The Connecticut labor news., 1921-08-26
ARGUMENT OVER
 WILSON-DOWNEY i
 STILL UNSETTLED
Fans Look Upon Downer as Cham pion Despite Boxing Judges

Decision.
 Whether Johnny Wilson or Bryan Downey now holds the middleweight title IS a question that will cause more argument than any ring happening in Eears. That DoWney proved himself the better man m their bout Is obvious and that Wilson's hand-picked referee was thereto protect him rather than Downey also is apparent. But the real question is whether the Cleveland boxing commis- ion has the power to oVerrule the yer dict of a referee.
 In Cleveland Downey will be recog- nized as champions but the Cleveland commission has no jurisdiction in other parts of the country. Boxing in general always looks toward the referee and lods his verdict as final. That yer
 lict was unfair, unjust and the most barefaced robbery never has made the slightest difference
 The battle between Bob FitzSimmons and Tom Sharkey furnished an instance of this Fitz knocked Sharkey cold with man at the ringside saw the blow land fairly above the belt, but Referee Wyatt Erpe, who was there to protect the money that has been wagered on Sharkey, call ed 1t a foul. As he made his ruling Erpe drew gun, showing that he knew he was doing wrong and that his de- cision would be disputed.
 There never was any question that Fitz's blow was a fair one and that the thing was a deliberate steal but 1t went
 own in the records as a victory for Sharkey just the same. Sharkey was paid the winners share of the purse, and if title had been at stake he would have won that, too. Fitz tried every means in his power to have the verdict reversed. He even took the matter in to the courts, but he never got any sat isfaction. It was the universal opinion that right or wrong, the referees yer dict was final
 In those days there was no boxing commissions to appoint referees. The advent of the boxing commission com plicates the situation somewhat. In the absence of hard and fast rules, prece- dent governs boxing affairs and prece- dent is all in favor of the referee as the final arbiter.
 In the long run it is better that the referee should be supreme. In baseball the higher powers always accept the un- pire's ruling in a question of fact. When it comes to definition of the rules an 1mpire's decision may be reversed if not in accordance with baseball law, but in a question of fact that umpire's word is final.
 There is good reason for this, and the same reason applies to boxing. The referee would be a joke if his rulings could be reversed by some other party. A referee is in the ring all the time and is in the best position to see what happens. The members of the boxing commission roam around at will during the course of a bout and often miss seeing some of the rounds. It IS ob vious that they are not the right per sons to judge.
 The members of the Cleveland box ing commission in particular appear to be ill-ftted to make decisions of any kind. When they were so weak as to allow a boxer to bulldoze them into breaking one of their most important rules and accept an outside referee they lost the respect of fans in general.
 When Wilson insisted upon bringing on a private referee from his home town the commission should have acted then and there. Wilson's action was an in- suit to the licensed referees and to the commission itself. But when the com mission swallowed the affront and ac- cepted an outside referee it was in duty bound to support him when he ruled that Downey had fouled by striking Wilson before the latter was on his feet. That was a question of fact and the referees ruling must stand.
 As far as the fans are concerned, however. ooo out of every 1000 of them will look upon Downey as the cham pion Wilson came into the title under a cloud and he can't kick on going out the same way.