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Show CHAMP WILL AGREE TO BATTLE JACK IF SOME COIN IS FORTHCOMING Jess Wall Give Half of His Share to War Benefit Organizations; Billy Mke Denies That He Is Afraid of Salt Lake Heavyweight; Johnny Schiff in Italian Army, By T. S, ANTVRE'WS. Special to The Tribune. MILWAUKEE, Wis., Aug". 17. i4 Jf "There is absolutely no truth in i5 rePrts that I have retired, ll or intend to retire In the very near future," said Champion Jess Willard during a. chat in Chicago a ; few days ago. 'And you can add, too," j said Jess, "that I have not turned my title over to Jack Dempey, Fred Fulton ) or an:-' other fighter. That title is mine j and any one who trcts it will ha.ve to ! fight me for it unless circumstances should prevent.'' . The above talk occurred in Chir-airo following fol-lowing the failure of the proposed Solvation Sol-vation Army benefit, which, by the way, Ti-as prevent ed through a hit of pel t y politics. The reports, too, that Wi Ur-i rd was as big as a house and sealed around 300 pounds, are without foundation. Jess looks big and husky and probably weighs close to 270, but that is nothing out of the ordinary for him. as he usually soaks around that mark when not training, and when in proper shape tips the beam at about 24f to 250. The fact is, Jeas looked better fh.an ; usual and cairied very little surplus fle.'h t about the midsection. He might ha.ve j been doing some light training. juflgin I from his fine appp-arance, but- he static! thi'A be Viad been working about the farm I arid oil districts, which probably accounts for it. The .question wai put straight in about a meeting with Jack Dcmpsey, with the provision that part of the receipts be turned owr to the Y. M. C. A. and Knight of Columbus funds, and the champion cham-pion seemed willing to Luke the matte up seriously. "It is too bad about the Salvation Arm benerit." f,.:id Jess, "But it is no fault of the holers this time. I did not think; tb'-rc would be a cha nee to box afrain until the v.ur ended, as I understood that l.'empsey had joined the service. However, How-ever, a.s he ir, open to meetings, why thera may be a eb;rce of dniny; something. Hi is a grod fiii'h'er from all report?, but I v;is not surprir --A at his Wrjat of Fulion, for I aiw;iyy fMl that Fred v. ould be easy for me. Jess Willing to Fight, "1 had to fight for rny title, and tha man who gets it will have to do the &am th in p. Of eourse, if the war should be stretr-hed out, it might necessitate my retiring, re-tiring, for T am thirty-five now, providing, provid-ing, of course, I do not fight in tha int erim, but if they c?.n show me soma roin and where I can a h. o t urn a good, bunch of it over to the funds mentioned a.br'--'C. why 1 am very -n i'ling to talk business. "I'cmpey may be a groat nvjn and all t hat . b u l h c nuift remember t i at I h a J to forfeit evcrvr.Vn'ng in order to g.-; 1cr;.ek n.t Ja"-k Johnson for (he championship. champion-ship. 1 am not asking h i tn to do tin (Continued on Par- Four . CHIP WILL AGREE TO BATTLE JACK (Continued from Page One.) same as I did. but you may rest assured that I will take the big end if a match is made and then I will turn half of it over to the Y. M. C. A. -and K. of C. I would like to see the affair made a big .ne so as to be able to turn over a good chunk of money to the funds. Dempsey will have to turn over a good share of his also. "Under these 'conditions I may consent to take the young man on early this fall, or as soon as I can get in proper shape." T-empsev and his manager. Jack Kearns. have announced their willingness to make the match with the champion, but they want something in sight. toov for. their labor. However, there is a good chance of the two sides getting together and putting put-ting it through. The Cream City . C. of Milwaukee have offered to handle the match and turn over 50 per cent of anything the club mav make cut of it to the Y. M. C. and Knights of Columbus. Tne match could be staged at th b:g auditorium. i seating 90? persons. The plan would be to" auction off all the box seats in five 1 of the largest citi.o and make it one of ! the bicsest events of the year in boxing. and a'.i-o for the war funds. j?.Iiske Gets in Bad. I The match between Jack Dempsey and I Billv Miske at Philadelphia. August CO. I was" called of'" when some of the eastern papers btean to print articles about how M ike declared th;-1 Peninsoy could stop him in a round. It is hard !