New-York tribune., 1921-01-15
Elite Rub Elbows With
Crogan's Gas House
Boys as the Champion
Wins Sensational Battle
Fight Is Stopped
Bv Referee in 9th
Title Holder Floored in
First Round After Send
ing Foe Down 3 Times
By w. O. Mcclellan

Benny Leonard stopped Richie
Mitchell In the sixth round at Madi-
son Square Garden last night, but Miss
Anne Morgan's debut as a prlzefght
promoter almost produced sensa-
tional ring melodrama. Leonard, the
smiling lightweight champion, was
dropped dazed and bewildered in the
first round after he had sent Mitchell
three times to the mat and seemed to
have him stopped.
But the wounded Mitchell, with his
right eye closed, rose gritting his
teeth and hooked ever a left straight
to the point Of Leonard's jaw. The
champion dropped to the canvas with a
thud. His black, beady eyes seemed
glazed, and when he first tried to pull
himself up his knees sagged. Billy
Gibson, the champions manager, pale
as chalk. rose in the champions COR
ner, screaming admonitons that Leon
ard was too dazed and battered to hear
5 But the champions brain cleared
! quickly. Posing on one knee, he rested
deliberately until Referee Haukop
reached the count of eight.
Both Fight Desperately
Then he came up quickly and began
to box. Mitchell also was dazed and
half reeling They wrestled and slashed
at each other desperately, these two
boys. 1T was as dainty a dish for
melodrama as ever was staged before
a bizarre gathering of "debs" and
dips"
In that round it looked like the big
story, the passing of champion-the.
thrill that comes all too infrequently
Leonard missed losing the lightweight
title, valued, roughly, at $1,000 900, by
something less than Two seconds. The
wounded and dazed Richie Mitchell
missed winning it by just that brief
span Of time.
Ring followers and dilettante were
dazed by the suddenness of it; too
dazed to do anything but gasp. Then
came the roar, the roar of the pack
when it senses the passing of q cham
pion.. 1t was 4 penetrating volume of
sound and there were the shrill
screams of women mingled in it.
Probably no ringside watchers will
ever get such THRILL as the one they
6os III IOQIus NliSS f1uuc
Morgan matched better than she knew.
She was seated between former Gov
srnor Al Smith and Big Bill Edwards
when the climax came, for the rest
was nti-climax.
After that first round Leonard be-
came a very cautious champion. In
the second round, when that wounded
but battling lad from Milwaukee again
dazed him with a sturdy thump to the
head, Leonard clutched him around the
waist. The right eye of Mitchell was
closed, but he glared defiance like a
dininutive Cyclops out of the left eye
and ne fought--how he fought!
Champion Suffers Worst Beating
After that first round Leonard used
oil Of his ring cunning. The blood
oozed from his nose and mouth, and he
had received the hardest beating he
had been forced to take since he won
che championship. He realized that
Mitchell was nobody to.play with.
The end came in the sixth, when
Leonard staggered Mitchell with a
right to the jaw. For an instant he
measured his man carefully. Then he
seemed to feel that Mitchell was
weakened. He rushed him into a neu-
ira! corner and battered him to the
"soi WIN riSntS ana IcitS. MltCneli
rose heavily at the count of nine and
was reeling about unsteadily.
Again Leonard pinned him in that
corner and battered him with rights
and lsfts.
Half blinded, Mitchell was wrapping
nis hands around his jaw and trying
70 hold himself erect, but Leonard
Kept after him entlessly. He dropped
ssgsin, but dragged himself up pain
iuiiy holding on to the ropes. Leon
.'d pressed him close, ready to finish
ne ,ae blinded and staggering boy, but
Hsieree Hankop stepped between them.
nsseier nnne.ner punch might have killed
@ooo for Devastated France
Inn is the drama that Miss Nor
an produced st her debut as box
az promoter. The financial success Of
a,ss ., horgan'a venture is quite as
Earring. Tex Rickard, who assisted
~ ~ aud donated the Garden for her
s,ss @ a. asciares that the bout drew
s,v'spo. This will mean that the fund
m devastated France will receive
''"ssn'nz Ike $4,000, even after
(ceatinyed oa ssas sssuen,