New-York tribune., 1921-09-09

New Jersey Boxing Comnsis-
sioners Postpone Final
Action Till Next Thursday

The New Jersey Boxing Com mission
~sxesrday postponed final action in thc
.s;sely discussed case Of Public Opinsoa
..aiust Johnny Wilson. middleweight
.s.mpion Of all that part Of the world
,.s,g outside the borders OF Ohio
rssre are to be no snap judgments ia
.l;. matter. take it from Robert H.
n@Ssrtv. chairman of the boxing COM
r,,ssion, who presided over the meet
n upw;nding q learned and eloquent
an,nion. Chairman 0oherty called the
st,eation of those present to the fact
shst it is not at all uncommon for
;mdees in courts OF law to ponder and
mssiste for months and even years be-
fore handing down decision He said
se had known cases to ramble along
sor ten years before final action was
taken. He may have been thinking of
the matter Of Jarndyce VS.. Jarndyce,
but he didn't mention it.
The meeting OF the commissioners
Vas held in Mr.. Doherty's Office on
Newark Avenue. Jersey City. The Office
compares favorably in size with an
eIghtesn-foot ring and yesterday after
noon the temperature in the place
never rose above 100. Nobody from
Liberia would have minded the heat at
ell. The warm words that were hurled
back and forth may have had some
thing to do with it.
Wilson to Get Lawyer
The meeting was called to decide
whether the match between Wilson and
BRYAN Downey in Jersey City on Labor
Day was or was not contest. After
number OF witnesses had been called
it was decided to adjourn until next
Thursday in order to give Wilson an
opportunity to do little legal road
work and get lawyer
When the session came to close
the situation was slightly scrambled.
Eminent lawyers with cauliflower ears
came 10 a clinch in the outside hall
and shadowboxed over the controversy
for an hour or more. Some quoted
Blackstone while others bore eff few
bars from the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, which precipitated an argu-
ment as TO whether Wilson conld out
run powney in one of those life.
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
contests
welterweight barrister from North
Bergen said he believed in open rings
openly arrived at and that in the name
of law and order the boxing commits
sion should make the punishment fit
the crime. The gang, however, couldn't
see how the commissioners we're going
to make the punishment fit the crime
il no crime had been committed
Somebody gave snappy dissertation
on moral turpitude and its influence
on the submerged tenth and the bell
saved a youth who mentioned Mrs.
Browning's Sonnets from the Portu-
guese.
Denies He Can Fight
Wilson appeared before the commits
sioners and seemed TO be in the same
semiconscious languor that gripped
him en- Labor Day. He came to life
only once and that was when Tex
Rickard accused him of having fought
a better fight than he did against
Downey. Rickard alluded to his match
vita Mike O'Dowd at Madison Square
Garden
johnny denied this emphatically.
leading in that O'Dowd fight" said
Chairman Doherty, addressing the
champion.
'N0, sir, | did not replied Wilson.
de Kept after me all the time. He's
rushin', tearin' fighter, that boy"
After that Johnny relapsed into his
usual coma and his manager was the
one who asked for additional time in
which to get lawyer
jim Savage, who refereed the fight.
told the commissioners that he would
nave stopped the bout in the fifth
round and thrown both Wilson and
Downey out of the ring, only he
couldn't think up a precedent for such
move.
IF Wilson hadn't been the cham
pIon | certainly would have thrown
them both out" declared Jim. 81
think they fought honestly enough, but
they just didn't know how to fight,
that's all
Worried Over the Bacon
Commissioner McNair testified that
ne heard one of Wilson's seconds say
70 the boxer after the fourth round:
Keep on fighting just as easy as you
can. Just take it easy and keep away
from that old right hand" Then after
the tenth round the same second said,
according to McNair: "Only two more
rounds, Johnny, and the bacon is still
ours
McNair said that after the fourth
round he would have ordered SAVAGE
70 stop the tight if he had not feared
that this might have caused riot and
stampede among the fans to get their
money back.
Rickard prefaced his testimony with
tne hope that Johnny Wilson is "ruled
out OF every ring in America The
promoter expressed the conviction that
wilson did not fight to the best of his
solhty and took issue with Savage's
contention that a champion could not
se thrown on of ring by referee
aof not fighting. This brought Jim
Numbering through the crowd with the
statement that Tex was trying TO cast
9spers'ons on the referee and the New
Jersey boxing authorities.
wilson can fight better than he did
IN Monday said Richard. "He put
up no fight at all against Downey and
saula nave been thrown out of the
ring AT Madison Square Garden,
against o'Dowd, led and took
.hances- On Mond he stalled for