The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-03-22
CAN PACKEY
MAKE WEIGHT
FIN COTbett Doubts If M'FarIand
and Willie RitChIe Ever
Meet
NBy James j. Corbett, Former Heavy
weight Champion of the Worldly
Written for The Evening Farmer.


Can Packey Mcfarland do 1913
pounds at 3 o'clock in the afternoon
and give a good account of himself in
a twenty round bout at o'clock in
the evening? Packey says he can, and
so prove it has accepted Willie Ritch-
les def But Mcfarland adds that he
will make weight for nobody but the
champion.
Paokey's weight has been one of the
great mysteries of professional pugi1-
ism for several years past. He agreed
to 1873 to get a match with Ad VOL
CAST when that young man held the
title, but as the bout was called off
the public remained skeptical of his
ability to make it and be in condi-
ton to put up a good argument. Evil
IDENTIFY Mcfarland knows just what he
can do and his willingness to accept
the terms and conditions of Ritchie's
proposal without kick or protest of
any kind will act silencer on the
critics who have insisted that he is no
longer eligible to fight in the light
weight division.
At that doubt if Packey and Will
lie ever meet. They would make the
ideal match, much better than the
proposed Ritchie-Wolgast or Wolgast-
Mcfarland affair. Both boys are
clever and of practically the same
school and represent the best there is
in scientific boxing. But Billy No
Ian is too shrewd to pit Richie against
his former teacher before he has had
a chance to corral easy purse or
two, which is recognized nowadays as
one of the privileges to which a new
champion is entitled. There are any
number of nght-weights who are cas-
Ter than the Peerless Packey, and as
Nolan knows the ropes pretty well he
will no doubt find some plausible ex-
cuse for avoiding the match if it ever
comes to a show down. And, be-
mo a
him very much from a business, if not
a sporting, point of view.
Leach Cross admirers are now tout
ing him for the lightweight cham
pionship- There is no denying that
as result of the recent victory over
Joe Mandot his stock has doomed. But
Leach will never become a champion
In the first place doubt if his heart
is in the right place. He is like many
another near champion" Give him
a mark and he boxes like world
beater, but put him in front of a good
man and he fights more like a dub
If anyone will take the trouble to
look in the dope books he will find
Cross has not been the most consis-
tent boxer in the world.
The detailed reports of the Cross
Mandot bout do not make Leach out
the great fighter his press agents rep
resent him. He was on the losing
Mandot's jaw. OF Leach's hitting
power there is not the slightest doubt
He packs a hefty punch, and let him
once get the other fellow going and
he sails in for keeps. But anyone
who has ever boxed or who has fol-
lowed the sport closely knows that the
element of luck frequently figures
prominently in a boxing match, and I
judge Leach to have been a FORUM
ate young man in the Mandot encoun-
ter. Many a boy has had victory
within easy grasp only to lose
Though carelessness and over-confl-
dence.
Gross will be put to the test in a
few weeks when he takes on Joe Riv-
ers in a return ten round bout. I
rather fancy Rivers will do even bet
ter this time, although he put up
corking good battle ON the other occa-
sion considering the handicap he was
under in lack of familiarity with the
rules in vogue here. Mandot while a
fairly clever boxer is not a hard hit
ter. Rivers is a combative yOungster,
who can give and take the hardest
knocks and answer the bell for more.
He can hit harder, if anything, than
Cross although Leach punches hard
enough to bring home the bacon. Joe
is not invincible; he can be knocked
out as Johnny Kilbane showed us, but
! imagine he is bit too hard a prop
osftion for New York's foremost light
weight If Leach succeeds in defeat
ing Rivers. I'll take my hat off to
him and admit he is the right sort,
but I'm from Missouri, and having
seen him in so many mediocre battles,
am inclined to regard his latest vic
tory largely in the light of fiuke.
While on the subject of light
weights and championship POSSIBLE |
tiles it might not be amiss to call at |
tention to Bud Anderson, the young |
western "phenom'' who gave such a |
splendid account of himself in last |
Saturdays twenty round contest with |
Knockout Brown. Making allow |
ances for comparative inexperience |
Anderson's showing was every bit as |
eredita BILE as that of Joe Rivers in |
stopping "Kayo'' in eleven rounds. In |
fact, Bud came close to duplicating |
Joe's stunt as he twice put the New |
Yorker to the floor in the eleventh |
and had him practically out when the |
gong came to the rescue.
OF course, TX. o. is not of cham /
pionship class, but he is as strong as
a young bull and a hard man to lick /
decisively. Rivers is the only one who |
stopped him, though with a bit of |
luck Anderson would have duplicated |
the feat. AS it was Browns recu-
erative powers enabled him to rally |
and by forcing matters in the last
round earned a draw, which decision,
II reports are correct, was hardly fair
TO Anderson.
Another lightweight who has been
attracting considerable attention late
Iy is Pal Brown, product of Hibbins,
Mimi In the middle west the experts
have already selected this boy az
their candidate for the lightweight
honors Pal has beaten few top
notchers. but his friends claim that
lack of opportunity explains that. He
has done everything asked of him to
date. and his work among the second
raters has been little short of SEN
sational at times
It didn't take long for Gunboat |
Srnitt. 70 nut Rombardier Wells in the