The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-18
CLASSY FIGHTERS ALL OF THESE BUT
 NOT CHAMPIONS
Silly Smith, Pete Mccoy, Charley Mitchell, Jim Hall and
 Jimmy Carroll


 Some substantial recognition and due consideration should be given to Inc many heroes of the prize ring Wno have fought hundreds of game hon est combats within the ropes ana were never able, for some reason or another, to land g. championship title
 I mean the near champs as they call them, who got "so near and yer so far'' from the classic thrones that lead to big coin and glory galore.
 There was Pete Mccoy for example, who made that wonderful boxing tour with John L. Sullivan from the At lantic to the Pacific and back sui lfvan got all the big glory for knock- ing out a mighty host Of unsophist1- cafed giants, while Mccoy, as a welter and rntddleweight, probably had more harder battles and put more Vlcums to sleep than the Big Fellow did on The road I have heard the late Al Smith, that prince of sporting men, relate many of the gruelltng lights Mc- Coy had on the tour. It was the greatest boxing show that ever tra- yersed the country, and it made Sul- lfvan the most popular and famous fighter that ever stepped in a ring. In something less than ten months the big combination netted some $15O,OOo according to Smith
 Pete Mccoy never claimed either the welter or middleweight titles in those palrny days. although he was of- fen billed and introduced. as such. att the time In fact there was no rec ogufzed weiterweIght class at that time. Mccoy was altogether too light for 0 middleweight> Mike Cleary or phsladaInf1ia was considered the champion of that division. He had a splendid record for quick decisive !. battlea He certainly put to sleep a bunch of boxers in his day. He fought vsrT much on the order of John L., depending upon one great right hand punch to do the trick, while on the ether hand Mccoy was there with either right or left, and was really a very scientific boxer. He had fought many hard battles on the turf under the old London rules. with bare Knuckles, besides, he was an artist at oueensbury milling. What chance Mike Gibbons. Eddie McGoorty. Jack Dillon, Frank Klaus and the other top notch middlsweights would have had with such a man as Pete Mccoy, when he was good and right.
 Brooklyn Jimmy Carroll was a very near-champion in his salad days. He was probably the greatest middle weight fighter this country ever pro- duced He could and did battle un- der the old and new rules. Carroll was one of the greatest collar and elbow wrestIers in the world, and this gave him a great advantage under London rules. When only youth Of nine teen years hs 4gEs1lt an stilss way to Barbados in the West Indies, and beat the champion, one Prof. Grey, who was a heavyweight, while Carroll only tipped the scales at 145 pounds. Grey was not the only heavyweight Brook Iyrn Jimmy defeated. He knocked out Australian Billy Smith, who wss much over the rniddleweight limit, in Cali fornia. after a most sensational bat tie under Queensbury rules There was one great reason why Carroll nev- CT attempted to grab the middleweight title. His friend, Jack Dempsey, held that honor, and Carroll was too fond of and too much on the level with the game Nonparei1 to ever stand in his way. We all knew Carroll could de- feat Dempsey, as he was much more rugged and with a greater 'kick'' and about as clever as poor Jack.
 I often wished that Carroll had met Bob F1tzsimmons instead of Dempsey. He offered to take the Nonpareils s place against the Cornishman, but Dempsey was too proud and confident Of victory. Oh, it might have been a. different story if Carroll and "Fitz' had cIashed. for Jimmy possessed lightning speed and was wonderfully aggressive with his other strong points. It iis a pity he did not mill more often in his prime, but he was a very social fellow and had too many friends. Carroll goes down into the history Of American Fistiana as a -snear champion" for he might have retired with the mfdd1eweight crown.
 always claimed that if Jim Hall was strictly honest he might have won championship honors. You know he whipped F1tzsfmmons in four rounds at Sydney, Australia, and I have proof to show that both men were on the square in this mill. Fitz always said he laid down in order to get the mon ey to come to America, but the Aus tra1ian boxing experts, who witnessed the fight declare he was absolutely knocked out dead to the world. Hall was certainly an artistic boxer and he could fake or fight fair with the skill of a past master. I consider such men as Hall, however, a disgrace to the boxing game. But now that he is dead and gone I'll have to let his career in the ring rest
 What a human fighting machine was Mysterious Billy Smith a few years ago. If there had been no Tom my Ryan in the field to stop him, At that he gave Ryan all he could do decisions with the nimble.. clever headed fighter, in or out of the ring and if he had taken proper care o1 himself and trained faithfully he might have gone into hstic history as a real champion instead fo a near one
 Charley Mitchell, who used to call himself 'skhe boxing champion o1