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Show Will Cost $100,000 to Stage Willard-Moran Go Tex Rickard Takes Big Chance on Breaking Even; Rocap Says Welsh Can No Longer Make 135 Pounds. By T. S. ANDREWS. By Triinine .Special Spoit Servier. MILWAPIvKr:, LYb. J 2. The purse of $'i7,.j0i which Tex Rickard is putting up for the -less Willnrd-Frank Moran ten-round contest in New York March S, has started the boxing fans gossiping from Maine to California. It in an unheard un-heard of price for a ten round no-decision no-decision contest, and there are many skeptical persons who are of the belief that it will not do the boxing game any good. Of course that remains to be seen, but one thing is certain it will put fancy figures into the minds of fighters throughout the country and make it a very hard matter for promoters pro-moters to do business with the champions cham-pions and near-champions. As to the fight itself, that can be dwelt upon later on, but there is no doubt tliat the men will go into it for all they a ro worth, as they would not dare attempt simplv to box through ton roundh. 1 1 would ruin Willaid as a drawing card during his tour with the wild west show and it. would put an end to Moran as a high-class heavyweight. heavy-weight. It is hard to figure out whether Rick- ard expects to make a great deal of money out of the match. It may be j that the figures are stretched a bit, but I one thing is certain. Rickard is paying! $t0,000 to Wiiiard and the other $7n00 j is supposed to have been paid to Wil- ' lard and Jones as a bonus. Rickard i if authority for the statement that j Moran is to get $20,000. He has always ! been a man of his word in the past, ! and there is no reason to doubt him now. Lot of Expense. The rental of Madison Square Garden Gar-den for the show, it is understood, will be $7o00. The state tax, basing the i receipts on $100,000, will amount to another an-other $7500. For a venture of this kind, $10,000 for expenses would be very small indeed, aud the chances are they will run closer to $15,000. This would bring the total up around $97,000. At the prices Richard is giving out, $5 to $25, Madison Square 'Garden could be taxed around $1.1.1,000 total. of this must come the eomplimentaries, and it is a certainty thev will run beyond be-yond $10,000. This will not leave such j a big margin for Rickard, considering the chances he is taking. If even-thing , goes off smonthlv it is almost a certainty cer-tainty that the place will be sold out, 1 aud he stauds to clear probably $20,000 to $25,000. He is certainly a game fellow, fel-low, and even though a great many think he is nialung a mistake in giving such a fabulous sum for the fighters, still they wish him every success and trust that he will come out on top with the limit of profit. Reports from Duluth and Superior, in the north, sav that the promoters there are not satisfied with the work of Jack Dillon in his contest with Billy Miske of St. Paul recentlv. The cause of dissatisfaction dis-satisfaction is the fact that Dillon, after being held to a draw by Miske in Superior, Su-perior, went to New York and knocked out Tom Cowler in two rounds. Cowler was considered one of the real white hopes in the heavyweight division, and his quick knockout by Dillon proved that the Hoosier champion evidently had a lot up his sleeve that he did not deliver de-liver at Superior; at least, that was the impression whiclt the promoters up ! there had after his New York experi-1 experi-1 ence. The fact is that when Dillon was in Milwaukee-, eu route to Superior, he was suffering from the grip, and openly stated that hp was not in the best of shape, and would much have preferred to cancel the bout at Superior with Miske. However, he went through with his eontnu-t and was passed by the club's physician. Clever Colored Boxer. Considerable comment has been going the rounds of the press lately regarding the wonderful boxing stunts of the Kentucky Ken-tucky Rosebud, known in private life as Walter Edgertou, a clever colored boxer, who is supposed to be sixty-five years of aee. In a fight a few weeks ago in Philadelphia against John Les-tor Les-tor Johnson, another colored boxer (aged forty-three years'), the Rosebud knocked him out cold in three rounds. The colored wonder is not sixty-year years of age, as given out, otherwise he must have been around the forty-five-vear mark when he was supposed to be in his prime and fighting against Mich boys as the late George Dixon, bantamweight champion; Young Grifi'o, Sollv Smith. .Toe Gans and others. It