Omaha daily bee., 1917-04-08
FEW TITLE BOUTS
SINCE COAST BAN
Only Four Championship Fights
Ave Been Held In Last
Three Years.
TWO OF THEM IN STATES

New York, April when twenty.
round boxing was killed in California
three years ago it was predicted that
the various ring titles would die Out
in time for lack of competition. That
this prediction was sound one is
shown by the fact that there have
been only four championship battles
fought since Willie Richie defeated
Tommy Murphy in the last Of the
championship fights held in Cal
ifornia.
Only two OF these were held in
America. They were the Kilbane-
Chane bout, held at Cedar Point last
September, and the Welsh-White af-
fair at Colorado Springs on the same
day. The other fights were the
Ritchie-Wel twenty-round bout at
London, the Johnson-Moran bout at
Paris and the Johnson-Willard fight
at Havana.
In the meantime nothing has been
done toward selecting genuine cham
pions to fiji the vacant middleweight
and welterweight thrones, but the
bantamweight title has become so
clouded that no one stands out with
a clear right to the honors. Jess
Willard and Johnny Kilbane are the
only champions whose position can
not be assailed on one ground or an
other, and to all appearances Willard
has no intention of defending the
honors again. He probably will re-
tire undefeated as soon as he loses
his drawing power with the circus,
and that will leave the biggest crown
of all on the SHELF
Kilbanc probably will retain his
hold on the featherweight title for
some time to come, because there are
no good men to dispute the matter
with him The chances are that he
will continue boxing no decision
bouts until old age robs him Of his
proves and he retires, leaving his
crown to be claimed by the press
agents OF every second rater in the
game.
Cutgrows Class.
In one sense Freddie Welsh no
longer is champion. because he has
been defeated so often that his title
means nothing in particular, As
matter Of fact Welsh has grown into
the welterweight class. He could not
make l33 pounds ringside under any
circumstances. The best he can do
is l35 several hours before ringtime,
and he always is full-fedged wclter
by the time the gong sounds for ac-
ton.
If Welsh keeps his word. he will
retire next summer and take the title
with him unless he is knocked out In |
the meantime. While little credencc
can be placed in such threats, which
usually are made for advertising pur-
poses only, Welsh is too wise to al
low himself to be beaten up by second
raters when he becomes too old to
protect himself. As soon as Welsh |
loses few more decisions his draw
ing power will become so weak that |
it will no longer be worth his while |
to continue in the ring. The only
chance to keep the lightweight title
in circulation Is that some promoter
can be induced to offer Welsh such
large amount for . championship
match that he will accept even though |
he knows that he cannot win.
Technically, Johnny Ertle has a |
fairly good claim to the bantamweight |
title, but he Is far from champion |
80 far as ability goes. Pete Herman |
was the first man to get . referees |
decision over the former title holder,
Kid Williams, but even If Williams |
did not lose his title in the bout with |
Ertle, he had no right to the honors
because he had outgrown the class.