- understand why Miske should make such a sta te- i tm-nL and linmed ic tely afterwards accept i a match for six ruinus with Fulton's eon- t .pieror. If he knew Pcmpsey could slop him in a round, why take n such a match? And if he wanted to keen hi tlv b.-ixinc game why make such a statement at air: I Since the publication of the storir-s I Miske has denied th;u he ever made su'di ! "i statement, but his denip! came too late to hold the mai"h at Philadelphia. P was quite a leas to Pomp sty. as hj was getting a guarantee of $10.0 for his end. It a'r-o prevc rited his a open r-:i:u'C r-:i:u'C at Brooklyn for th Kniqhts ot Co-I'linhu Co-I'linhu btief it. as he had promised tr show there against .P.'U'.hng Ltwi;,k' or s'inc (thcr hea v-v. e tgh t. if he hnpened to be in the cast about the same time. Xo'v Pcmrir.ey and his manager inf.end g"oing weL't, where he is to meet " iJlie Meehan in a big benefit show early in September. He may take on Tom Cowler at New Orleans in a twenty-round bout on his way west. Tommy Gibbons also had been talking about meeting Dempsey, but when he received re-ceived an offer to fight Jack in Milwaukee, Milwau-kee, the St. aul boy said he could not get away now and he would require considerable con-siderable time to get in shape, so there is little probability of Tommy and Jack meeting. Youngster a Comer. There is a lad in West Virginia who will no doubt make a real boxer some dayat least he has the ambition and the patience pa-tience which are most essential to a successful suc-cessful boxer. The lad's name Is Master James Clayton and he is not yet thirteen years of ace, but his knowledge of the game and the doings in the boxing world would put some of the fans to shame. I am reproducing his letter, with a few corrections cor-rections in spelling, which is as follows: Fair-mount, W. Va.. July 30. Pear Sir: I have not written you for a long time, so I though I would write you a few lines. I am still crazv about boding. I box every day and now I have a punching bag which I fixed up and also a ring in the back vard. M"e box there often and every time I lick a boy I have a little book and mark it down with his name. T ha" e twenty-eiht names already. That is not so bad. is it? I study the boxing rules and some day t mi?ht be a champion. You n e v er can t e 1 ) , can you? I have a chance nny-wny and you bet T will trv to m;ike good. I was reading where' Fulton and Mifke were to meet in Milwaukee but I don't think there is much chance now. for Fulton was knocked out in twenty-three seconds by Jack Dempsey. Demp-sey. Say, what do you know about that? I always took Fulton to bo the dangerous dan-gerous man in the heavyweight division. divis-ion. I bst a fellow an ice cream that Fulton would knock Dempsv out in-s:de in-s:de of five rounds. I -was dumbstruck dumb-struck when I road the nr-ws. for Fred was always my mart, vj-at do you think about it and who do you think is rhc best. Dempsey. Miske or L.-'vin.-k) : Please write me the news, as I am awi'ul anxious to know- about them. follow all the news about the buyers. Yours verv truly. Master James Clayton. P. S. Be sure and write. For the benefit of James it might be well to say that Mr. Pmivey hrts the e:iil over all the heavyweights at the prudent prud-ent tim-:. It is not :dways the big boxing rhows whl.-h make mony for t he promoters. T'icr aru a few exceptions, but as a rule the big attractions soMom give returns to the rroiucters, lor the reason that the stars or near-champions usually want to hog the entire receipts. Tex Rickard said he made money on the Jeffries-Johnson fight, at Reno. Nev., but they lost big money' on the Gans-Nelson Gans-Nelson battle at Goldfield, Nev., when j a big purse was hung up. The Johnson- ; Jim Flynn match at Las Vegas, N. M.. I was a bloomer, and so was the Johnson- i Willard fight at Havana, I The Fulton-Dempsey bout at Harrison, j N. J.. cost Jack Curley. .and. his. . backers : over $13,000. The Fvitchie-Wolgast fight in Milwaukee drew about $42,000 and the promoters made about ?fi500, but turned ! around and lost S iOOO a few weeks later ; on Ritchie and Charlie White. - j Hugh Mcintosh gave a purse of $3.j,000 i for Johnson and Tommy Burns in Syd- . ney and made a cleanup on it. and Jim Coffroth made some good winnings on a few big fights in California, but he also i lost on others. The