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Show iCIjl BSUII Langford Considered Best Man, but Kefchel Holds Honors Willi Papke. JEFFRIES FOUGHT MANY BATTLES TO GET TITLE Battling Nelson Anxious to Regain Re-gain Lightweight World's Championship. BY JEFF THOMPSON. By Leased Wire to The Tribune. NEW YORK. April 2. It is about time wo were deciding the interesting question: Who is the middleweight champion? Stanley Stan-ley Ketchel used to hold this honor, but for a long tlmo the laurels have been fluctuating fluc-tuating between Billy Papke and Ketchel. Langford stands a fair show now of getting get-ting a crack at the title himself. Ever since Papke knocked WIllIo Lewis cold in three rounds in Paris there has been talk of a match between him and Ketchel. Stanley asserts that he is back In the game for keeps now and that he has cut out tho foolish business. A light between Papke and Ketchel would mako a beautiful fistic battle and. If Ketchel and Langford do not settle their differences beforehand, It Is only fair that tho winner give the Boston tar-baby tar-baby a chance, Langford must always be reckoned with as a middleweight champion. lie Is a queer tighter, showing up poorly when his backers think him strongest and winning In grand style when he Is supposed to bo out of form. But it Is high lime that we settled this middleweight championship question. Jeffries has fought more battles to maintain his championship, before he temporarily quit, than any other heavyweight heavy-weight belt holder. John L. Sullivan beat Jake Kllrain In 1SS9, winning the championship, cham-pionship, and practically took a rest for three years, when he met Corbett at New Orleans and lost. After beating John L., Corbett fought only one real battle in the ensuing five years. Corbett Cor-bett fought Charley Mitchell between the time he won tho championship and lost It to FItzslmmons, but that was his only real fight of consequence. Fitz won his title from Corbett at Carson City. March 17, 1S97. lie never entered tho ring again until he lost to Jeffries two years afterward. Jeffries was compelled to fight nine battles to hold his championship, champion-ship, for just at tho time when ho beat FItzslmmons heavyweight aspirants were growing on bushes. The civil HUlt against Jack Johnson by Bernard Gerard and tho estate of II. C Minor to recover $175S alleged due on a theatrical contract, gives the dusky champion cham-pion another notch in his record of litigations. liti-gations. Counting writs in damage cases, criminal suits and arrests I think this is tho fifteenth time that Johnson has been hailed before the law. Tho big fellow has been trying to keep out or trouble, but it seems that the more he tries the deeper deep-er he gets into the tangles of the web. In this rspect Johnson stands in a unique niche. No other pugilist has ever beep arrested as many times as he. Ryan Knows Game. Tommy Ryan, who has been denominated denom-inated as tho head of the Johnson training train-ing camp, Is about the best selection that could have been made. I doubt If any one knows as much about Jcffrles's style of fighting as Ryan. In his early career Jeffries was helped greatly by the pointers point-ers given him by Ryan. Tommy Is still a fast agile boxer, although' al-though' ne Is only good for training purposes. pur-poses. Stanley Ketchel, who had to have two postponements In order to get ready for Frank Klaus In Pittsburg, Is now skirting skirt-ing nbotiL for bigger gome. I Ketchel hurried over to New York Immediately Im-mediately after the Klaus affair and consulted long and earnestly with his new trainer. Jonathan Igoe. "Thoy can't come fast enough for me now," said Mr. Ketchel. Battling Nelson, who was recently ousted from his membership in tho Lambs' club In this city, says that after one more week of vaudevlllo he will hit tho great sunset trail for the west and get back to nature for a while. I do not know why Bat was ejected from the theatrical the-atrical club In this city, for I never knew him to be given to alcoholic jamboreeif I presume that Ihe Lambs thought ho wasn't "a legitimate actor. As a matter of fact, ho isn't. Tlie Battler will lay off in Mexico for a long vbllc getting the good ozone of the Sierra Madre mountains and taking things easy generally for some tlmo. TIo wants to meet Wolgast again in September, Septem-ber, and thinks that a couple of months roughing It In the wilds will put him back Into his old-time form. The latest date set for tho proposed Wolgast-Nelson tight for the settlement of the much-mooted lightweight championship cham-pionship is September 9. When Nelson was In Minnesota, some time ago, ho opened negotiations with Wolgast for a September date. The thing has been hanging fire since. Tom Jones, Wol-gast'B Wol-gast'B manager, says that he prefers Nelson Nel-son to Moran. Thompson or Murphy. On the other hand, Ad was Inclined to balk at this programme Wolgast wanted to meet u few of the soft ones before going up against Nelson again. |