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Show II Lightweight Will Hold ; Attention During Year Many Aspirants for Championship Will Keep Present Title'Holder Busy Throughout Next Iwelve Months. I By W. W. NAUGHTONi f-j AX FRANCISCO. Dec. .14. j.J "S Since Thanksgiving, SanFra-j ! cIsco has' played host to ,' all the youngsters who have played , huttkcock and battledore .with the f I world's lightweight championship i during the last half year, Willie Ritchie, Joe Rivers and Joe Mandot Were lri- the city at one and the same time. If Wolgast had der 'hyed his departure a day or two, he could have fraternized with his three distinguished rivals. . ; How these lads have mingled, to , .' be sure. ' 1 TVolgast has boxed .Ritchie, Man-dot Man-dot and Rivera. Mandot has boxed'1 Rivers, Wolgast . Tind Ritchie. - '" Rivers has boxed Mandot and Wol-;ast. Wol-;ast. .''..-. Ritchie has boxed. Wotgagf and Mandot And the end is not yet. t T present Wolgast ie aching to ' I set another crack at Ritchie, who holdo the championship. Rlv-rs, If 'he could "manage It. would like .to trip oyer the championship cham-pionship short line. He would like to overlook Mandot and tWolgast ' and sign up with Ritchie. Mundot. too, would prefer Ritchie to all others, but v has sense enough to recognize that the public expects him to finish out the rubber with Rivers before flying at higher , game. Ritchie. ..for the tjmc -being, b , i::r!.'lcd with the prospect of bcoom-inc bcoom-inc a : footllght favorite, and raking in eonio of ,lho cany money that awalta nil newly-made champions. As their performances "will show, not one of these 133 -pounders towers over his classmates to any extent. Ttmy .average In such a way Dial no very grtat iwrong- would be done-any one of,.;hni If they wiped out naBt scores and started all over ugaln. tjOLGAST secured a. very shaky Vy verdict over Blvors at Los , Angel c and was shaded, by Mandot at New Orleans- Rivers war. defeated by .Mandot at Now Orleans, Or-leans, and Ritchie -won the championship cham-pionship from Wolgast on a foul. And that "foul" is sticking In, (he craw of Fair Play. Old Sport and Constant Readef. They think Willie Wil-lie should eh&rtenhle theatrical sea- zon and demonstrate that ho can trl- 1 umph over Wolgast without tile assistance as-sistance of. a foul. If Rltchlo and Wolgast were laps ; ahead of trie old championship can didates . the tangle would bo easier . to unravel. We would -wait patiently patient-ly while Ritchie took his fling at the theatrical business and fool assured - that there was another Wolgast-RUchle Wolgast-RUchle match In atorc But Rivers and Mandot are not going go-ing to be thrust aside. If they can't .got Ritchie they will content them-. them-. Helves with WSlgast, and there is no telling what ups and downs 'may have . marked the progress of events In 133-pound circles by the time Rltchlo Is ready to don his war paint again. THIS much Is certain, however. The coming year will be a , memorable one so far as lightweight light-weight activities aro concerned. Rivers, Mandot and Wolgast had better bet-ter get together and decldo "who's who." for there Is something In tho public attitude toward Ritchie which pledges an early return to the ring on tho champion's part. From the way tongues are loosening loosen-ing and pens aro scratching, t would seem as though great numbers of sporting men ivere rendered dumb when Referee Griffin decided In Ritchie's favor at tho Thanksgiving day bout, Assuredly there" was very little demur at the verdict at the time, whereas now tho sporting editors' edi-tors' mall Is filled dally with nrotesta against tho championship being transferred trans-ferred "on a technicality." One sport writes that the action of Referee Griffin la tho premises Ib without precedent. Another; argues that the affair should have been called a draw, and 7,ct another insists in-sists that If the referco had stopped lho bout and called It "no contest" he would have done 'the right thing at the right time. IN the writer's opinion, tho referee look the right course. A foul is a foul and, whether committed deliberately or through clumsiness, mould merit disqualification. In tho instance under discission there Is ground for suspicion that "VVolgast delivered an unfair blow to escape thp ignominy of a knockout- Now, If there were any way of condoning an offense of this character, how many champions would hesitate about committing com-mitting fouls when they have felt themselves being beaten down? Not many, I'm thinking. That this particular foul hurt tho recipient Incapacitated him. it might be. claimed Is a. thing which cannot be denied. It was the ono punch of tho contest which mado tho San Franciscan flinch and caused him to sink 'to tho floor In distress. Now, considering that Wolgast wafi dafced and roollng from the effects" of a knockdown punch when he committed commit-ted tho foul, how could any ruling which would have permitted of the thing1 being overlooked or of the contest con-test continuing, be In accordanco with the old sporting formula, "a fair field and no favors."? |