Fitzsimrrrcms-Hall fight in New Orleans proved a big loss. I Bob never having received even a. third of the 5-10,000 due him. There have been numerous good win- ners where big fights have' been." staged, j but there have been more of them where i the clubs or promoters lost money. This , calls to mind a case back in the early ; '90 s in Milwaukee, when the late Tim ; Coughlin was head of the old Badger ; Athletic club. Thev staged Jack Root and : Tommy Ryan, two of the greatest middle-weights, middle-weights, and lost about $600. " Then they put on Benny Tanger of Chicago and Kid Herrick of Rochester, N Y., two great featherweights those days, a.nd lost another ?600. Finally Coughlin and his partners decided to trv a cheap show and matched up Jirn , Driscoll, the Chicago blacksmith, and ; Mike Irish, a Polish favorite of Mil- : waukee. The match cost, about $160 and' the place was packed. ' j The club cleared almost enough to pay off the losses of the other two shows, which proves that promoters cannot always al-ways depend on the stars to draw the coin. Kid Wolfe in France. Kid Wolfe, the .Cleveland barrtani-welght. barrtani-welght. has arrived in France and is getting get-ting ready for the front. He left Cleveland Cleve-land some time ago and no one seemed to know of his departure for the other side. The Kid is boxing right along with the boys in camp and has challenged Gene Delmont, the former Memphis featherweight, feather-weight, whom Captain Cushman Rice took over to England with him a year ago. Chick Slmler. another boxer around PUtsburg and Ohio, is with Wolfe and is planning for fights. Simler has boxed such boys as Johnny Dundee. Frankie Callahan, Willie Jackson and Eddie Wallace. Wal-lace. Jimmy Fryer, the Philadelphia welterweight, welter-weight, is with the. bunch and recently defeated Jake Abel in a ten-round fight. Jimmy fought Battling Nelson a twenfy-five-round draw a few years ago and also clashed with Young Ahearn and Young Erne. - , Near this Ohio contingent is a bunch of boxers with the Badger brigade, among them Ted Jamison, the former American amateur heavyweight champion ; Bud Gorman, who fought Fred Fulton; Andre Anderson. Art Borgelt, a Milwaukee welterweight, and numerous others. Jamison and Gorman were matched and Ted put Gorman to sleep In seven rounds. Jamison, in a letter here, says that ho saw the battle between Jim Sullivan, the former middleweight champion of England, En-gland, and Harry Rolph. the Canadian soldier champion, the latter winning in one round. Ted says Rolph Is only a youngster, but that he looks good and he is after a 'match with him for the army title. Setoff in Italian Army. Johnny Schiff, a very clever featherweight feather-weight a few years ago, but who developed devel-oped into a lightweight the past year, and who has fought many of the best feathers and 133-pounders in the country, coun-try, could not stand to read about the doings at the war front after his return from France, where he served with the Canadian contingent, so decided to get into action again. Johnny served for two years and received an honorable discharge. dis-charge. After boxing around the east tor a time he gave up the ring game and enlisted, en-listed, this time with the ambulance corps,' as he had been injured previously. Johnny w-as not delayed in getting away, for a 'letter reached the office this week from the little boxer, dated in Italy. In it the. former featherweight star says: Well, here T am again, alive and well, but sleeping in tents, with Mother Earth as my bed. Lizards, snakes and other animals greet me at times, but then, everything goes In war times. I have had some thrilling thrill-ing times of late, and. believe me, the Italians have been giving Kid Carl's soldiers ha.il Columbia, t have been with the ambulance corps, right up in the midst of it. and I am glad to be able to do my share. We have had no time for boxing, box-ing, nor boxing news, but there is a lull now and we may get busy. There are- some good boxers with our bunch, and we w i il have some real inarches. The Italians are strong for boxing, and after this? thing is over you can bet there will be schools for the teaching of the ring game, the same as developed in France. Understand the Yanks arc getting busv in France. Well, they will give Bill" and his little prince hell, or I miss my guess. ei'.d us some box-ins box-ins dooe and remember me to the boys. |
