The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-26
Ring Champions
 Will Haue Hard Season To Fight

NEW YORK. Nov. 25.-As business declines In the larger classes of the ring. the pressure on the bantam weight and featherweight champions becomes heavier day by day. Both will have to turn their attention to urgent business in defense of their above the featherweight there are few fighters who could. by any stretch of the imagination be called stars, and the young crop of cauli- flower In these divisions Is generally scrubby and unattractive.
 However the young bantams and feathers have been extremely busy and some of them have begun to stand out as unusually good fighters.
 The bantamweight crop of the last year has brought along Cannonball Eddie Martin, Carl Duane. Ansell Bell, Frankie Jerome and Harry Cor don in the east, and an immature rushed too fast in the rings around Chicago and has been temporarily retired.
 The featherweights who have de- veloped to the extent that they may now be regarded as rightful chal- lengers of Johnnie Dundee for the title, are Sammy Mandell of Rock Ioru. Ill.,, marry " dSneT or 6nlA- adelphia and Cuddy De Marco of Pittsburg.
 In the flyweight class. Frankie Ge- naro remains the runner-up to Pancho Villa, who has made several tentative engagements to fight him. The only new prospect Is Al Pet tingill of New Orleans. who has made half a dozen false starts for New York, but has never yet set foot on Broadway.
 Martin Going Good.
 Cannonball Eddie Martin. the bantam. has won 97 fights, including about Is knockouts. He has done most of his work among the numer- ous crop of young bantams and is only now being pointed at the head liners of the old regime, such as Carl Tremaine and Joe Lynch, the champion, Duane has a record some what similar to Martins but Duane is growing fast and last week was unable to scale below 125 pounds for fight with Jerome.
 The Jerome Kid has been in the business over two years and has made some great fights. but may have fought himself out by now, as he has not appeared at his best in some of his recent scraps. Harry Gordon is d rough-house bantam whose record is starred by one great fight in which he hammered Ire maine for 12 rounds last summer to the great surprise of Tremaine and the consternation of the gamblers who regarded him as a to l article, Bell is a colored boxer, formerly an amateur. He announced himself 1 present among the leaders by giving | Midget Smith a severe beating here last week, incidentally putting the ] Midget on the floor.
 Among the feathers, Wagner has
 a slightly better reputation than
 Mandell. for it was Wagner who | caught Dundee fat and sluggish in a mo- decision fight at Philadelphia a
 few months ago and gave him a
 memorable smashing. Mandell is the
 most fascinating little boxer seen
 here since the time of Jim Driscoll
 of England. He is no tapping hitter | but neither is he a knockout puncher 1 and if he rises to the championship
 at all, he probably will arrive by l reason of referees decision. Cuddy | de Marco also is 8 boxer rather than
 a puncher, but Is not to be compared l to Mandell in cleverness.
 In the lightweight class there are 1 no challengers. Among the welter- l weights Mickey Walker the cham | pion, has been without serious com | petition since Dave Shade, his run ner-up, boxed Billy Wells and proved | that he had absolutely no punch
 There are no good middleweights at all and even the champion, Harry
 heavy. The light heavyweight cham
 pionship, held by Mickey McTigue
 has been frightened Into retirement
 by Tom Gibbons and Dempsey has nc
 challengers now who would be con
 ceded a chance to whip him.