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Show GOOD HANDS COME FIRST Many Notable of Ring Losses From Injured Weapons Y.'hile skill, a good pair of hands and a qulck-thlnklng brain are a per feet combination for anw boxer to poa seas, aoys "Referee" in the Public Ledftr, yet the good hands come first. Without the weapons to carry out the other two any boxer would be confronted con-fronted with an almost unsurmount-nblc unsurmount-nblc handicap. After all the handa are the thing. Without them the Ideal lighting face or the perfect fighting build is as naught. And with them the head, the power and all the other requisites of the sue essfUl rinjA artist can have hut Recodary consideration consid-eration Battling Nelson, who has slopped nlore battery chirgea than an fishier cf a decade, his to go Into temporary rftln-nient B month or so because his maulers gave out. Just Imagine the Dane having to quit on account of his hands Talk about the Irony of fate! Most of us pictured the battler sprawled out over five feet and a half of canvas, knocked "dead ' by a punch. That seemed tho plausible plaus-ible exit of Nelson from the game Wo figured he couldn't stand the v. hal'.oping forever, though he "ain't hardly human. Hugo Kelley. the Italian middleweight middle-weight of Chicago, lousht Eddie Mc- Goortv and took a beating. The bat-1 t'e was the flrat go Tor Kelly m months. He had bcn nurelng a pair of bid hands The same hands pos -slbly kept Kelly from a title. He gave Taplte more trouble than nn fighter outside of Ketchcl. The Italian, was a clever fellow, with a cutting left hand, who administered morel l.unlshmout than ho received. But i.. had to take periodical layoffs on f iccount of tender hands, which were llways getting hurt Until he lujured his hitters. Frank Kmc was champion of them all In :1ip lightweight division, lie was the possessor of a terrific punch, and many of the bonea in both hands wero splintered at one time or another, causing him much agony. While he waa generally willing to put all his steam into a blov. despite the pain! A ii w i 1 1 1 , 1 bring in his later career he didn't take as many chances Consequently a great deal of his ef-j fectivencss was lost. Another fiRhter whoso period ot monev-making within the ropes was leascm-d by his hands failing him was Bob Fltzaimmons. Bob. of course, was old enough to quit w hen knocked , out by Billy Lang .three years ago, but he could have parleyed with tho I gloves for at least a year longer but: for his fighting apparatus. It ts remarkable. however. that FitzV hands lasted as long as they did. for ho was a terrific hitter Before his championship battle with Ihonny Kllburne. Abe Att.-ll made a special trip to Bonestter Pa ese. at Youngstown. O . to have the bones of liis left han:l set properly. proper-ly. If the great bone-setter had not relieved him Ab might have called oiT his bout with Kllbane. It's a poculiar fot thit the clever men are usually boihrcd by weak-! weak-! hands. Kollv Is clever, and so ! ! Attcll. Packy McF?rland, too. has, 'had trouble with his hands nd is I ! very careful not to hurt them. It seems that the hands of boxers who place I their blows cleverly are broken oft j ener than the Clouters of such siugger3 as the late Stanley Ketchcl. j Jim Fivnn. Tom McMahon and Chicago Chi-cago Knockout Brown a type that lota the gloves fly rg;irdless of consequences. con-sequences. Johnnv Kilbane, the fea-j tiierweight king, has a set spot for most of his punches, and yet last year be was handicapped by a broken thumb on his right hand It is the object of all pugilists to save their hands, for they realize tholr wonh B-ttor a slow hesd or a lack of science than bad digits But even 30, therj are few DghterSi whose hands have withstood the solvere so-lvere usage to which thoy aro put. Mike (Twin) Sullivan is the only I veteran the writer ever ran across whose hands have not been broken, and are apparently perfect. |