was' from 1S91 to about 196 that the Rosebud was at his best, and reports of the fights those days would indicate that he was then about twenty to twenty-two twenty-two years of age. That ' would bring him near to the f orty-five-vear mark now, possibly forty-six or forty-seven, but not sixty-five, " as stated. Another colored fighter just as remarkable, and even more so, is Dixie Kid, still fight-hug fight-hug in England, and who is around the fitty-year mark. Dixie, however has led a pretty speedy pace, aud it is all the more wonder that he is still abie to put up fifteen and twenty-round battles against boxers of youth and strength. Bob ITtzsimmons was an exception to the rule as regards age of fighters, for Bob was fighting at tiis best when he was near the thirtv-five-vear mark, a time when most of the fighters of today are either down and out or very much passe. The trouble with fighters nowadays now-adays is that they start too young, instead in-stead of waiting "till muscles'and flesh are more firmly set. when they can stand the strain much better, the result being that they begin to go back at a time when they should he in their prime. Welsh Overweight. According to Billv Rocap, the Philadelphia Phila-delphia referee, Freddy Welsh, the lightweight light-weight champion, cannot make the limit of loo pounds any more, and that is one reason why he is avoiding championship champion-ship matches at the weight. Billy names what he considers six logical contenders contend-ers for the title Bennv Leonard, Charlie Char-lie White,. Richie Mitchell, Joe Welling, Jimmy .Murphy of Philadelphia and laddie lad-die Mc Andrews of the same city. f. is said that the rest of the lightweights with championship aspirations cannot make the weight and therefore should not be considered. The boys mentioned axe all legitimate lightweights, and it might be well to pair them off, east against the west, for a tourney, the winner win-ner to be selected for a title match. Leonard. Murphy and Mc Andrews would find White, Mitchell and Welling Well-ing a tough bunch to beat. It would be an interesting tourney, however, and would do much to clear the American title controversy. It is not certain, however, that Welsh cannot make the weight. Of course, Freddy will stick to thelSo-pound proposition, which he can make without a doubt, and that will protect him. Willie Ritchie is to blame tor jumping the weight from 138 to 135, and now the American Boxing association as-sociation has recommended that the scale be set at 135 at 3 o'clock weighing. weigh-ing. One thing the fans would like to insist upon is a battle over the marathon mara-thon route between "Welsh and a 'legitimate 'legiti-mate challenger for the title. It is certainly time that the champion defended de-fended the title or 'gave way to someone some-one who will. Kilbane in Bad. Johnnie Kilbane, featherweight champion, aud his manager, Jimmie Dunn, are not making themselves any more popular with the boxing fans in the country by trying to get out of the match with George Chaney at Baltimore, Balti-more, March 17. This contest was supposed sup-posed to have been arranged over the fifteen-round route to a decision and for the title. Kilbane was to receive $5500 for his end, with a privilege of 10 per cent of the gross receipts, no matter whether he w-on or lost. It seems that Al Herford, a former manager man-ager of boxers and promoter in Baltimore, Balti-more, came to the front with an offer of $10,000 for the match, and this has stirred up a groat deal of trouble. In connection with this contest, T might state that I have just received the following wire from Sammy Harris, dated New Orleans: ''Kindly permit me to give ivou a few facts concerning the Chaney-ivilbane match. To my knowledge knowl-edge jimmie Dunn has not asked for a postponement of the contest. Dunn refuses re-fuses to go through with the fight March 17 unless Chaney meets Kilbane in a six-round bout in Philadelphia first, the time fixed in the articles, with each manager to post $1000 with Billy Rocap for weight and appearance oil February 17. Henry Blet.er has the matter in charge. ' ' Bletzer has given out a statement, in wrhich he savs that the match was made in all sincerity, and that the club agreed to pay Kilbane $5500. which was considered con-sidered a very large sum at that time. The club is willing to live up to all its agreements, but it seems that Dunn and Kilbane are trying to get out of it in order to grab off a few more thousand in Philadelphia in the meantime, mean-time, using Chaney as the goat. |