The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-12
CHAMPION FREDDY WELSH NOT
 IN DEMAND FOR U. s. BOUTS
Corbett Says Al Reich, With More Experience, Will Beat Gunboat
 Smith
Former Heavyweight Champion of
 the World.


 Former Heayy-wedght Champion of
 the World.
 Special to the Evening Farzner)
 New York. September Freddy Welsh. champion lightweight Of the world, is not being annoyed to any extent with offers of matches Not so that any one can notice it. Fred has been back in this country about two weeks and there appears to De no greater demand for his services than before he beat Ritchie for the premier honors Of the division
 Freddy never did star in these parts. His local exhibitions were hardly of the sort to Interest the fans in his fu- ture appearances. Strange, too, be- cause there is no denying that the little Englishman is an unusually clever boxer. But something is lack ing in his style and, just as there was an opening for belch over his close victory in the Ritehie contest, so gem orally has it been the case when Fred exhibited locally welshs style of playing the game as safe as he posst- 'bly can is no doubt the expIanation-
 Latter day fight fans-I am speak ing of Amercinas-1ike plenty of fire- works in matches even where the men are clever opponents of the art of box ing. Welsh has been going along for years, just working hard enough to attract the referees eye in g. decision bout or the popular verdict over the decisionless route. As a local expert aptly puts 1t. Freddy is a believer in the safety first plan of fighting his ring battles, and the boy who plays only defensive game will never be much of a drawing card with Arneri- can fight fans. Unless some big at traction. such as Ritchie or McFar- land, is booked to box Welsh a bout in this city would not draw very much money.
 Harry Pollok, Freddy's manager, is a shrewd individual and incidentally a. mighty fine fellow-and he knows that Welsh is a pretty lucky boy to cop the worlds title at his time of ring life. And you can bet your bottom dollar Manager Harry will not allow the champion to run an unnecessary risk of losing 1t if he can prevent. I doubt very much if Welsh will be seen in the ring with q first class lightweight for some time ito come unless 1t is found that the pro moters will not stand for matches be-. tween che champion and second raters.
 There is some talk Of Welsh meeting Jack Br1tton at a local club But so far as I find the talk is all on the Brit ton side. match with the hard working Jack wouldn't be half bad, and while we would much prefer to see the champion in return stunt with Ritcllie. one with Britton would satisfy. Britton is not the best of his weight, but quite good enough to give any boy in the lightweight division a. stubborn argument for ten rounds land stamped Britton as a boxer of considerable class
 2 While there has been considerable talk of matches of class in the heavy weight division. nothing has yet been the local fans. When Gunab oat Smith came back from England it was ex-. pected that something worth while would be staged, as Jess Willard was hanging around with a chip on his shoulder. As yet, however. the match is still in the afr.
 Jim Buckley, the Gunboatss mana. ger, doesn't seem to be quite so en- thusiastic over his protege as he was a few months back. Can it be that the Gunner,s showing against Carpen- tier disappointed tBuck? Whatever the reason the scrappy manager is not going around defying anybody and everybody in the heavyweight class as was the case before the Carpentier fiascos ~
 am told on quite good authority that Buckley refuses to talk business with the promoters unless a big guar antee is forthcoming. Different from his methods of not so long ago when Buck and the Gunner were willing to gamble on the house any old time. But in the Willard match one can scarcely blame both for holding out for good money. Gunboat and Jess fought twenty rounds in San Francisco nearly two years ago, and Jess was then hardly moTe than a big novice with a single idea in his cranium about fighting. Which was to avoid punishnent as much as possible and let the victory light where 1t might Willard at that fought like a good man in spots-whenever the Gunner would sting hiEn-and while Smith was awarded the verdict by referee Jim Griffin. who ought to know, number of experts contended Jess had earned a. draw.
 Manager Buckley has been quoted as saying that Willard is too big and a1tog ether too dangerous a man to risk the Guniboat's reputation against unless the latter is we'll paid for said risk Which may or may not be a confession of fear for the Gunner in a, bout with the gigantic Kansan. The Gunboat's manager has also turned down an offer to box Sam Langford aSreturn match in Boston, but natural ly enough Buckley is quite satisfied with the result of their former match in which Smith was given the decision. Buckley knows that when IAngford is right he is more than likely to beat any heavyweight in the ring in few rounds And stories are coming from Boston that SanBbo has been training faithfully the last few weeks prepar- ing for what he fond1y hopes will be a busy. campaign during the coming fall and winter months
 One match that Gunboat is said to have objected to is with ihig Al Reich, former amateur heavy weight cham pion, who has won a, number of bat ties over second and third raters since his poor showing with big Carl Morris. But Reich's managers have thought better of the proposition, which indi- cates that they are not entirely lack ing in gray matter. While Carl Mor- ris is far from a first class fighter, he h4r lick