The New York herald., 1922-01-01
AMERICAN BOXERS
STILL LEAD WORLD
Maintain Secure Grip on Five
of the Eight Championships
in Various Glasses.
KID LEWIS ACHIEVEMENT
Foreign Countries Appear to
Have Lost Art of Develop
ing Boxers of Ability. 4
by CHARLES F. MATH1soN.

premacy is concerned America still
leads the world holding five worlds
titles in the eight classes and possess
ing more boxers of ability than any
other country on the globe. This su-
periority in ring affairs has been
maintained despite the fact that box
Ing in Europe and Australia has made
great strides in the last few years. 1t
Is questionable if glove fighting has
ever been more popular in England
than at the present time, notwith-
standing the drawback of paueity of
able fighters.
France also has maintained inter-
est in the roped square game and Bel
gium has advanced surprisingly, hav-
ing developed several men of un-
doubted ability.
However. while they have plenty of
ambitious youngsters in the Old World
eager to gain laurels in the ring. they
seem to have lost the art of develop
ing their fighters to high standard of
excellence. Every boxer of class in
the old country who has been pitted
against an American opponent during
the last year suffered overwhelming
defeat.
No boxing event OF the past quagter
Of a century has shown more conclu
sively the superiority of Americans
over foreigners than the contest be-
tween Jack Dempsey and Georges Car
pentier on July 4 last Coming to this |
country as the heavyweight champion |
of Europe and the acknowledged supe- |
rior of every man in the division on
the other side of the ocean. Carpenter
was swept off his feet in a few rounds |
by the cyclonlc American titleholder
and sent back home rich but bat
tered pugiistlc idol
Another notable instance indicating |
the deficiencies Of foreign titleholders
was furnished by the exploits OF KID |
Lewis In London. This welterwcight, |
while playing second fiddle to Jack |
Britton. the worlds champion In the |
division, went back 90 his native heath
and I'm n short space Of time had de- |
cisively beaten the English champions
in three classes. Lewis, while not |
weighing l50 pounds. twice Knocked out |
Johnny Basham. the welterwelght |
champion of England, and later when |
Basham had gone into the mddlewe'ght |
class and became tho titleholder of that |
division, Lewis took his last champion
ship away from him by knockout.
Holds Three Titles.
Not content with his achievements. |
Lewis then obtained a match with Boy !
Mccormick the holder of the light !
heavyweight title OF Great Britain. I
Lewis stopped Mccormick and in 40
doing became the possessor Of three I
pugilistic. titles simultaneously. This ls 4
the first time I'm the history of boxing 4
that one man has held three titles 81 1
tho same time. Bob F'itzsimmons won 4
three titles during his career, but ne 4
mover held more than two at one time.
Terry McGovern won two titles. the /
bantam and featherweight, and he also /
Knocked out Frank Erne, the light |
weight champion, but, that being = |
handicap match. the youngster did not !
acquire the title. McGoveru retired /
from the bantam class previous 10 beat |
ing George Dixon for the featherweight |
championship. so that he never held |
more than one tltle at one time.
The title holders In England. with the
exception OF Jimmy wilde. have proved
very unsatisfactory. and Wilde himself
received crushing defeat at the hands
OF pete Herman bantam who by no
means Is OF the first division.
with the defeat or Carpenter France
is I'm almost as bad condition as Eng
land regarding first class fighters.
Charley Lcdoux. who has been the ban
tenn champion OF Europe for quite
number Of years. is now on the down
grade and apparently there is no sue
cessor TO him who possesses any great
amount OF ability.
Eugene Criuu French feather /
weight, who was knocked out three T
years ago by so indifferent hitter as
Pal Moore. Is now the featherweight |
champion OF France. The titles in the
other classes change hands so frequently /
that IL is almost impossible TO keep |
track of them.
With the death of Les Darcy. Aus
traiia lost the best fighter It had pro-
duccd since the days OF F1tzsimmons
and Peter Jackson. The fact that Harry /
stone. an East Side lightweight of New
York, could win the lightweight cham
pionship of Australia and retain II for
several years indicates clearly what
the standard OF pugilism is in that
country at the present time. Jimmy
Clabby. an American middleweight, also
had great success In the ring in Aus
trslia, and Billy Shade, California
middleweight. defeated nearly all the
mon In three classes In Australia.
KIIbane Not worlds Champion.
Tho error made by the International |
Boxing Union when it awarded worlds /
titles two years ago I'm assigning the 4
worlds featherweight championship to I
Johnny kilbane Of Cleveland stll stands /
and IS a misleading feature Of pugllstic 1
records. Kilbane won his title OF Ameri- i
can featherweight champion from Abe I
Attcll in twenty round bout to a de- /
c,rion. I<ilbane has never met a foreign I
.ste holder In the ring, and therefore I
certainly never won the worlds title 4
through his own efforts. Had AtteiI been I
the holder Of the worlds championship I
IN the class that would have solved the .
problem for kibane.
hut Attol never had but one ngh.
with foreign rs,Gdnpion and that was 4
y tcf round dscisionless contest with Jim .
Driscoll, the featherweieht champion ~
Europe. The bout between Attell and \
Driscoll lasted the limit Of ten rounds /