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Show I Pugilists Ruin Careers by fighting Heavier Men H PJHEY say a good little man can pjflr H always heat a. big one. but he IjMj' H can't not If tho big man Is SCI; " proportionately good. Faith flflt In the old raying han stopped some of Um the- befit little, lighters the gamu pro- Hhi 3uced. WM Co back to the days of George Dixon. fUX !!eorgc fought aL tho bantamweight Hj Mmlt. 115 pounds, apd then at the f featherweight limit, which was 118. lie IBf almost constantly met men to whom JfJuHf io conceded several pounds of weight jOTS -And finally the end came. The Ncm- .gHB osis was Terry McGovern. the Terrl- 11 ble. Terry founht Dixon for the feath- VWjLi erwclght championship. McGovern JPJ; weighed 122 pounus. He beat uixon. iSr': TH?n what happened to McGovern? Hp Did Terry let tho fate of his predoces- H Bor serve un example? Noi much. Terry took them on weighing pounds H moro than ho weighed. And his end H ilso enmo in the samo way that K Dixon's had arrived. McGovern fought Hb 1'oung Corbett for the title. Corbet t KV velghed 126 pounds. Ho beat McGov- lr irn In two rounds. tt And did Young Corbett lot the fr.to HjF af Dixon and Torry McGovern stand IR is an example to him? Ho did not. He HjK agreed to fight Jimmy Brjtt. and the kKI versatllo Jamca weighed 133 pounds, Wm Juct tho lightweight limit. Brltt clo&od the career of Young Corbntt. Ilo whipped him, and Nelson came along and whipped Brltt. . Take the case of Kid Lavlgne, whom I George Slier called the "greatest llght-wolght llght-wolght who over laced on a boxing glove." Thero was some excuse for Lavlgne. He won the lightweight championship and cleaned up everybody every-body in his class. Ho had to meet bigger men or quit lighting. He constantly con-stantly left his class to battle. He met Dick Burge In England. Burge was a welterweight and stood live Inchon taller than the Saginaw Kid. but Lavlgno whipped him. It took him seventeen sev-enteen rounds of fierce fighting to accomplish ac-complish It. Ivivlgne bucked the rulo of weight, and It finally got him the way It got all those who went before him. His finish came when ho tackled "Mysterious" "Mysteri-ous" Billy Smith, a welterweight and also one of the loughest battlers In the history of the ring. Iiavlgne went up ngnlnst him. and In tho fourteenth round of that fight en tho coast March 10, 1395. Lavlgnc'a brother tossed up the sponge to savo George. The Saginaw Kid was nrjver g6od afterward. Lavlgno had throe ribs chattered in that bout and his career as a llchtwclcht title holder was practically prac-tically closed. July 3, 1090, bo root Frank Erne In Buffalo. The lightweight light-weight tltlo was at stake. Erne beat Lavlgne In twenty rounds. Krno successfully held the crown until un-til he began meeting men out of his class. Ills Nemesis was Rube Ferns. At that time Ferns was welterweight champion. Ferns and Erne met Sept. 23, 1001, at Fort Erie. Erno wa knocked out In the ninth round. That finished Erne, for In the following May Joo Gans knocked lilm out In tho first round In a fight for the tltlo, staged at Fort Erie, tho samo ring In which Ferns had stopped tho clever Erne. And so on down the line. Whenever they get out of their weight they take a chance. Tommy Ryan as welterweight welter-weight title holder took on Kid McCoy. Tho adventurous Norman Sclby was fighting under the name of McCoy at tho middleweight limit. McCoy beat Ryan In fifteen rounds. Taking off weight constantly In ns "bad ns giving weight. Joo Gans killed himself getting down to the lightweight light-weight limit, and Battling Nelson can blaino his loss of the tltlo on weakening weaken-ing himself to reduce his weight to 133 poupds. Tho task was too big. Tho best boys and tho big money rested rest-ed In tho llghtwolght division, so Gans and Nelson hung on ns long as drying out processes, starvation and physical torturo enabled them to mako 133 pounds. It beat Nelson, and It killed Gana, |