OCR Text |
Show WHAT MONEY WILL WRESTLERS WANT Mew Yorkers Wondering What Gotch-Stecher Match Will Cost. a- New York, Feb. 12. New Yorkers arc wondering how much It will cost to bring tho young wonder. Joe Steelier, Steeli-er, and the old Irresistible, Frank Gotch, together on the mat. It cost Tex Rlckard 101,000, in addition ad-dition to bonuses, to bring Jim Jeffries Jeff-ries and Jack Johnson together at Reno, Nov., and while wrestlers have never received as much as pugilists in the general run of championship matches, It is certain that a new record re-cord In wrestling purses will bo made when Gotch finally signs for his grapple grap-ple with Stccher. Whether the match will prove as disappointing to those that witness it as tho Johnson-Jeffries battle did to tho spectators who gathered at tho Nevada ringside on July 4, 1910, only time can toll. As a general rule, wrestlors hold their grappling ability for a number of years beyond that point whero fighters begin to slip back. JeffrieB was thirty-five when Johnson, at the ago of thirty-two, wrested his title from him. Gotch is thirty-eight and Stecher twenty-threo, and while tho latter has had n. rnmnrkahlft rnrnrrt in date, many think that Gotch's long mat career and wrestling experience will offset the advantage of Stechcr's youth. In fact, some wrestling experts ex-perts figure that the Nebraska grap-pier grap-pier is too young to tackle Gotch. Certain Cer-tain it is that a study of the latter's mat record impresses one with tho formidable performances of the man when taken in connection with the well known fact that he has always been moderate and methodical in his habits and training. Gotch, who is five feet eleven and one-half Inches tall and weighs about 210 poundB In condition, has won more than ICO of the 172 time handicap or finish bouts, In addition to throwing more than 200 opponents in fiftcon-minute fiftcon-minute exhibition or invitation bouts in this country and Canada. During his foreign tour he mot and conquered about half that number. Stecher measures six feet one inch in height and strips at about 200 pounds. He has wrestled more than fifty matches and has never lost a decision, de-cision, although held to a no-fall match by Strangler Lewis and George Turner. |