El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-02-20

White VIII Have His Chan to Beat the Title Holder
and Then Ritchie VIII Again Try to Defeat His Con
queror; White Has Ann ounced His Intention of
Forcing the Fight R light From the Start.
BY 4. s. ANDREWS.

been recognized by most critics, but
even then it would not have made him
worlds champion, as he would necessa-
rlly have to defeat the title holders OF
other countries. To begin with, Crit
fifths is not the American champion
Willie Ritchie still holds that honor
and will continue to do so until he
either retires, is beaten or cannot
longer make the weight. However, Mr..
Richie is bound to defend the title
against all challengers or otherwise
forfeit the same. Welsh happens to be
a real worlds champion, as he not only
defeated Willie Richie for the Ameri-
can title, but also won the crown from
the Australian champiOn-Hughie Me-
hegan-and defeated the French light
weight champion for the European
title.
Richie Should Fight More.
Griffifths defeated Michigan, the Aus
tralian champion, but so did Mnburn
Saylor the Hoosier lightweight and
present challenger of Welsh. Public
opinion has much to do with such af-
fairs, but just the same a champion
ship should be won according to the
recognized rules of the ring and not
by a popular verdict or the like. And
while discussing this question 1t might
be well to mention that if Willie Ritchie
wants to remain the recognized cham
piOn Of America. he should sign up for
a title match with Charlie White, John
ny Griffifths, Joe Shugrue or Milburn
Saylor. These boys have a right to a
try at the title. 1t might be we'll too,
to have these boys fight 1t out among
themselves to see which one will meet
Ritchie in a match for the American
championship.
Shouldn't Look at Crowd.
Just one little "squint" at the crowd
while in the heat of battle has cost
many a fighter a sound beating. Some
of them, most notably Frank Klaus.
have been knocked out of a chance at
the championship by just such little
peek around. There are probably few
fans who attended the Gus Christie
Bob AIoha tilt in Milwaukee recently
who knew why Christie took that right
hook to the jaw in the fourth round
and which almost resulted in his being
knocked out by the chubby Robert.
Up to the fourth session Christie had
all the better Of the bout and his fol-
lowers had their chance to scream
themselves hoarse, but they were given
an awful scare in the fourth period,
and all because Gustavus took one
glance around to look at a friend at
the ringside who addressed some re-
mark to him. The fourth round was
about a minute and a half old and in
that time, as in the preceding rounds,
Gus was popping rights and lefts to
NOha's body and face. The latter rushed
at Gus, but Gus backed away, and as
he did so someone in the crowd yelled
to him. Gus "sqUinted' and in a flash
AIoha's right shot to Christie's jaw The
smash hurt and he went down in
heap. Only for Bob's over anXiousness
TO end the contest right then and there,
instead of stepping away and giving
Gus a chance to get fully on his feet
the one little "squint' would have end
ed Christie's fistic ambitions for some
months to come.
Klaus Lost on Same Fault.
If Bob had timed his punches after
the knockdOwn he would have surely
scored a K. o. As it was, Gus held on
for dear life and managed to survive
the session and the full 10 rounds, but
hereafter Gus viii watch his opponent
instead of some friend in the crowd.
It was just such a glance around that
caused Frank Klaus to be knocked out
when he tackled George Chip for the
first time in Pittsburg. Frank thought
Chip could not hit hard enough to
break an egg and took all kinds OF
one in the crowd. Chip was alert,
cracked Klaus on the jaw and it was
all off. Frank thought it all mis-
take, claiming a lucky punch. The
promoters rematched the pair. Klaus
respected Chips hitting ability so
much in the second contest that he
practically forgot his own ring tricks.
He was out for revenge, swinging
wildly to get over the sleep punch but
chip was on the job every minute and
in the sixth round duplicated his stunt
Pittsburger to the mat for the full
count in the sixth session. Many 9TH
Continued on page Z, this sectton.)