The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-04-02
BEST BOXING BANQUET ever
SERVED FANS IN THE EMPIRE
ARENA; TWO END WITH KAYOS

ont Of order and friendly tip
likewise eschewed, it is pitiful to
see an athlete OF Stuehmer's in
herant boxing possibilities dissi-
pated by . lack Of proper develop
ment. Buns gameness has gained
him many admirers. but the time
will come when even admirers must
be attracted by more than q pro-
pensity to assimulate punishment
Must Learn to Box.
The fact is that Stuehmer must
either learn to box and diversity
his attack or forever be as easy a
mark as he was for Comiskey and
Doig. The boy is an instructive
fighter with the courage of Jag
uar. He is Of the Bob Fitzsim-
mons type with dormant power en-
cased within a muscular chest
above a supple girth. Boxing in
telligence alone is lacking, else
Bum would not be mark for a
boy who is crafty enough to know
that Stuehmer simply does not
know how to protect his midriff.
Stuehmer should lose no time in
aligning himself with brainy
manager and resign himself wholly
to the latter's instruction; that is,
liz Bum is pugilistically ambitious.
He has displayed enough talent,
however crude, to impress almost
any capable handler of boxers;
otherwise he will be open constant
ly to permanent disability in his
ignorance as to defense and the
manipulation of million-dollar
punch.
Night of Thrills.
! 1t was night Of thrills for a
. packed house despite deterrent
downpour of rain as the doors OF
! the arena were opened.
frankie Bledsoe of Rock Island
started the padded pyrotechnics by
stopping the precocious feather.
Mike Phillips of Moline in the
third round of scheduled four
round setto, with right cross to
the Jaw after an even distribution
Of punishment.
/ Kid Cutie, the kewpie thunder
bolt, met his match in the second
prelim with Young Green of Dav-
export, a novice; but who. for three
rounds. subjected the cocky blonde
to all the sundry blows of tor
nado. For once, Cutie's self-satis-
fed smirk gave way to agonized
grimaces of painful surprise as the
foot-shifty Green all but knocked
him for the proverbial goal.
Only Cutie's greater experience
and fighting instinct during pun
ishment enabled him to survive
three rounds. Green was visibly
arm-weary in the fourth. and Cutie
was barely able to carry the per
iod with sufficient shade to earn
him a draw. Green is conner and
should be watched.
The semi-windup evolved into a
finish fight packed within the
gruelling minutes OF three and a
half rounds. Battling Johnson. the
fighting Swede of Moline. himself
splitting blood at the finish. stopped
Barney Gerver, a doughboy SER
geant from Camp Grant, in the
fourth round.
Doughboy Takes Count.
| For two rounds, Johnson hit
Gerver from every angle and upon
every spot of the soldiers 1.-the
anatomy; but Gerver only grinned
never wincing. In the third round
JohnsoH's one-two attack, inter
mingled with slashing uppercuts
began to tell; and Gerver was all
but out at the bell. Johnson spai
mouthfuls of blood between
rounds; Gerver was spent and sick
but game to the vertebrae.
After two doleful clinches in the
fourth, Gerver, with be-corpuscled
claret streaming from his eyes and
nose, dropped his guard from sheer
exhaustion and right hook to the
jaw stretched him in the resin TO,
the full count. Such beating was
never administered in TRICKY
ring. Johnson's tactics were iden-
teal with those of Battling Nelson
as he was the first time he stopped
Joe Cans.
Then came the windup with Billy
Doig a flash of his fellow-towns.
man. Billy Papke.
1t was an evening of memories