Evening star., 1914-01-25

champion the papers wouldn't have given
Willie and his troubles a tumble. Sailor
Petroskey was forced to cancel the match
Tom McCarey had scheduled for him
with Jimmy Clabby last week, but 1
haven't seen anything in the sporting
pages insinuating that the tar had cold
feet or impugning his courage.
But with Ritchie it is different-he is
the champion of his class and as such is
the target for all the shots the scribes
feel like aiming in his direction. 1t
helps fill the sporting columns and. after
all. really does not do the champion any
great harm.
Still it is not the fair thing to roast
fighter of the Richie type for doing what
any sane person would have done under
gone into the ring with Murphy In poor
physical condition and an accident oc-
CURED. what swell chance for the
enemies of the sport to get in their
deadly work. Probably the same critics
who are now taking the champion to task
for "dodging'' Murphy, without knowing
the why or wherefore. would then be
among the first to roast the club officials,
necred with the mill for permitting the
champion to enter the ring at all. And
there you are.
Richie has accomplished more in the
short time he has been champion than
any of his immediate predecessors True,
Wolgast fought half a dozen short bat
defeat by Battling Nelson but there was
not classy man in the bunch. Nelson
gave Joe Cans a return match. two
months after he had beaten the negro for
the championship. but that match was
a mistake. 1t should never have been
| allowed. Cans was then on his last legs
and lasted twenty-one rounds because he
was wonderful ring general. and 1t
was his brain and not his strength that
kept him on his feet for that length Of
time before one of the toughest light
weights the game has ever known.
Now look at Ritchies record for the
first year of his reign champion Seven
months after winning the title he fought
what was to have been twenty-round
| bout with Joe Rivers. recognized by press
| and public as his most dangerous rival
and knocked him out in ten or eleven
| rounds l forget which. Four months
later he took on Leach Cross, by many
| considered greater fighter than Rivers,
and gave him a beating in ten rounds
| so decisive that there was not dis
Senting voice to the newspaper verdcts
! which Is an unusual thing in New York,
where the friends and supporters of a
losing scrapper in so important con-
| test put up a howl that can be heard
! from Harlem to the Battery if there is a
possible chance of getting away with it.
| That's what I call going some for a
j
class. And Willie didn't pick out easy
| marks, It will be noticed. On the con-
! trary, he let the matchmakers do the
picking and boxed the two hardest propo-
, sitions in the lightweight division
| Now. because he has been unfortunate
| enough to meet with an accident, forcing
| him to call Off the Murphy bout for the
4 second time, a number Of knockers are
| filing their columns with insinuations
| and innuendoes concerning his courage.
| Why. Ritchie Is entitled to sympathy in
stead of knocks any way one looks at it.
In the first place. it isn't very nice to
| Spring a bum heel, an accident that
would put him out OF the game alto
| gether If not properly attended to: and
| in the second place. $4,000 is not to be
picked up every day-eyen these times
| when the purses are prodigal
| And the Murphy match looked like easy
money for the champion from any angle
one sized 1t up
Truly the path of a champion is not
always strewn with roses.
With Eddie McGoorty out OF the run
ming and an avowed candidate for the
heavyweight title according to Austria
Ian advices). the middleweight champion
ship problem is just that much closer to
a solution.
| Mike Gibbons proved in the recent bout
| with Bob McAllister that he must be
reckoaed With as q worthy candidate for