The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-03
(By James J. Corbett. Former Heavy
 weight Champion of the World.)
Especial to the Farmer.)

{By James J. Corbett. Former Heavy 1 weight Champion of the World) i Special to the Farnier.)
 New York, Jan. 3, 1914-Jack John lson is the heavy-weight champion of the world. Did you know that, reao-F CT? No? Well. the startling disco ] cry was recently made by Secretary Charles Harvey of the New f orks Box. ling Commission who cabled the as-s founding information to Paris in res Iponse to a query from the French box 1 ing authorities concerning Johnson's s status a pug. | It appears that certain promoters on l the other side are peeyed at the 1 champion because he has refused to do business at their clubs sup i pose there is just about as much Jeal-s ousy and pickering over there among ithe packers of fight clubs as on this side. At any rate one M. Vienne, D1- rector of the Society for the Propaga- tions of Boxing in France (get that title D, wanted the New York boxing noguls to back him up in his stand lthat Johnson by refusing to meet Sam l Iangford had forfeited his claim on the title. Naturally the local people could not 1 do this as much as they might have wished to-. There is no possible way of taking the, title away from John son except by killing him, beating him l in fair fight in the ring, accident, or through his voluntary retirement There is nothing in the rules lwhat Ijoke those ruIesJ, which compels a lchampion to defend his title any of tener than he feels like it. In the old l days a champion was supposed to de- 4fend his title at least once year, if anyone challenged, but nowadays con- ditions are different and he is expect, led to fight only when broke or his drawing power as a theatrical star ts | TTTEaV n O It would be a good idea if the au-# 1 thorities of the different countries were to get together and adopt an in {, ternational rule which would force all pugilistic champions to defend their titles every so often; but how are you going to bring them together? It might be possible to get the French promoters to consent to such a con vention, and in England whatever the I National Sporting Club dEcIdes is ac- 1 cepted as final by the sTnaIl Her frys# but in the dear old U. S. A. how about it Why over here the authorities in one 1 state will not even respect the rulings Iof the moguls in another. For ex-. ample, take the Wisconsin ruling against Packey Mcfarland. Packey 1 is barred for a year in wisconsin, but is welcome every place else in the 1 country.
 l When the New York commission set | Atteu down for six months all Abe
 
 l to get all the work he wanted. As long as these harmonious, conditions | exist in this country it is silly to talk I about passing international rules to lregulate boxers and boxing
 l Johnson's latest appearance in the ring indicates that he has hit the down grade Apparently it would not now take really great fighter to de- l feat him. Jim sCofroth, of San
 
 find battle ground, then offer the big smoke a fat purse, and see how quickly he would grab at it. The greatest difficulty Cofroth will exper- fence is finding community where they will stand for Johnson
 Willie Ritchie will do well to keep a physician with him constantly during the training campaign for the coming mill with Tommy Murphy. If any thing should again happen teU the champion necessitating another delay he would have a very hard time eA- l plaining it to the satisfaction of the ESan Francisco public. Since he abandoned the Welsh match in Cana l da, and then had to ask a postpone
 n1ent of the bout with Murphy the champion has been under suspicion on
 the. coast
 I Like Ad Wolgast he seems to be un-
 lucky in many ways. Here in the
 
 phys nnits-and have a fairly good idea of what Richie can do-we. fig- i ureds the bout with Murphy as some Ieasy money for the champion. But cut California way where Tommy has fought several good battles they look at it in a different light, and several 1critics have even accused Willie of lharboring nc desire to test his vaunt-
 ed skill against that of the New Y ork- Ter.
 | Since Ritchie has gone on record in favor of raising the lightweight limit to 135 pounds a howl has ariseu from different parts of the country that he is really welter-weight From what I had been told was un- | der the impression that the light weight champion could no more make 133 pounds and be fit than could. But when training for the. New York h bout with Leach Cross I watched Will lie jump on the scales several days
 before the fight, and he balanced at exactly 133 1-2. And. mind you, the
 conditions Of that match did not call for 133 but for 135 at o'clock in the If evening. As this weight was what Ritchie scaled two or three days be- fore the bout it is easy to ilnaginc ltnat 123 ripgside would be no great hardship for him
 Jim Buckley, manager for Tommy y I Murphy likes to talk a lot Jim is
 2 good fellow and all that. but never ifeels so happy as when he has an au- i dience. Anyhow, a day or two after | the recent postponement all parties interested met in Jim Coffroth,s office to arrange new match. Ritchie
 wanted the same weight conditions to i govern. Buckley made a spiel I about Murphy wanting the weight 133
 rim gside, that his boy was entitled to ! some concessions in view of the fact that the postponement was no fault of his, and that he (BuckIey) would bet $5,000 if the champion would iconsent to that weight. Rftchie came back so quickly with the coin that it l made BuckIey's hair curl But Jim Igot out of it by saying that he meant