Bout Between Dempsey and Fulton Would Pave Way for Title Battle By T. S. AKT3SEWS. , Special io The Tribune. ! M I LAY AT" KEE, Feb. The show- j ing of .lack l"iempsey, the Vtah heavy- ; weight, against some of the big fellows 1 lilt ply- has convinced boxing critics and : fans that the Salt Lake contender is ; entitled to a match with Fred Fulton, claimant of the heavyweight title.' j Dempsey was sent against Homer t Smith, the Michigan cyclone, at Ka- cine. Wis., and he made short woi k I of the big fellow, who had put up a ! good battle against Bill Brennan of I t hieago only a few weeks previously; in fact, the knockout iu the first round was so ('cau-c:iT that he was voted a clian e with anv o: teem. Should the Fulton-Moran fight at New Orleans no Through without further fur-ther ve:ry or die. ay, the winner will find re:acsey waiting at the gate for a chance. Oempsey was giver, tue verdict in a four-round boar with 1'arl Morris a: San Ikancisco an.i also one over uunbeat Smith, both of whom have also been defeated by Fred Fulton. There is no doubt that the Minne- (Cor.tinued on Page Pour.) 10 FULTDfi i OilDEB (Continued from Page One.) sola plasterer has been an in-aud-outer at timi'.s, due in a measure to lax methods meth-ods more than anything el.-:e, and it has worked n h harm to his ability as a champion t'iiili; it. Many managers, with less fortitude than !ike Collins would have given up the battle to place Pillion at the top lung ago. There is no doubt about the ability of pulton uhen lie is right, and he lias proved that he is just as game as the rest of the heavyweights and can take a beating beat-ing if ih r i sa ry , hut he has the habit of getting in bad just at the wrong time. .lust Ihe same. Pulton can box and fight and if lie meets prank Moran in the soulh it is a good bet that lie will stop the blnnd Pittsburger, something less Wilhird failed to do. In tho meantime mean-time Prrd may take on Dempsey in a ten-round battle just to show 1hat he is not afraid of any of the contenders, big or little. There is one thing about Manager Collins that is commendable in the boxing game he is not afraid to make his man fight and fight often, no matter whom they bring along. Game Dull in Australia. According to reports from San Prari-cisco, Prari-cisco, brought over by some of the re turning boxers, the lighting gamo in Australia is at a very low ebb. These reports do not coincide -with advices just at hand from Australia and which tell of some of the contests held there recently. For instance, Fred Kay, the Australian Aus-tralian middleweight champion, fought Harry -Stone, the American welterweight, welter-weight, at. Snowy Baker's stadium in Sydney before a crowd of 3000 fans. Kay won the contest on points, but he had considerable advantage in weight, scaling lot) pounds, and Stone . 140 pounds. According to the reports, the contest was a good one and full of action' all the way, Stone making a groat finish, lint not enough to get a I draw. Tlic decision was a popular one, I however, and tho winner is to be matched again with Jimmy Clabby. At Brisbane, another stadium controlled con-trolled by Snowy Baker, Eugene Vol-aire, Vol-aire, the' French lightweight, defeated Pleetor Melville in a clashing twenty-round twenty-round contest. Special mention was made of the attendance, which was larger than usual and which would indicate in-dicate that the interest in boxing there is anything but on the decline. It was also stated that the advance sale for the contest between Jack Hilt and Jim Millerick, for the Victoria championship, was miusualiy large, indicating indi-cating a big attendance. Numerous contests, in fact more so than has been the case for some time, are being arranged a different stadiums sta-diums over there, wdiich would indicate that the boxing game is holding its own despite the war and that as soon as the nations stop scrapping there will be plenty of interest in the boxing contests, con-tests, especially with some of the Americans going over there. O'Dowd Not Afraid. Mike O'Dowd, the new claimant of the middleweight title, is to be congratulated con-gratulated ou one thing no matter whether be is the legitimate champion or not. he is adopting the right course by agreeing to meet any mail in the division. di-vision. Henry (ireb, the Pittsburg contender, con-tender, and also claimant of tho title before Al McCoy was put down and out by O'Dowd, has been matched with Mike for a ten-round battle at St. Paul, February -li, the weight to be at the limit 1.1S pounds. It shows a disposition dispo-sition on the part of both lads to settle the dispute as to the championship, even though it is in a no-decision contest. Thero will probably be a winner either way and the lads recognise the fact that the man getting the popular verdict ver-dict will be hailed as the champion. To my mind, Mike Gibbons is master of both lads when it comes to boxing at the nibldlewciglit limit, but as Mike has been lax in arranging matches of that kind ami has always steered aw'ay from the Jong distance events, it is only fair to recognize O'Dowd or Greb as the titleholder and let them defend the same against all coiners. If there is a winner on February 23 it would be a great thing for the game if Mike Gibbous Gib-bous would consent to meet the one to get the verdict and thus bring about a champion without any further argument as to claims, etc. Gibbons really owes it to the game to arrange a match of that kind and at the same time it would no doubt bring good returns, financially, to Michael. With his constant training train-ing in the military camp, wdiero he is instructor, he w-ould be in fine shape to start work for a match of that kind, and there are thousands of boxing fans who would be interested and anxious to see it go through. Wolfe Ertle's Jinx. Most fighters, champious 'or otherwise, other-wise, have a jinx and Kcwpie Ertle, claimant of the bantauweight title, is no exception to the. rule. Johnny's jinx is Jack Wolfe of Cleveland. Ohio, who at one time trained with Krtle and who has twice boxed Kewpie in Cleveland Cleve-land of lafe, being gjveu a shade by the local papers each time, while some" others oth-ers disagreed. In tiie opinion of the writer Krtle defeated Wolfe in their first engagement, tin bodv punching alone, but it was one opinion against others who favored the t'levelaud lad. In the second contest, "which was postponed post-poned from December 19 to January 25 on account oJt' Ertle hurting his back, the Kewpie was not fighting up to his form, and "vvliUn some considered it a good draw, others gave Wolfe a shade. Uovs-eA'er, Erl le was bothered with a badly closed nasal organ and was obliged to have it treated during the afternoon of the light by a Cleveland specialist. His breathing apparatus was in bad shape and he waa unable to force matters as ho usually does, owing to the nasal trouble. It would havo sounded bad to say anything about his trouble beforehand, so Kewpie went ahead and did the best he could. Wolfe was in grand shape and showed great improvement over his previous battle. The Cleveland lad is a wonderful defensive boxer and is developing de-veloping a right cross that may become more dangerous'. He is certainly Ertle's jinx and Johnny will not be satisfied until he gets Wolfe into a longer battle where a decisive verdict will be possible. pos-sible. Wolfe will give all the bantams plenty of trouble at 118 pounds and