Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-04-15
BAT NELSON GETS
CHANCE AT TITLE
Will Clash With Freddie Welsh
in Twelve Round Decision
Fight.
AMERICANS GET IN BAD
BY RINGESIDE.

By RINGESIDE.
Chicago, April l4.-In St. Louis
Tuesday night Oscar Mathew Bat
Ting Nelson, hulk of former light
weight champion of the world, will
have the opportunity to achieve the
ambition which has been consuming
him since that fateful day in 1910
when Ad Wolgast, after forty Cruel.
ling rounds, stripped him of his title.
Nelson will contest again for the
crown which once adorned his brow.
Freddie Welsh, the Englishman who
is the leader of the division, will be
his opponent, and they will go twelve
rounds to decision.
For almost seven years now Nelson
has nursed the belief in his heart that
he was as good as ever, belief that
not even the most ardent of his ad-
mirers shared in any degree. The in
domitable Dane has cherished the de-
sire to redeem himself and regain the
title when others refrained from
laughing only through pity. All up
and down the land Nelson had pleaded
for a chance and been denied it. His
confidence in himself others have
viewed as only the delusion engen-
dered by a heart that never knew
when to quit in battle; by a courage
that sent him up against the mightiest
wallpapers of the game and left him
on top; by the shattered belief that
no man was good enough to take his
measure.
When his friends besought him to
quit he only sought matches with
more ardor. His showing has proved
that he il not one-half the Nelson of
old; that the stamina is gone; that
only the lion heart remains. His
match with Pierce Mathews at St.
Louis recently, which Bat won by a
knockout, served only to make his
determination to keep on fighting
the more adamantine. So now they
have matched the Battler with Welsh
and the championship is the stake
for which they will mix.
Has All To Win.
Nelson has all to win and nothing
to lose. 1t is inconceivable that he
can defeat Welsh, worn and slipping
as the Englishman is. Even Welsh
must be lacking in respect for Nelson
to consent to such a go. But if the
fans insist on letting the old cham
pion have a try at the title again
Welsh cannot be blamed for signing
for the match.
Still-Nelson might land with suffi-
cient weight behind it to cop!
1t never has been done before. No
champion ever has regaind his crown
in that fashion, and especially more
than six years after losing it. Yet if
Nelson should win his path would
be . rocky one. There is no doubt
1t least half a dozen boys could de-
feat him in even a short bout. They
could do the same to Freddie Welsh
II they were able to run him down
or penetrate his clever defense. What
would they do to the battered frame
OF Bat Nelson, who never boosted of
anything except a hard punch and
ability to stand punishment.
The chances that Nelson can win
are so slim as to be negligible. Yet
he may do SO. 1t is to be hoped that
the Dane will be outpointed-not that
one would wish to deny him the
realization of his ambition, but in pity
for the future of the veteran, who
might bask in having performed a
feat no one ever performed before,
but who would be almost certain to
lose his crown again the first time he
met a boy better than a third-rater.
Fights For Education.
Here is boxer who is in the game,
not because he likes it, but because
it is the stepping stone to realiza-
ton of ambitions. Maurice Flynn is
the boy and he is stepping up rapidly
toward the higher ranks of the light
weights.
One of Flynn's ambitions is to ac-
quire an education and to similarly
equip his ten brothers and sisters. His
earnings out of the ring would be
small at best, SO he is devoting him
self to a study Of the manly art in the
daytime and commercial art at night.
In the meantime his proceeds from
fights are financing the school courses
Of one brother and three sisters. As
the Others reach the age of reason he
expects to do likewise by them.
Joe Keefe, Flynn's manager, is an
exception also. He takes nothing for
handling Flynn and has mapped out
a hard campaign for him. By the
time it is concluded Flynn hopes to be
launched upon business career which
will enable him to get out of pugilism
forever. -.....
Charley White, Chicago's textbook
artist, finds himself in the unique po-
sition Of being one of the best in the
business yet never having a challenge
to combat. In more than three years
not def of any kind has been hurled
at the Chicagoan. He manages TO
keep almost busy in the ring, but his
matches are of the forced and manu-
featured kind. Nobody is very keen
to mix with him, for there ever is