The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-04-29
Lightweights Will Rule To night-Louis Bogash In Fine Fettle For Battle With Pete Hartley-Box- ing News.

ing News,
 RT EWARK, N. J., April 29-WiIIie lH Ritchie, ex-Hghtweight cham pion, is gone pugiustically.
 Youth had to be served-and serv- ed properly. Within a few days the fastest Western Express from New York will be rattIing back, Frisco bound, with Ritchie and wife as passengers.
 And while Ritchie today is busy preparing aubis to be submitted to the Frisco writers, Benny Leonard | lightweight champion of the world, . sits in his home in Harlem, New . York, a hero. Today the champion | was being flooded with telegrams l congratulating him for his decisive | victory over the former champion.
 Harlem's boxing fans were never l in happier mood than they were | found today. Their joy was su- preme and celebrations of all sorts | were being planned for the cham | pion But with his characteristic | rnodesty, Benny has requested his | friends to refrain from staging such | affairs He wants to get back to 1 training again as soon as possible, fol his manager. Billy Gibson, has just completed a most busy tour for him.
 But with Ritchie there Is no joy today. He found consolation in the l fact that he was not forced to quit until within forty seconds of the 1 termination of the bout. It was the first time the San Fran cisco boy was ever stopped. He won his championship from Ad Vol | gast on November 2S, 1912, Wolgast losing on a foul. Ritchie passed the championship along to Freddie Welsh from whom Benny secured it. Benny did himself great good by stopping his opponent, for it proved conclusiveIy that the Benny Leonard who met Willie Ritchie at Frisco on February 24, this year, was not at his best. Also that no-decision bouts unless abruptly terminated | with a knockout mean nothing in l boxing.
 i But there was a young, red-cheek- | ed, good-natured, happy chap who 1 sat and cheered in Benny's corner,
 who made it possible for the cham 1 pion to come back as strong as he | did last night. This lad for days | worked as no other trainer worked l on a. fighter.
 i Here was one pal of Benny, who. l when others turned against him ! upon receipt of news from the Coast | that he had lost to Ritchie, stood by 1 him. He refused to believe that 1 Ritchte was anywhere near as good as the champion. A faithful and 1 determined trainer is this pal of the champions.
 1 And so when Nanny Seaman ages | and looks back into the pages of 1 pugilistic history he will have every reason for feeling proud of what 1 Leonard did last night, for it was l Nanny who furnished the ambition.
 and pep that enabled the champion
 to win. For days he boxed and rubbed the champion. Seaman's | hear was in his work. He had
 made up his mind that Leonard ! would beat Ritchie and he was doing
 aI that he could to put the title
 holder in a condition where he could
 have beaten any man his weight
 and some heavier.
 It was Nanny who trained Benny
 for all his big fights in the East
 and how Leonard must have missed
 him on the Coast. Seaman knows | Benny and vice versa. They are
 boyhood pals, but Nanny could not spare the time or money to go to the Coast. so he had to stay back. But
 how Benny repented that he did not
 take him along, for had he done so : he probably would have gone through the line of opponents in the West i with lightning speed.
 It was Nanny who coached and ] urged and encouraged the champion } last night When things looked darkest it was then that his smile came into play and made the cham 5 pion feel like he was the biggest ! man in the world. Oh, yes, too much credit for last nights victory by Leonard cannot be given this trainer of trainers.
 After tre bout the boxers grabbed :, the op1 ortunity of praising each
 other.
 There IS the greatest fighter who
 ever walked into ring said Willie | Ritchia, referring to Benny Leonard. ! You can talk about your old timers 2 and their al-week battles, but when i it comes to real championship timber : Leonard has that and everything
 else that should go with it. l have T been defeated fairly and squarely and will now retire permanently
 from the ring. Perhaps I should a have done so long ago, but then the . hast of us make mistakes and I cer- i+ainly did when I consented to meet