The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-01-17
(By James J. Csor11ett, ss,Eitte.r sTHeavy-
 weight Cham pion of. the Worda. !a
neciaIs to Ths EsvlssIIli ilIlas Farmer } 5

 1 tions for several Inonths Packeg Mo F,arland and Mike GibaoI1s n haSfef7sar- ] rived at ain agreenaeats and will meet | in a ten round contests at Ma dison Square Garden early next noi1tsd. l This is one bout local fight fans and the newspa5ers have been root i ing for. On paper it looIxs5 the ideal match. True, Gibboas may have to work harder tlah usual to make 145: l pounds at o'clock on the afternoon of the contest, but he will have at. 1 least six hours to eat 8. good meal. digest it, and take on a few pounds. Probably guess of f148 or 149 would ! come close to hitting his weight when, | he enters the srfng7sto box his clever rival from Chicago. And Mcfarland, if what he recently told T1iesa.sis cor rect, and have no reason to doubt it, will weigh in the neighborhood of 142 or 143. E So while in sense it will be- re- garded as a ..handicap' match we will likely discover that Packey very we'll kf1ew what he was about when he signed the articles of agreement. sI don't know whether he was present at the McGoorty- Gibbons. bout, held in the Garden a year ago. last Fall, but no doubt he figures that, Gibbons under 150 pounds is not the Gibbons who shows so well in bouts around the country at catch weights, any more than he himself is when conn pelled to do hguret near the light weight limit. ee Mcfarland has had consid derable ex- perience in weight making and match making, and can be depended upon not to take the worst of. it, especially when the other fellow seeks the match and happens to be such a clever fight CT as Gibbons. When .Packey finally consented to the match at 145 at o'clock you can bet he was reason ably sure that that is the lowest poS- sibIe weight Mike can make at any time, and that he also knows that the strenuous work which the St. Paul man will be forced to go through to make that low figure will certainly not tend to hurt his (Packey's)a own chances any.
 Mcfarland and Gibbons are both good business men. They are fair specimens of the scommerciaI' boxer. Neither Scorns to take advantage of every opportunity to '.put one over'' on an opponent. and the old saving that match we'll made is half won'' is the guiding principle of both men. But it ought to make great mill, hadn't it-from scientific point of view
 Gibbons sensational defeat of Bob McAllister may throw a scare into the more timid of the NTcFarland adher-1 ents, but will have little effect on those students of physical condition who can realize what it sometimes costs a. man to take off an extra pound or two. Mike was at his best fighting weight last Monday, and as strong as a bear. He will be from three to five pounds lighter when he boxes Packey. That difference. may spell his defeat.
 But I believe Gibbons, allowed to weigh in at his heaviest. can beat any legitimate middle-weight in the game today-if he were to fight George Chip, for instance, as he fought Bob McA1lister the coal miner would be lucky to stay ten rounds with the hard hitting, clever boxing St.SPaul man.
 Following Mcfarland in his plunge into the welter weight division is the stock yards boxer,s old rival, Jack Britton. In a recent match at the Garden, Britton sealed so it was an nounced, 13S stripped. His opponent, Phil Bloom, 8 local lightweight, weighed 134, or it was given out that way. If Bloom weighed that much, then Britton must have sealed at least IA for he certainly looked ten poHn Is heavier. Possibly his appedrance is deceptive, like McFarland's and others who frequently out-maneuvrei their rivals in matchmaking strategy.
 Britton is matched to box Mike Glover at Tom O'Rourke's National Sporting Club next week. The pound-a age agreed upon is 40 rim gside. That should suit Jack much better than any lower weight. M
 Britton and Glover have met before about six weeks ago at the Irving A C. in Brooklyn A majority of newspaper accounts at the time gave Glover the better of the milling. But doubt if Britton realized that he was to meet a man with so much class, and like many another before him. neglected his training, thinking he had a sucker match. Of course that's a poor alfbi after a bout which does not turn out as one expects. However, Jack promises to- turn the tables this time.
 Watching Britton box this Bloom boy one was impressed with the no ton that he is long way from his best form. Youn& Bloom is a novice compared with the Chicagoan and naturally was outpofnted, but Jacks showing was hardly flattering. to such a recognizeds expert Possibly the veteran has begun to back up. Old Father Time slows us all ups in our turnss sFheresis no lodging hinnsts 1
 Light-weights will hold the center of the pugilistic stage for the next few weeks Willie Ritchie, the champion, and Tommy Murphy are scheduled to climb through the ropes at Jim Golf roth's arena on January 30. say ischeduled'' because these boys have been trying to get together for 8 year or more, and something has always prevented. They were practically matched last summer when the Van couver offer to Ritchie for the Freddy Welsh match made the champion pass LID the Harlemite and hike for the Northwest Of course Willfe's reason for the sudden change of mind at the time was the big guarantee offered him by the Canadian promoters
 Ritchie came East after the Welsh match had collapsed and scored an immense hit with New York fans by beating Leach Cross Murphy was still on his trail, however, and as Tom