The Washington herald., 1922-07-27
Southpaw Lew Tender
Gets First Crack at
Lightweight Crown.
By WEsTBRooK pEcIER.

NEW YORK. July 26.-As the
lighters rest awaiting the hour to
weigh in for the richest Champion
ship battle ever promoted at weights
below the heavyweight, the Eastern
sporting populace has forgotten
temporarily that the horses are run
ming at Empire City, and that the
New York and ST. Louis clubs in
12th leagues are at each Others
tnroats in contests for the pair of
pennants.
Benny Leonard, lightweight
champion of the world. took just
enough exercise today to keep his
muscles flexible. and Lew Tender.
OF Philadelphia. his left-handed op-
ponent for tomorrow nights H.
round. no-decision fight in Jersey
City. also refrained from all but
the lightest work. Leonard engaged
quarters on the Jersey side near the
arena at Boyle's Thirty Acres. so he
could spend the night before the
battle In seclusion with Billy Glib
son. his manager. and his brothers.
Charlie and Joe Leonard.
Must Weigh Under is.
Tender planned to arrive in Jer-
his training camp at Delanco, N j..
near Philadelphia. in time to weigh
In with the champion before the
members of the Jersey Boxing Com
mission The figure is 1S pounds
In the afternoon, which will permit
both fighters to rebuild their
strength with broth or whatever
else they desire IL they feel weak
after making the weight. 1t is
kclaimed that they have posted for
feits of $4,000 each for weight and
appearance. There is no danger
that either man will fail to appear,
bsrrina railroad wrecks. and there
seems no likelihood that either will
carry an ounce more than 135
pounds.
But If the fight should be post
poned by bad weather the whole
promotion may result in an indeci-
sive match. so far as the cham
pionship Is concerned, because the
men may not be able to remain at
weight indefinitely. In the recent
Tendler-Barrett fight at Philadel-
phia the men made weight, but the
fight was postponed several days
and they finally entered the ring
two or three pounds above the
limit.
Stage Is Set.
New York sports are pulled tight
with suspense, for the match has
been brought along by Tex Rick
ards o, methods of building up
interest An awkward but fairly
scientific lefthanded boxer with
heavy left punch to the body de-
scribes Tender His record does
not prove him a knockout swatter
against first rate men. But he got
into noisy personal squabble
with Leonard by seizing Leonard's
keppearance forfeit of $4,000 when
The champion failed to meet him
In a fight arranged for year ago.
claiming that he had broken his
right hand The boys called each
other "piker" for the next six
months and suddenly discovered
that they had aroused about $780,
loco worth of interest in their
quarrel. That was when Rickard
stepped in. He confidently expects
the receipts to exceed 100000 and
would be pleased but not much
surprised if the final figure were
very close to S5O0.000-
The daylight battery of electric
Nights with a silver reflector. which
hung above the ring at the Leonard
Britton and Lynch-Buh battles in
the Metropolitan Velodrome, have
been installed in the Rickard bowl.
This is the first night fight ever
held there and only the third one
eince the arena was thrown together
20 seat 10000 people at the Demp-
eey-Carpentier bout. The other was
lhe petting-polka between Johnny
Wilson and Bryan Downey.
Tender is something of a prize
light fetish with the fans of Phila-
ieIphia. where most of his fighting
has been done under the no-deciSion
tule. 1t was expected, therefore,
hat the Philadelphians could cover
considerable amount of the Leon
lrd backing. but so far the betting
las been light, with plenty of Leon
rd money available. One wager of
5000 to $4,000 was recorded in Wall
lreet that Leonard will either
knock out his man or receive the
ecision in the majority of the news
bapers.
I'll win by a Knockout with a
ight to the jaw. my usual punch,
rithin eight rounds" Leonard ven
klred to say. Tender wouldn't call
he round or name the blow. but he
lso promised to knock ont sonc-
,ody. A canvass of opinion among
portsmen here indicates that one
r the other must be wrong as dou-
lie knockouts almost never happen.
Rocky Kansas, who whipped
endler and was whipped four times
~ Leonard. picks the champion to
ton his man in seven rounds