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Show i HOPE FOG WHITE EVER TOWI TITLE Critic Says Chicago Fighter Will Never Get Another Chance at Champ. By BINGSIDE. NEW YORK. Sept. 23. Charlie White can . never be the next lightweight champion of the world. The Chicago "Knockout King" may as well resign himself to that unhappy circumstance. As long as Freddie Welsh occupies the lightweight throne, Charlie boy will never get another whack at the title. If White is. indulgent enough he may become king of the 133-pounders by knocking out Welsh's successor. But with Welsh resigning. re-signing. White will henceforth have to devote his time to stowing away second raters and othr contenders for the crown. ' White is supreme as a knocker-out, not only in the lightweight class, hut his endeavors en-deavors in tha.t line surpass those of any reputed puncher in the various other divisions. di-visions. White may be able (and quite often he has) to knock out men who have decisively defeated Welsh in no-decisinn bouts. But when confronting t he tltle-hokling tltle-hokling Briton, White fails to display any suggestion of a punch soporific. The Chicago lad has had three chances at the title, and he failed miserably in each. It is nevertheless a fact that in each of these three meetings White came within a punch of being crowned champion. cham-pion. It has been claimed for White that he needs only to put over one of his famous left hooks to oe returned a knock-out victor in any bout, against any opponent. White has landed that one left hook in each of his Welsh bouts, yet he has never even floored the cham-I cham-I plon. So it is readily seen that White must land two left hooks In succession on Welsh In order to topple the Briton. But While can't beat him; he Is indeed fortunate for-tunate to land tho one during a meeting with Welsh. The last affair between Welsh and White savored of the unsavory. While there might have been nothing to the allegation that White was "handcuffed" not to flatten Welsh,, the aroma of an "understanding" still persists. White might have known absolutely nothing of such an arrangement, but it is a sinecure that Welsh and Referee Billy Roche had a tentative agreement. When the Labor day fight was first broached it was related tiiat Welsh had demanded that Roche atone would serve as referee or there would be. no fight. Tlie writer pointed out that it would be necessary for White to Knock out Welsh in order to gain the championship. It was even emphasized that it would require re-quire a head punch for White to get away with the title clearly, the insinuation insinua-tion being that Roche would not hesitate to disqualify White for fouling if Charlie had landed a body blow with sufficient force to stop Welsh. Freddie got away with it against Wolgast in Kansas City. As the fight eventuated, we were not far wrong from our pre-battle conclusions. con-clusions. Ninety per cent of the spectators specta-tors at the fight thought White was entitled en-titled to the decision and with it thra title at the end of the twenty rounds. Yet Roche boldly lifted Welsh's hand, proclaiming him the victor. Sir Billy was wise enough to make a hasty exit after his unpopular decision. Welsh virtually forced Roche to raise his gloved hand, for at the end of the bout the referee appeared undecided, and even while he was reaching out for White's hand (probably to render a draw bv lifting the hands of both gladintors), Welsh eased up alongside Roche, grabbed his right hand, and both bis and the referee's ref-eree's hands went up. A real old trick was this by Welsh, but it worked to perfection. per-fection. We know of no community that will countenance any White-Welsh bout, and for that reason Charlie will have to bide his time until some less known lightweight light-weight relieves Welsh of the title. Then the Chlcagoan can step in and realize his ambition of being the lightweight king. It will take a fighter of Joe Welling's type to take the title away from Welsh. This Chicago boy is almost as clever as Welsh himself, and, besides, is a good two-handed puncher. Jimmy Johnston, manager of Madison Square Garden, is angling for a Welling-Welsh bout and may put it on the latter part of next month. |