Seward daily gateway., 1925-03-27

it when they come over hard e 1t later.
 There is the well-known case of Farmer Lodge, a heavyweight who looked big enough to whip pair of ordinary fighters, but he was rated as one of the leading divers in the ring. A diver, in the parlance Of the ring. is a fighter who lacks the courage to take punishment and who looks for soft spots on the floor to take a fall for the count. This same Farmer Lodge was one of the heroes of the X. F. F. He dis tinguished himself by capturing a German machine gun nest lone handed with a broken rifle and an empty cartridge-belt. That sure was courage.
 Tony O'Brien, sad faced young doughboy from Milwaukee, is an other one who was placed in the class of the faint-hearted light weights. He can punch" the touts said, but he can't stand the going" This same Tommy O'Brien had his leg almost blown off in the Argon- ne forest with the United States Infantry His leg is a mass of ugly scars that run here and there, up and down all over the limb. He was almost torn apart by a burst of shrapnel and they despaired of his life at the emergency hospital. Ger tainly. they said, if he recovers he never will be able to walk. And now that boy is fighting.
 The other night in Madison Square Garden, Tommy O'Brien was fight ing George Chaney, the greatest puncher Of his weight that the ring has ever seen. O'Brien and Chaney were two of sixteen lightweights selected by the New York Boxing Commission to engage in the tourna ment that was organized to find the successor to Benny Leonard as the worlds lightweight champion. Every man in the tournament was to be drawn out of the hat, there were pale faces and nervous hands around the table in the office of the com mission.
 Chaney's name came out first There was a nervous tension in the room when the hand of a commis sioner went in another hat to draw Chaney's opponent.
 Tommy O'Brien,' the commis sioner announced And the color came back to many faces in the room. O'Brien didn't finch. He merely smiled a sad smile that has been since that hell in the Argonne
 O'Brien, as the wags say, got on his bicycle when the fight started He knew as every one else knew who has any knowledge of boxing that it would be suicide for O'Brien 10 go out and slug Clancy. His only hope was to stay on the defensive and wait for an opening.
 Hes yellow. He's running. Catch him, Clancy" the ten-cent sports in the ten-dollar seats yelled.
 It looked like O'Brien was gone He was being almost floored with body punches that were landing on his back He was being hurt so badly that he was claiming a foul on blows that were landing on his chest. Suddenly, in sheer despera ton, he lashed out wild right hand It landed flush on Chaney's jaw and he fell like an oak, the bell saved him, but he came out of his corner and O'Brien fIoored him for the count with another right hand
 It was learned after the fight that O'Brien had broken his wrist in the first round and that he was suffer ing the most excruciating pain when the wolves were yelling yellow" al him.
 The knockout of Clancy was one of the sensations of the indoor sea son. In fifteen years of boxing he had scored more than 150 knock outs in a couple of hundred bouts He was the most feared fighter in the class and he was considered one