Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-06
WAGNER STEPS IN
AS W|ND-UP BOXER.
After Four Years of Preliminary
Battling the Kid Becomes
Headliner
IMPROVING HIS PUNCH
by LOUIS II. JAFFE

| "A FTER four years OF battling-in-
"A cluding several real tough tussles-
in the prcliminaries. Kid Wagner,
Southwark scrapper, whose first name
is Israel, is starting the new year rs
a wind-up puncher. Included on Wag-
ner'S record are about seventy five
bouts, and as the Kid himself says, II
have lost only four newspaper deci-
sions."
Shortly before the end Of 1921 Wag-
ner. on his return from an invasion in
the Middle West, placed himself under
the wing Of Max ITof. known sportively
ms Boo Boo. BOO Boo matched the Kid
with Sammy Bcrnc and Bobby Bur
man, and the third contest for Wagner
under HOf was his first nd-up.
! This match was against johnny
/ Darcy, the rugged sailor man of New
! York. When Bobby Barrett. because Of
! illness. was unable to meet Darcy.
Wagner was moved up from the semi
NJ the eleventh hour against the
mariner. To cverybody's $ surprise at the
National that night the Kid upset the
dope by winning from Darcy.
Would Box Champ
i ut SUONllE III W uHn'T III llllS con-
test evidently "made" him, and now
Hof has come out with declaration
that his Kid was open for competition
with any of the 1876 pound at . o clock
boxers around-not stopping oven at
the champion. J. Kilbane. "Kilbane
can attempt to knock Wagner for a
loop" says Max. "I'll do the gam
bling for such a match. And J. Patrick
won't have such cinch Of It, either,
against the Kid.
Wagner has just reached his ma
jority. He started boxing when seven
teen years of nge, although he has been
close follower of fsticuffs since he
was fifteen. As a kid. the Kid says
he used to see lot Of the big matches
by sneaking into the different clubs.
getting by the ticket takers unnoticed
or climbing fire escapes.
1t was during the var. in the latter
part of 1917, that Wagner got his first
inspiration of boxing. While working
for the Pennsylvania ShipbuildinG Com
pany at Gloucester. \. j., Wagner was
at labor on one Of the boats. He got
into alteration with another youngster,
who, incidentally, is Willie Fuller, the
bantamweight.
They exchanged punches, but friends
interceded. 1t was decided to have
Wagner and Fuller slip on the gloves
against each other for three rounds,
with a gold medal to go to the winner.
They met. and the verdict ended in q
draw. They met again. and this time
Fuller was rendered the decision. How
ever, Wagner had put on such a
splendid contest that he, too, was pre-
sented with q medal.
Have Third Battle
But the Fuller Wagner feud was not
over yet. Later. in Philadelphia. they
met again in a professional bout at ono
of the big clubs. This time the match
went six sizzling rounds and the Kid
is the proud possessor of clippings
which state that he had won from
Fuller.
Since that time Wagner has increased
in avordupois and appears at the same
time to be improving his punch. While
the Kid is snappy soCkcr, especially
with a corking right cross. he has not
been keeling over many of his op'
ponents.
But his manager, Make, believes
that II Is q matter of only few months
before Wagner will begin blazing thu
featherweight trail after meeting with
Kllbane, looming conspiciously as
knockout puncher.