The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-09-11
by ROBERT EDGREN.

~ hODhhE r<DUnr4N'
Benny Leonard and Lew Tender
nave been a long time getting to.
gether. For the past few year,
Philadelphians-Tendler being this
favorite son-have been telling the
rest Of the world how Benny Leon.
ard was lodging Lew, and Benny.
friends have been chucking tbs
story right back with Tender or
the lodging end. Periodically
Leonard has Offered" Tender gen.
srous terms or Tender has "of,
Tered" Leonard fat guarantees, all
Of which has resulted in wranglins
and much advertising. but no night
Finally Billy Gibson. who man.
ages Leonard, said that Tender
was OF his books for life. Gibson
averred that Tender and his man
ager were not In earnest. wers
looking for advertising, didn't wan,
Leonard match, were using
Benny's name to boost business and
that anyway Tenders challenges
were not couched in the fine. cour-
teous strain anyone should use in
addressing a champion. This, OF
course. automatically barred Tend.
Ter from Benny's social set.
Tender retorted that Leonard
was a welterweight, or worse: tina,
n another year he'll be In the Fat.
tie" Meehan class. and then Tend
Ter would need only to claim the
championship and take It.
Mention taking that champion
ship and you touch Leonard on a
sore spot He doesn't care any
more for IL than he does for his
life He fred right back with a
statement given out to all the
papers, that Tender couldn't make
the weight himself, and that the
Philadelphian was a poor fish II he
thought he'd have the slightest
anyway. Promoters began to make
large offers. Even Tex Richard
began to talk in figures running
well over 100000. But for some
reason the challenging died out
and the public forgot all about 1t.
Here's the Real Truth.
Now these are the real facts Of
the matter:
First, Benny can make the light
weight limit now recognized-which
is las tounds-b-t it's hard. and he
doesn't like to do It too often. He
is haunted by a recollection of what
making low weights did to Joe
Cans He could take on a lot of
making 135 anyway, and he knew
he'd have to make the weight for
Tender il they ever fought-Tend-
Ter and his hackers would demand
the lightweight limit and make an
awful howl about the title IL Benny
failed to weigh in
Second, Tenders reason for not
having fought Leonard before has
been purely financial Tender and
his manager. Phil Glsssman.--are
business men. Tender has been
making a great deal of money with
out fighting Leonard. He is near
enough to Leonard's class to have
little real trouble with the other
"contenders" There's a possibility
that Leonard might knock him out.
\ Il o. by Leonard would stop all
the talk about Leonard's lodging
him, which is one Of his chief bust
ness assets at present. 1t would
drop him back from the Contender"
class-whIch would cut his drawing
power and his purses down at least
20 per cent.
Both Tender and Leonard were
going along nicely outboxing Dun
dee, Jackson and the rest OF the
scene shutters. 1t was a case of let
we'll enough alone until the public
grew weary OF all the combinations
either Tender or Leonard could ar
range without fussing with each
other.
1t looked as If all the trouble was
over when Benny and Lew were at
last matched to hight in Phfiadel-
phia, for the biggest purse ever
offered lightweights. Then Benny
Knocked his thumb out of place,
had his hand put in cast, and asked
for a postponement. Benny and Glib
son had bought the moving picture
rights ofthe fight. and had paid
out about $4,000. They could only
lose money by having the match
called of or set back. There was
little doubt Leonard's hand was out
Of commission for any fight, and ac-
cording to ring custom forfeits are
never taken where the postpone
ment Is forced by an injury to either
man. However Leonard's for
felt was collected from Stake
holder Bob Maxwell, who had no al
tentative but to turn the $4,000
over on Tenders demand.
A Costly Pestponement.
Grabbing Benny's forfeit money
that way made Billy Gibson almost
blow up. The. match was in the
air again. Glassman explained that
he'd return the forfeit if Leanard
was In shape to go on by October
II, and talked about what the
postponement had cost him. Gibson
called in the financial experts and
estimated that 1t mad cost Benny
about s2so.0oo, not counting pic
ture profits.
When the fight finally goes on II