The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-03
Kid Williams, at 22,e Seems to Have Hit
 the Down Grade

After having basked in the white
 light that beats upon pugflistic
 throne for more than a year, little Johnny Gutenko, of Baltimore, seems to have hit the downward grade John ny, who is better known in our set as Kid Williams, is already an ex- champion of the bantamweig ghts in
 the opinion of many experts, who
 hold Wewpie ErtIe, the St. Paul ban tam, became the legitimate title hold
 CT by winning from Williams on a
 foul in Minneapolis some weeks ago.
 The Baltimore Dane has let out an anguished, cry to the effect that he
 was the victim of a frame-up in the Flour City affair, and, to punish the WesternerS, he has made a solemn VOW never. never to fight in Mime sota again. Of course, accidents hap pen in the best of families, and Will
 Hams may have lost to Ertle by a luke The prevalent suspicion that the Kid is slipping is stren gthened
 by his defeat at the hands of Pal Moore, the Memphis bantam The
 Kids alibi in this case is that it was
 a hometown decision.
 Williams will be twenty-two years old next Sunday and at that aRo he fought to be steadily improving. but
 this doesn't seem to be the case. In former days Williams usually won his contests by so wide a margin that ez- plantations and alibis were totally un- 6CeSSary-0KcGpt TOT the other IeA- 1 low. Since he attained championship laure1s Williams has been showing some signs of a swollen dome, and lt | is, as true now as ever that pride goeth before a swift kick. Although
 Johnny KiIbane is by no means the
 classiest featherweight ever, Williamg was not well advised when he went up against him, for Ki1bane is four inches the taller and has a, consider able advantage in weight and reach If Williams is really slipping, per haps the principal reason is his aEz1- -bition to shine as a knockout king He wanted to be, a Hercules in ninia- ture, a pocket edition Fitz, and i'm the process of muscular development he has seemingly sacrificed much ok
 his former science and speed. To al1 l outward appearances the Kid Of to- day is markedly slower than he was
 a. year ago. His muscles bulge much
 bigger than before, but while this
 may be very nice for photographic
 purposes, it doesn't help much against
 a clever opponent
 whether or not he is permanently
 relegated to the position of an ex- champion, the Kid has been a lucky guy Born in Copenhagen-Wh l Battling Nelson made his debut l on Dec 5, 1893, he came to America
 at an early age and settled in Balti- I more He was a neWsX when he started boxing, and he was only six
 teen when he entered the profession
 al ring. Not a single defeat was SCOT 1 ed up against him when he met John
 ny Coulon in a battle for the ban-
 tarnweight championship at Vernon tn
 williams had demonstrated hia
 right to compete for the title by 1 knocking out Eddie Campi. Charlie Ledoux. and other topnotchers among the little fellows. He had the good fortune to fight Coulon when the lat. i ter was in the -sere and yellow and
 Johnny lasted less than three rounds It may be that Williams has sim 1 nlv been the victim of over-confidence
 and that now that he realizes thai there are other good little fellows in 1 the world he may take a brace and re-
 turn to his old form. Two clean
 knocl1downs at the hands or a com, 1 nara+ivelv unknown boxer like Pa4
 Moore of Memphis ought to wake him up