The Washington herald., 1921-03-06
By ROBERT EDGREN.

Joe Lynch. worlds bantam
weight champion. is = regular fight
Ing man. and the only present title
holder who 10 q war veteran and
who saw active service on European
battIeheids. Joe was in the Fifty
second Pioneer Infantry, Col. Fos-
ters regiment, with Bill Wellman
and many other noted sportsmsn,
The Fifty-sscond was q fishting
regiment. here and abroad. and
Lynch had q busy time with the
gloves Is well as with the Huns.
Like nearly all of the real cham
pions, Lynch fought his way up TO
the title by degrees. There was no
royal road to q championship and
q fortune for him. When he whip
ped Peter Herman, the clever little
fellow from New Orleans. he had
already shown champiohship~ form
In many hard ring battles, and the
result of his fight for the title was
no surprise to those who had fol-
lowed his career.
Joe Is we'll built for boxing. He
is fairly tall for a bantam-wsight.
has broad, square shoulders and Is
so symmetricaliy formed that there
Is no freakish point In his physical
makeup. He has a good reach. is
lean. sinewy and strong, has plenty
Of speed. Is naturally aggressive.
yet Q cool ring general. and has q
good knowledge OF effective hitting.
Being knocked down only makes
him fight harder, and he does his
best when up against q hard op-
ponent.
Joe's home Is in West Forty-seo-
ond street, New York. and It was
In this. fighting neighborhood that
he got his first experience and
knowledge Of scrapping. His
father was, and still Is, an express
man. When Joe isn't too busy in
the ring he works on his fathers
wagons, for he Is a believer In the
old notion that hard work Is the
best training. II was this hard
work that gave him the extraordi-
nary endurance seen In many of his
ring fights.
Ii Making Fortune.
Like Benny Leonard. Joe got his
start at Billy Gibson's old Fairmont
A. c. in the Bronx. In his first ap-
pearance there he put on boxing
gloves for the first time, as ali his
experience before that had been
confined to boyish bare fist boxing
on the streets and In vacant lots.
He made a good showing. and as he
won. several bouts he was soon "in
the money" When he got s12s for
beating Billy Fitzsimmons 1t looked
like q fortune to him. In the past
six months Joe has earned more
than $4,000 In the ring. He got
$4,000 for his two fights with Jack
Sharkey. $1,000 for boxing Abe
Goldstein and Jabez White, and a.
500 for beating Pete Herman. These
have been his big g-money battles, AS
champion he will probably follow
the pace OF lightweight Champion
Benny Leonard. whose ring earn
ings have run up to nearly a quar-
ter OF Q million dollars.
Lynch Is the kind Of fighter who
Is likely to retain the title for some
time, not by avoiding his rivals, hut
by beating them one after another.
He never has been an easy mark.
and with champions prestige and
confidence added to his natural abil-
~ he's going to be hard lad to
down. He likes that diamond
studded belt Tex Rickard presented
him with when he won the cham
pionship, and says he'll defend II
at any time against any contender
who can make the weight.
Joe has four brothers. None Of
the others have shown champion
shin aspirations yet. but there's no
telling when the Lynch family will
begin to crowd the ring. Paddy
Lynch. his father, doesn't object to
boxing now that Joe has made such
. success Of IL. You'll note that Joe
comes by the Lynch" honestly, He
didn't have to adopt good Irish
sighting name. He had It already.
He Tackled the Best.
Unlike many champions, Joe
Lynch didn't start - a knocker-o out,
Most of his early fights were no.
decision Affairs and went the sched-
uied distance. He fought q lot 81
good ones, too, Among the lot he
met In 1917. when he was little
more than q novice, were Jack
Sharkey. Kid, Williams, frankie
Burns, Pete Herman. Willie Astey,
Frankie Daley. Joe Leonard, Eddie
O'keefe and Pal Moore.
In 1913 Lynch lost to Pal Moore.
whom he had bAafen fho v..- 49,