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Show TITLE HELD BY ELEVEN Welterweight Title Leads Back to Days of Kid McCoy Tracing the trail of the American welterweight championship the route leads us back to the days of Kid M-McCo M-McCo and Tommy Ryan, who were the reigning stars around the 144 to 14i pound mark. Joe Walcott. who held the championship for a numli. r of years, usually defended his title at 141 or 145 pounds, or at 142 pounds at 3 o'clock ringside Honey Mellody and Jimmy Gardner, also title claimants, claim-ants, usually observed ibe poundage laid down b Walcott. and for 1'" years past this scale has been generally gen-erally accepted as the correct fcne for welters Jimmy Clabby laid claim to the championship bark In 1910 after Gardner Gard-ner had grown too heavy, and Clabby defended his title until he, too. was forced to advance into a higher classification class-ification because of Increasing weigh! Mike Gibbons, another title eluini ant, fought Clabby three times, but in none of the battles was the recognized recog-nized poundage fulfilled, so that In spite of the claims of Gibbons, he never nev-er has been Justly entitled to the wel ter crown In their first contest at Milwaukee. Clabby whipped Gibbons all the way. Their other engagements engage-ments were do decision affairs. It Is I now claimed that the St Paul wlll-o'-the wisp can make the legitimate scale, but until he does, boxing pa- ! Irons will be a bit skeptical. If Mike 1 can do the figure he will surely make ! things Interesting In the welter brigade bri-gade Following Is a table showing how the American welterweight title has ehanged hands 6lnce the early '80s. when Paddy Duffy of Boston first was recognized as the boss of the 142-pound 142-pound class Paddy Duffy of Poston Early 'SOs Title in nbeyance until 1894. Tommy Ryan 1894-lSnf! Kid McCoy 1896 1897 Title lapsed until 1898. McCoy going Into the middleweight class Mysterious Billy Smith 18981900 Rube Ferns 1900. 10 months Matty Mathews 1901, 7 months Rube Ferns 1901, 5 months I Joe Walcott 1901-1 904 Dixie Kid 1904-1903 Jimmy Gardner 1908-1909 Jimmy Clabby 1910 Title In abeyance, although Ray Rron-son Rron-son laid claim to it during 1911' |