The Alaska citizen., 1915-11-01
EAT NELSON MARVEL
 OF RING. SAYS JESS.

have often been asked whom I considered the greatest fighter of all times Well l cant say: there have been so many great battlers. Battling Nelson was probably the most remarkable piece of fighting machinery in the world. He stood out alone as a model of persistency. bull dog courage and tenaCity of purpose.
 Nelson earned the lightweight championship of the world in the face Of handiCaps which would have discouraged any man on earth, with the single exception of the lion hearted Dane.
 When Bat first became ambitious to be a top-notcher he lacked al most every qualification of the true athlete He had but two qualifi cation in the beginning. These two carried h'm to tar top 1i t1e ladder even after it was considered that he had seen his best days
 When he was 12 or 13 years of age. Nelson secured a job in a saw mill One day an accident occurred and he was dragged out of the ma chinery. bruised and bleeding form. Both of his arms were frac, tured and a big gash was opened in his right cheek. His ear was crushed and it's hearing destroyed forever For seven days he was unconscious Three months later he was discharged from the hospital. His left arm was in such condition that it has been iHga siple e'er since for hin, to straighten it out completely.
 But he never lost his nerve. That accident showed clearly that he pos sessed remarkable gameness and a constitution that was almost inn possible to shatter or break down. While his record has been printed many. many times, I'm going to tell it again, just as Bat told me one night about six months ago.
 His first fight took place at Ham, mond. Ind. He took Saturday afternoon off and visited circus that was in town. burly an nouncer was crying:
 One dollar to any man who can stay with 'Wallaces Giant.
 Little Bat threw off his coat and rushed into the arena. In minute he had slipped on some gloves. He was so small that the crowd hooted and yelled for him to get out of the ring They didn't want to see him killed by the giant But Bat insisted that he be given a chance, and refused to leave the ring.
 The 1S0 pounder rushed at thf slender kid who weighed about 120 pounds. Nelson met him with right hook on the jaw and the giant was knocked cold.
 The circus hands were so mad at seeing their champion floored that ten of them rushed to the ring grabbed Nelson, and threw him out of the tent.
 They not only refused to give me my $1, but they even refused to give me back my coat" Nelson told me.
 It was in 1904 that Nelson be gan to fight real classy men. He headed for the Pacific coast, and on the way dropped off a freight car at Salt Lake City. After show ing what he possessed in a local gymnasium, the Battler was finally matched with Spider Welch, a sen sational San Francisco lightweight.
 For fifteen rounds Welch bat tered Nelson all over the ring. But he couldn't floor the young Dane. In the sixteenth round Nelson con nected with his opponents jaw and soon had him floundering. A wick ed punch just below the heart knocked Welch out An hour later Nelson was on his way to San Francisco.
 He landed in the Golden Gate breathing fire and defiance, fight oozing out of every pore. Martin Gamble, the greatest left-puncher ever known in the lightweight class, had just made a name for himself, and the two were matched. Round af ter round Canole pounded Nelson all over the ring, but the Battle1 never faltered, and in the nineteenth damned terrific left into Canolee liver. For hours it was thought that Canole would never recover from the punch.
 Then came Eddie Hanlon, th- pride of the Pacific coast. Sar Francisco fans "couldn't see" Nel son yet. They figured it was 2 lucky punch that defeated Welcb and still luckier one that knock ed out Canole.
 Against Hanlon Nelson adopted the same tactics he did in his other two big scraps. He relentlessly forced Hanlon from corner to cor ner taking terrific punishment hin, self, but in the nineteenth round he landed wicked left to the liver and Hanlon went down and out.
 Then he began to fight regularly and earned a fortune He lost to Jimmy Britt in twenty rounds, the decision being very unpopular one. In fact, to this day, the Bat tier insists that the referee, Billy Roche, made terrible mistake ir raising Britt's hand at the finish.
 But Nelson more than evened the score with Britt They were re matched and the Dane stopped Jimmy in the eighteenth round. It was the most vicious and sensational fight the coast has ever known.
 Then came the battle with Joe Cans, at Goldfield. This was on Labor day, 1906. It was to fin ish for the lightweight cnampion- ship of the world, an honor then held by the Baltimore negro. Eight thousand people paid a total Of $69,715 to see the boys pound away at each other for f~rty-two rounds Then Cans went down and out from that same left-hand punch that had defeated Welch, Hanlor and Britt. The referee, George Siler began cOuntinp Cans ont Then ha