El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-02-27

I the sole idea Of making such a show
/ ing against the champion in the coming
! bout that the public will demand that
| Welsh meet him in a longer one.
! And this battle should give US a real
/ me on welsh. In recent bouts the
| champion has shown very poorly by
| comparison with previous efforts and
/ the experts are of the opinion that the
| little Welshman has hit the old tobog-
\ gan for fair. That may or NAV not
/ be the case. There is no DENYING that
: the champion looked pretty bad in his
! last three bouts but it is also a well
J known fact that he had not been taking
! very good care of himself, either. And
a few weeks real work might make
an entirely different hoy out of him.
Welsh has never INDUCED in dissipa-
tion to any extent. and may be par
doned for an occasional transgressiOn
now that he has reached the goal he
| has so long sought. But he should not
try to burn the candle on both ends
( at the same time. Either he must take
vacation from the ring TO indulge
himself in his little designations or at
tend to business. The two will not
mix and it is not fair to the public for
a champion to enter the ring if he is
not in shane to do himself and the pa
irons Of the sport fun justice.
Ritchie, it is claimed, has not had
a bout for so long that he will not be
in proper shape either. But Richie
has never given himself over to dissi-
patton of anv sort and leads a model
existence. True. constant practice is
necessary to perfection or near-per-
lection, and Willie no doubt would be
better off had he taken on a few Op-
pOnents during his long stay in San
Francisco. But he is young and in per-
feet health and is far from being fool
ish. No one realizes more than he
Just what this match means to him,
and that should be sufficient guaTau-
tee that he viii put up the battle Of
his life against the man who OutpOinted
him for the title in London last sum-
mer
Richie May Get Verdict.
It is not likely that Ritchie viii
knock Welsh out in ten rounds There
fore the most the American challenger
can expect is to earn the popular YER
dict. IF Richie. not generally regard
ed as scientific boxer. outpOints the
champion the conclusion will be that
Welsh has gone back so far that his
chances of successfully. defending the
title over longer route would be prac-
tically nil Richie may be lucky
enough to cross that good right of his
to FreddFS jaw, but the latter is a
wonderfully clever defensive fighter
and against so strong and hard hitting
an opponent as Richie is sure to make
the battle a defensive one throughout.
As no referees decision viii be rem
dered It VIII matter little to Welsh
whether the newspaper verdict is for
or against him.
This is the last OF the series OF ar
ticles Mr.. COrbett has been coutribut-
ing regularly to the sport pages of The
Herald. BY the time this article ap-
pears in print the former heavyweight
champion will be well started on his
voyages across the Pacific to fill an
engagement in the leading vaudeville
theaters of Australia.
Mr.. COrbett has requested the sport
ing. editor of The Herald TO announce
that he hopes to resume the series Of
interesting and timely boxing stories
upon his return to this country next
year.