Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-24
RENNY LEONARD EXPECTS MANY
.CONTENDERS FOR HIS LAURELS
AFTER UNK SAM TRIMS KAISER
lightweight Champion Believes His Teaching
Sport to Soldiers Will Bring Out Number
of Boxers With Title Aspirations
BY LOUIS H. JAFFE

,poIrT n week or so Benny Leonard
IN hs dnlgently engaged in imparting
!. a., Of championship boxing to the hsnt'
" " Ian Of Uncle Sam at Camp Upton N
y ,srbns the lightweight king, the cleVerest
,dsst punching boxer in the world is
hn.1sns,sstic w about bis new duties ne saiu'
s.nnDnInely, after his easy victory over ~
tmii,a.s Ha.sasond here Monday night, that ne
might regret teachlns '''' s''''0
a.sdy Young men, ,. 80,
n. naT,,s, imagine how many contenders IL
~, NV title after the war Is over,
na..N,srsd Leonard. with lot or time Tor
ossssotIon there will be hundreds or young
Icr.ss ,,bo never thought OF slipping on
isnoS,s isv,oves nastiming with the mittens, and
ue unsn tell whether am to be the one to
,.acb nv successor the first rudiments Of
hSlpg
Boxing to Go Big
I pyou know, it is hard to dig UP man
(, develop into champion. Ihere are
pp.nSands OF boys who could be taught to
y. and box real well. but they have the
.ss.o,Iv good idea that they would rather
y, ,ome other fellow perform while they
,.ot on In camp il Will be different
rev American boy, especially those upon
sbon Uncle Sam depends 10 knockout the
vaI,sr has good red blood In himi they
its sports, and boxing. in my opinion, viii
a,ovs 70 be the best OF athletic competition
!. IN. Army and Navy recreation periods.
" ct expect to go into the thing with a
,,r There won't be any laxness on my
,.rt and any soldier who wants TO learn
kow 10 hit and get away Will find me
ruIlng teacher But to cover myself so
mai I don't give away my secret OF hard
.unchlng I'll fool the boys ! won't at
,,mnt 10 teach them how to hit. That will
11tsN Ntvit diffaFppt
Students, Then when the Kaiser has been
added 10 Uncle Sans string of knockouts
mi be ready to defend my title against any
en,. and am almost sure that among the
rang Of contenders there will be some
o. my scholars-to-be.
Retains Hitting Secret
iroffen cases have resulted when a stu
dent learned so much knowledge Of the
boxing game that analiy ne would show
sufnclent class to defeat his teacher. I'll
fool my soldier-boy friends and students
though III box with any and all of 'em I'll
show them any pointers they want, but
nay, nay on divulging the inside stun Of my
punching powers. Then. when the war
fnlshes I'll still have something on the
boys, II not in cleverness, in punching pow
ere at least"
Billy Gibson took wrong viewpoint from
the attitude Of several of the Philadel-
phis papers relative to the Wagond-Leonard
bout Monday night Glib wanted 1t dis
tncty understood that he wasn't picking
any set ups" for Leonard, and that the
champion was open to box the best IN the
business. ..
When Wagond was referred to as an
easy opponent for Leonard, and that the
bout would he one-sided no thorns were
pushed into the side Of Gibson nor tnat OF
Leonard. 1t was purely a slam at the
matchmaker. Whether Gibson looked at
the matter in that light or not, still he was