Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-01-21
UNIQUE FEATURES
IN BOX FIGHT BILL
Melady Measur Will Not Per-
NIT Boxers to- Get Large
Guarantees.
DECISION BY A BOARD

Petitions urging the legislature to
give Gene Mclady's proposed boxing
bill full reading and investigation and
advocating its passage by house aud
senate are being circulated in Omaha
by local followers OF the boxing
game. The local mitt fans have high
hopes OF seeing the bill accepted.
The Mclady bill has been the OBJ
ject OF much comment and discussion
among boxing experts, critics and
fans all over the country because of
a number of entirely new and unique
features incorporated i'll the articles.
The Melady measure provides for
the appointment by the governor Of
boxing commission OF three men,
bcrs, who shall appoint secretary
al a salary not to exceed $500. The
commission is to have full power to
control all contests, which must be
held under the direction OF licensed
and Incorporated clubs. Ten per cent
of the gross receipts taken in by a
licensed club shall be paid to the
commission, 5 per cent going to the
state treasury and 5 per cent to the
state tuberculosis fund.
No Sunday Bouts.
The law also provides inspectors
representing the commission shall at
tend all bouts; no bouts arc to be
held on Sunday; no bout shall be over
ten three-minute rounds; no contest
ant under Is years old shall be per.
mitted to participate in any bout;
contestant must not hold and hit, butt
with the head, wrestle or use abusive
language III the ring; contestants
must be examined prior to all bouts
by licensed physician OF not less
than five years practice in the state;
the commission shall appoint all UNI
pire and two judges for each contest,
who shall render judgment as to the
merits OF all the contestants and de-
clare a winner; the referee cannot
make decision; any club having con-
nection with a fake fight shall forfeit
its license; boxers participating in a
fake shall for the first offense be sus-
pended for three months and for the
second offense be disqualified for all
time; licensed clubs shall be forbidden
from offering guarantees to boxers
who shall in main events be paid a
stipulated percentage OF the gross re-
ceipts.
Baker Takes Notice.
Those provisions of the law forbid
ding the payment of guarantees to
boxers, the decision board of an UNI
pire and two judges, and the 5 per
cent to the tuberculosis fund are the
unique features of the law which have
attracted the attention of boxing fans
from all over the country and have in
spired much comment and discussion
Even Snowy Baker, the, Australian
boxing impressario, has written to
Melady congratulating him on his bill
Boxing has been prohibited in Ne
braska for about thirty-hvc years. A
law was passed about that time and
open matches have never been held
since. Fight fans have had to be con-
tent with barn fights and the likcbe-
tween second and third rate pugs in
some secluded spot where the watch
full eye Of the police would be unlikely
to penetrate. The Nebraska law was
made in the old days when bare
knucklc fighting was the rule
The bill has been introduced into
the legislature by William L. Bates,
representative of Banner, Kimball,
Cheyenne, Deuel. and Garden counties.