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Show 1 Shooting at Darcy's Record j nnn nnn nnn nnn nnn Critic Finds a Few Flaws By DAMON RUNYON. New York, Pec. $ LONG as he remained in Australia Les Darcy enjoyed a record which loomed mighty lare iu the eyes of the lads about town. Now that he is here, however, the boys are commenciua to apply the acid of arumental analysts to Les "s achievements. One pessimist or. may be he is an optimist made a b'et the other niht that Uarev $ bested in the first battle in whioh he enaes in this country, figuring that the Australian, through the giamor of his long-range reputation, is almost certain to draw an American headliner for his opponent. Darcy 's handle's, whoever they are, may rross the bettor by giving Les a set-up for his first fiht. to work" the ocean kinks out of his system, but the chances are the antipodean slammer will get a real big target. His money-draw-iug; possibilities are too great for the promoters to risk any experimenting. It would he fatal to their pians if they picked out a 1 sucker ' ' and the sucker should maul Les. The man who made the bet contends that Darcy has never beaten a hiah-grado hiah-grado fighter in championship style. He declines to admit that Eddie Mo-Goorty Mo-Goorty or Jimmy dabby were high-grade fighters at the time they met Darcy, and declares that the Australian's most notable achievement was the knocking out of the tough George Chip in short order. Al McCoy Did It, Too. AND yet," he argues, " Al McCoy of Brooklyn did the same thing, and x did it in a round, and I guess few people will claim that Al is a regular champ. A fluke? All right. Maybe Darcy 's knockout was a fluke, too. "Men who know what they are talking about tell me that Darcy cannot do better than 1 GO pounds at M o'clock, and that he is getting; heavier right along, ' ' he went on. ' ' That means he will have to fight such men as Jack Dillon and Billy Miske, or even Battling Levinsky; thats a swell hurdle for a bird who cannot stop George ( Knockout) Brown u two twenty-round tries, even I though he won the decisions. I i "'Brown is a vastly improved and a very tough fellow, I admit, but would! 1 von think of matching him with Willard? Yet we hear some talk of Darcy : boxitig Jess. Darcy must be a good fighter, all right, because everyone who has seen him, including the Americans he has boxed, say he is, but L refuse to be-liove be-liove that, he can wade through that tough hunch of light, heavies of ours. "Even if he is a middleweight, aud can make the American poundage for that division, I also refuse to believe that he will have any cinch with Mike Gibbons, or even poor Al McCoy, especially over a ten-round route. We love to pan our fighters, and tell how rotteu they are, but I am with 'em in this case until the invader shows me. On his record, I coucede him some class, but not all that has been claimed for him. " He could not stop Gus Christie in twenty round?, although T am willing to admit that Darcy is probably a better fighter now than he was then. Ho refused to continue after five rounds of his first fight with Jeff Smith, claiming claim-ing a foul, aud it took an alleged foul to give him the decision over Smith in the second round of their second fight. "Smith might be a good man to try out Darcy in his first appearance here. Al McCoy would be another good one for the same purpose ; but if they toss Les in against Dillon or Miske, or any of our light heavies, I want more of the American end." Who Won These? THOSE who favor referee decisions will find much material for argument in three bouts which took place last week. They were the Moran-Smith affair, af-fair, the Miske-Dillon bout, aud the squabble between Joe Lynch and Fraukie Burns up at the Pioneer club. There was a wide difference of opinion among newspaper experts as to the result erf these various scraps. Somo" said Gunboat Smith beat Moran as far as you can shoot a cannon. Others called it a draw. A few thought Moran had a shade. A majority decided that Billy Miske licked Dillon, but even so Dillon had his followers. Some took the neutral ground. It was the same with the Lynch-Btirns battle at the Pioneer. Unless he had picked certain papers, a man w'ith a bet on any of these fights would have had to employ an expert accountant to get himself straightened out. It would indicate that the fights were very close. A Smith partisan would probably tell you that this is not so; that, old Gumboots won awav off by himself; a Miske adherent would likely proclaim that Dillon was never even within striking distance of victory, while Joe Lynch 's vociferous West Side followers fol-lowers are probably bewildered yet because some folks said Burns won. But the fights must have been close for so man- different men to see so many different dif-ferent results. Every opinion was undoubtedly honest. Every writer doubtless marvels that a brother writer could see an opposite angle. Such is the ten-round, no-decision no-decision bout. |