The Washington times., 1930-06-14
B|LLMUL.DOON
IS AGAINST
TH|SMOVE
BY DAVIS J. WALSH

BY DAVIS J. WALSH
NEW YORK. June 14.-Thirty-
six hours after the first million
dollar foul in all the history Of
boxing had been committed, the
Jury still was out this morning
trying to reach a verdict on the
question of whether Max Schmel-
ing is to be awarded undisputed
possession Of the heavyweight
title or undisputed possession Of
the air. It is headStrong jury,
in the opinion of William Null
doom In fact, his story is that
IL very stubborn jurors are liable
to try a mans patience out OF all
reason.
Anyhow, Mr.. Muldoon, who
seems to feel that he would be
violating his best traditions il he
ever agreed with anybody on any
thing, has decided that everybody
was guilty of a childish over
sight on Thursday evening. He
thinks the wrong man won the
prize-fight.
He, therefore, has arranged to
take a unanimous one-man vote
on the matter and thus straighten
everyone out. BY the time he
gets through doing this, Max
Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling
will have defended and probably
lost the title he was awarded on
foul by Jack Sharkey in the
fourth round the other night.
In other words, it would
seem that MIR. MuldOon has
managed to Overmatch him.
self, at last.
He can decree that men must
stop smoking because he doesn't
like smoking, but he can't order
them to stop thinking. For in
stance, did Schmeling lose the
prize fight? He didn't. Did he win
the prize fight? He did. Was the
prize fight, by the arrangement
of his own boxing commission, to
be fought for the heavyweight
championship? It was. This IS
second reader stuff. BY following
its continuity, you arrive at The
! inevitable conclusion that Schmel-
ing is the heavyweight champion
because he won the prize fight
that was fought for the heavy
weight championship.
OF course, Sharkey had no title
to win or lose but, except for this
point, the foul incident parallels
others in which a championship
title was involved. Willie Ritchie
might never have been lightweight
champion if they had refused TO
/ recognize his right to crumple
u nder Wolgast's foul. What Of
the famous Nelson-GanS foul at
Goldfield? Was that champion
ship fight or am just naturally
mistaken? Jackie Fields, the pres
ent welterweight champion, was
fouled into his title by Dundee.
These items in the bill Of partlcu.
lars, as a matter of fact, are too
numerous to mention.
The New York commission does
many strange things. 1t agrees to -
waive its own foul rules in the
contract for this fight, thus in
viting one and all to ignore these
rules in the future. It allows
Schmeling, supposed to be per-
soma non grata, to dictate the
terms of this particular clause,
because he claimed that Sharkey
might simulate foul from q
punch in the body; yet it knew
or should have known that
Schmeling and body punching,
are as the poles, apart.
But If it doesn't stand be-
hind the verdict of its own
officials, it will be laughed
out of cOuntenance by Cali
fOrnia, Illinois and the N. b.
A., all of which agreed to
help it stand behind this YER
dict. These organizations are
obligated to accept Schme-
ling; the New York commits
sion can do no less.
Meantime, we have a new
champion and the perennial chal-
lenger, neither of whom are men
to inspire great confidence.
Sharkey will never be as good as
he was the other night. If he
fights Schmeling again it will be
as a man who reached and has
passed the pinnacle. He achieved
perfection for three Of the four
rounds the other night and still
lost. Offhand I would say that
that kind is hopeless.
AS for Schmeling, he struck me
as a fighter who, in winning on
the negative impetus of foul,
wasn't as good as he was year
ago. His right, it seems, has lost
some of its authority. It GER
tainly has lost it brevity and snap.
His left is still highly unimpor-
tant. And if he stays out Of cir
culation until next June, as an
nounced, he won't be as good as
he was on Thursday night. He
can't stay out of competition
without suffering accordingly. He
is in the unique position OF hav-
ing much to learn about a pIo-
fession Of which his is the ad-
mitted king and ruler. You can t