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Show I ! IS ATTELL'S FIGHT CAREER AT AN END? M j f By TOMMY CLARK. H I x(AN It bo that tho time for tho Hi u fll passing of that wonderful H 111 lltlle nKhlcr, Abtf Attcll. Is at PVB , I &r hanJ? It would Bccm so, ac- H - cording to all reports of tho condition PVH ' . of Attcll. who Is resting, or at least trj- PVH lng to, within tho conllnos of little old pVfl ' u Now York. Abey has been kept out HK I of the ring for months now because pVBfll ' of nn injured shoulder, and according PVBH t to those who arc In close touch with ) 1 the little featherweight It Is likely that PVBH j, he may nover enter the arena again to pVBfl ' defend the title of featherweight cham- PVH . ' plon. which ho has held for many PVBH ' j cars, and that. too. without scrloui pVAfl contention. piBfl '' As rare an snowballs on tho Fourth PVBJ i of July on tho equator In the Rome of PVB -- pugilism will be the case of Abey If pVJ u he 13 forced to relinquish his crown H f - throuch inability to defend It. Since big fellows who quit before hli title was taken away from him That was Jamea J Jeffries, and he was forced to to clvo up his crown through voluntary retirement principally because there was no ono capable of making him fight for It But the fact must not bo overlooked that after bK years of retirement re-tirement this same James J Jeffries was hauled back into tho ring to meot that Inevitable defeat which has been traditional sinco the start of tho gam from tho hands of tho negro Jack Johnson. Another Instance Is that of Joo Gans, the great colored fighter, now numbered number-ed among the dad. For years Joe was lightweight champion. He continued to fight until age and tuberculosis, caused through excessive training, made him a different man It mado him an easy victim for Battling Nelson, Nel-son, and with that defeat went the title H f. k ADE ATTELL, WORLD'S FEATHCRWCIGHT CHAMPION. 1 t H , s r ,, 1 he days .of glove fighting began It Is 1 1 v hard "to find a champion who has been " t 1 ' fori o to glc up his title through an , (l Injurv received in tho ring Thero Bi ft ' ' have been many cases, far too many, HI ' 1, where a champion through defeat has H If ( ) u' ''" dethroned after he had passed H V ' tho stage of his best lighting days. H' Mnny Inutinces of this might bo cited H, ' , here, taking into consideration every H class from tho heavyweights down to H the bantams' A J Jeff One Example. J 1 j , Thero was only one man among tho he had held so long. And. as Indicating Indicat-ing the. change In ihe Baltimore man, It was not long after that death claimed claim-ed him. In Class Alone. Those are cases where lighters have met tho !ncltablc. but in the caso of Abo Attcll it is far different Up until un-til tho time his shoulder was injured In a fight less than a year ago with Tommy Kllbano at Cleveland few were able to make Abey step his limit to win. He fought all tho feathor-wclghta feathor-wclghta that could bo sent against him And he beat them all and gathered in tho shckl8 all th while But since being out of commission Attcll has not been able to sund training, despite tho fact that he has been under tho watchful watch-ful eyo of physicians Only a short tlmo ago Abey was to have fought In an eastern ring The match had been m.ide and all was ready for tho sotting but the fight didn't take place A couple of days before fight time It was called off by Attoll. who announced an-nounced that he was unable to light. Of course if Attell cannot fight again tho tltlo must rocrt to the next best boy, but It docs seem unfortunato that the little Hebrew should bo forced to give up his tltlo when there apparently ap-parently Is no one capable of taking It awav from him In actual combat It would be hard to find a more wonderful won-derful llttlo fighting machlno than Attell. At-tell. Ruling the roost for years, he has hrn elvlncr nwnV nniinds In rtrdor to keep activo He has everything there Is In the pugilistic repertory at his finger tips Many dcclaro there nover was a moro clover defensive and offensive of-fensive lighter, and this, combined with his great headwork, which made him a wondorful ring general, completed com-pleted the machine which has proed Invulnerable to attaclc As a two handed fighter nono ever was bettor, and if'thero Is anything lacking in Attcll At-tcll it is a stiff punch. Ho had a punch that could scoro knockouts, but ho did not display It often. Wolgaat Recovered. There have been other cases, and thero aro at the present time, whore injured hands or amir havo put a flghttr out of commission for a time, and In other instances for all time, but these men were not champions However, It Is interesting to clto the caao of 0110 champion, a prrnent one. ThlB la Ad Wolgast of CadlUac. Mich . holder of the lightweight championship When Jack Redmond fought the little Michigan Mich-igan "bear cat" moro than a year ago Wolgast broke his right hand. Ho minaged to stay the limit. -ten rounds, w 1th ltedmond and thereby Bavcd his title. Thcn It was up to tho champion to take a long1 rest so that tho Injured muulle might mend. For months Ad did not do a lick of work, and finally he was Informed by his physician that he might trv It out He did, and the hand was Injured, much lens seriously this time. Then came another rest beforo the tltleholder was able to reenter re-enter the ring. , Since then he ha3 had soveral fights and the hand ham caused him no trouble, trou-ble, and It npw Heems to bo sound enough for hard usage. |