New-York tribune., 1921-03-18
$4,000 Check
Made Wilson
Look a Winner
Mike Amuses Himself by
Stretching His Legs While
ChampionF Fondles, Paper
By Haywood Broun


Mike oDowd to top off st. Patrick's
Day at Madison Square Garden last
night. Biovanni, who goes under the
fighting name of Johnny Wilson, looked
winner from the moment he stepped
into the ring, for while Mike was
stretching his legs, bowling to the cheers
of the crowd and performing the usual
traditional preliminares, Giovanni sat
in his corner looking at small piece
of brown paper.
1t was check for $4,000, the cham
>pon's share of the purse. Giovanni did
did not even get up to bow when his
name was cheered not too loudly. He
was too busy translating $4,000 into
lire. 1t makes a great many lire. So
many that Giovanni set himself to
the job of assuring himself that there
should be other slips of brown paper
in the months to come.
Accordingly he fought with great
caution, but with wisdom, too. Every
time he hit Mike O'Dowd on the nose
he mentally credited himself with 1000
lire. Indeed, he punched the face OF
his opponent with much of the preci-
sion and calm of man working on an
adding machine.
O'Dowd Always on Offensive
For time the crowd was grossly
deceived as to the trend of the fight.
O'Dowd never lost the offensive atti-
tude. 1t was he who kept tearing in
and Wilson, the champion, who gave
ground. But Wilson did not neglect to
give punches as he retreated.
The pursuer was constantly harassed
by the straight right-hand jab of the
champion, who is southpaw and
frankly fights from the reverse angle.
Wilson also was exceedingly successful
in reaching O'Dowd's stomach with his
left.
Each time the 1rishman would vince
and once he claimed foul, in which
he was loudly supported by the crowd,
but the referee would not allow it.
Suddenly, late in the fight, one of
Wilson's. blows cut O'Dowd over the
eye, and from then on Mike bled pro-
fusely. Immediately the crowd changed
sides and began to cheer for Wilson.
This trait of humanity to get behind a
winner is not a pretty one. Samuel
johnson once commented on a some
what similar occurrence in letter
which he wrote to Lord Chesterfield,
who had failed to buy any considerable
number of copies of book which
Johnson had dedicated to him.
Johnson remarked that Lord Ches-
tertield was a person who would calmly
watch man struggling in the water,
and once he had reached the bank en-
cunfber him with aid.
Fight fans are made in the Chester
fieldian mold. But it didn't bother
Wilson. He fought exactly the same
night in the early rounds, when the
Garden rang with shouts of "Cheese
champion!" as he did when the same
rooters suddenly began to scream "You
can do it! He don't like 'em down
there! Let i'm have it'll"
AS matter of fact, the advice of a
crowd with its "He can't hurt you!"
and all the rest of it, isn't of much use
to fighter. Wilson kept his mind
constantly on the lire and not on the
cheers. After all he didn't need any-
body to help him to the bank. He was
battling his way to the receiving tel
ler's window with both fists from gong
to gong.
A Cheese Champion, Perhaps
Probably Wilson is not much of q
champion. Certainly, he is not an inn
pressivc fighter, in spite of the fact
that he is one of the most beautifully
built men who ever stepped into ring.
He was .gorgeously trained last night.
His skin was perfect fit. But he
doesn't keep going in and after a
his man Is champion should. 1t was
O'Dowd who had all the charging, glow
ering, battering manners of g. title
holder.
Even in the last three rounds, when
his face was covered with blood, he
kept up his rushes. Still he hardly
lived up to the tradition set by Henley.
His head was bloody and also bowed,
Wilson in the stomach. O'Dowd's spirit
was admirable, but his condition was
not so good. He had little too much
of theAwhitc mans burden around his
waistline.
Moreover, in spite of the air of
ferocity with which he fought, there
was not much snap to his blows. Even
before the blood came too many of his
rushing attacks we're blind. Again and
again he missed like Babe Ruth swing
ing at wide one. Wilson was dane
ing man, who kept stepping aside and
out of reach. And always the Italian
kept thrusting his right hand out and
letting the charging man run into it.
He might have been matador.
He didn't need red flag to infuriate
Panica, calling himself Johnny Wilson,
and holding the middleweight cham
pionship of the world, was enough to
make any O'Dowd see red on St. Pat
rick's Day. And as the rounds went
on it was constantly redder world
to O'Dowd.
Probably Giovanni Francisco Panica
is not a world beater. Nobody had
ever heard of him up to the night when
he first beat O'Dowd in Boston. He was
a fourth rater who fought for $50
purses. He has never beaten anybody
of onsequence-except O'Dowd-since.
But he never seemed in doubt for a
moment as to his mastery last night.
Like the man who drank the barrel of
beer before making his be~ he was
fortified by the strongest asset of con-
fidence. OF course, he could do it. He
had done it. There should be no doubt
by this time that whatever his other
failings, Johnny Wilson is the cham
pion of Mike O'Dowd.
Redskin Pitcher for Pirates
PITTSBURGH, March 17.-The bat
ting of Tierney and the pitching OF
Yellowhorse, the Indian moundsman
featured the first practice game staged