsy Kline, Johnny Kilbane, all
drubbed poor Conley, and what's more,
he never has since shown good fitting
form.
"aBttling Nelson was also presented
with belt, and only had it a short
time before he lost the lightweight
championship to Wolgast. Then some
one wished a belt on Wolgast, and all
the plaques of Egypt seemed to drop
ON Ads head. Broken arms, thumbs,
fits of sickness, an operation for ap-
pendicitis, ending up with defeat fol-
his title, and the browning of Willie
Richie, as lightweight champion. 1t
wouldn I be bad idea for Leach
- pals to get together, but belt
and present it to Richie. "a plank
down good.sized bet that such a gift
would cripple Willie's muscles, para
lyze his feet and make him easy for the
tooth.eolector. If | was serappei
and anyone tried to give me belt 4
do my best to pick him off at long
range with Grag, before he got clos,
enough to slip the hoodoo to me.