Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-12-31
LEONARD IS BEST
SCRAPPER OF YEAR
Work of Gotham Lightweight
Stands Out as Most Sensa-
tional in Ring Game.
MOTHER is PROUD OF HIM
BY RINGSIDE.

Chicago, Dec. 30.-The gong has
rung for 1916. Gazing over the rec
ords of the ring for the last twelve
months the lightweight ranks would
seem to offer the most for perusal OF
the fight fans. The work of one man
Benny Leonard, the New York East
Side ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS out from the
rest as most sensational.
From comparative obscurity to chai-
lenger for the lightweight champion
ship of the world is the leap that
Leonard has made. Before his bout
with Joe Mandot of New Orleans, on
December u, 1915. which the south
erner, then in the front ranks, was
knocked out in the seventh round OF a
scheduled ten-round go, Leonard'S
work had not attracted attention.
That victory sent the youngster's
name flashing all over the country,
and since that time he has demon
strated that the punch which sent
Mandot down for the count was no
huke blow. In ten of his battles
Leonard has succeeded in slowing
away his opponent. In several others
the man facing him has had a narrow
escape.
He toppled Jimy Murphy over in
FIVE rounds, Phil Bloom in eight,
Sammy Robideou, Joe Welsh and Ed
die McAndrews in the fifth; Shamus
O'Brien in the seventh, frankie Can
merry in the sixth and Ever Hammer
and Fighting Harvey" Thorpe in the
twelfth.
Six Stay Limit.
Six opponent have gone the sched-
uled ten rounds with Leonard, They
are Freddie Welsh, the champion,
twice; Johnny Dundee, Joe Azevedo,
Rocky Kansas, frankie Callahan and
Stanley Yoakum. Kansas" escaped a
knockout by three seconds, the final
gong ringing while he was on the
floor with seven fateful seconds tolled
off. In Philadelphia Leonard fought
two whirlwind six-round bouts and
in both his opponent was in bad
way at the finish.
Leonard's two encounters with the
champion were no-decision affairs, In
one the newspapers gave Leonard the
better of it, in the other the champion
was credited with outpointing him.
Welsh is lightning fast, and it takes
more than ten rounds to run HIM
down to where hard blows count
Leonard is two-handed fighter with
a blow in each. If he and Welsh get
into a distance bout the title may
quit dear old England and adorn this
side Of the water again.
Leonard's best blows are his right
crosses and uppercuts. When the
former connects with the jaw the
fight rs over. His left jabs and hooks
are fearful IN the punishment they
administer
Right Name is Leiner.
Leonard-his right name is Lener
literally fell into the boxing ring. AS
a kid he was champion OF his block
in New York and was known as the
Ninth Street King Bee. His mother
is German and his father Hebrew
born in Austria Hungary. 1t was quite
the thing for the best fighters in each
block to get together every once in a
while and fight it out for whatever
the spectators contributed. Leonard's
first fight of this kind was with kid
named Joe Fogarty, and the Ninth
street champion got 80 cents out OF
the 50-cent purse for trouncing his
Irish foe
Bcnny's folks were angry when
they learned he was scrapping quite
regularly in this way Benny had
succeeded in keeping it from them
owing to the fact that he came home