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Show Rivers Says Has-Beens Never Come Back NEW YORK. April 13. Once again it has been demonstrated to the fight public that once a fighter is down he never starts up again. It Is a truth that haa stood in spite of everything. In the long list of scrappers who have bruised themselves for the amusement of the public thore is just one whose record stands to belie the statement Joe. Rivers came to New Y'ork a short time ago and announced that a new Joe was going to show that he could come back and fight as of old. He was going to emulate Stanley Ketchel, who was dropped once and lived to sec the day when he recovered his lost laurels tho same way. Time was when Joe Rivers was the par excellence of boxing. He was a marvel at placing his hands. And he could hit. His brown fists carried more weight, perhaps, than any lightweight ever possessed. One blow from his right hand was sufficient to fell the mightiest of scrappers. Ad Wolgast can tell you. It will be a long time before Ad forgets the battle in which he, as well as Rivers, fell to the floor unconscious. Rivera met Jimmy Duffy of New Y'ork. He boxed in the early rounds with all the old mastery that he once possessed, but it was noticed that when his blows landed they failed to carry the sting of former days. And as the bout progressed Rivers began to weaken. It was the dissipation of former years telling. Rivers never will be tho man of old. His chanco to lead the lightweights has passed. The greatest fighter the country has seen in many years has lost his chance. |