Newark post., 1922-08-02
= SPORTITORIAL =
Leonard Retains Crown
Newark Going Strong

A visit to the huge pine bowl oi
lex Richards at Boyle's Thirty Acres
at Jersey City, N. j., last THURSDAY
night, should have been enough evi.
oence Tor anyone that boxing is one
OF the most popular sports of this
country.
II your imagination can carrv Won
that far, just figure half the popula-
ton OF Wilmington seated in an on.
closure of pine. That is Just about
what the attendance at the Leonard
Tender fight compared with. There
were about 10000 persons at the FIGHT
and these people pried themselves
loose from S450,OOO to see one of the
battles Of the age.
Leaving all personal feeling ont q,
1t there is no one who can say that
the turnout for this fight was not a
proof that the people of the country
want boxing. Arrange lecture on
any up-to-the minute subject, have a
prohibition meeting with the causes
best speakers on hand or have a gath
erlng Of any kind with the admission
free and the bets are 100 to 1 that
there will not be 10000 people turn
out for a dozen of them. But vet the
men and women, and there was quite
a number of the weaker sex" on
hand, paid anywhere from SIS to SIS
to see the country's two foremost
lightweights fight.
To get down to the fight. There
has never been a lightweight fight
that attracted so much attention and
there has never been a fight among
the 135 Founders in which there was
much more excitment. The two bat
tiers were in the roped circle to bat
tie one another into dreamland, but
the results are already too well
known to tell the reader that in this
both failed.
Who VINO the bout? 1t was a no.
decision affair, all matches in New
Jersey must be, to comply with the
law. But the popular verdict went
to the title-holder, Leonard.
At the start it looked very much
as though the Philadelphia entry was
going to knock the diadem from the
brow of the champion. But when the
final round was over the majority of
people were of the opinion that Leon
ard had rallied sufficiently in the last
rounds Of the fight to wipe out the
lead gained by Lew the Tender.
There was only one semblance Of
Knockout, and that was in the eighth
round, when Tender got over one of
his famous left-handed hooks and
Benny's knees did a sagging stunt,
but he clinched and held until he had
recovered sufficiently to again hold
his own and go one better against the
Quaker City challenger.
1t was great fight, Benny Leon
ard, the champion, Lew Tender, the
Tex Richards, the pro-
moter, and Somebody" owner of con-
,ession rights, can today buy enough
Fords to give every man, woman and
:hild in Newark one, but the Ameri-
IAN public wanted the fight and they
paid for it.
1t is a very encouraging fact to
he followers of the Newark baseball
cam of the New Castle County
League that the team is playing a
much better article of ball than they
lid in the first half of the league race.
If course the locals have only won
wo games thus far, but the team has
,layed excellent ball in it's other
,ames and has proven to the fans that
very team in the league will know
hat it is in battle before the New
.rk nine goes down in defeat.
In the first half of the league the
ocal team played without much "pep"
.fter losing couple of games, but
he players seemed to have lost this
pirit and taken on the old fighting
pirit. which will, win a lot of ball