[Cap]

From editions of The Wiscasset Post Dispatch July 12-16, 1908...Thanks to several failed get-rich-quick investments blamed on his training staff, Luther McCarty finds himself forced to sign with promoter Tom McCarey to defend his world title against the IBU's number two contender Billy Miske...Seeing the chances of getting his own shot at McCarty possibly slipping away Harry Wills agrees to fight Sam Langford provided the contest is for twelve rounds and is staged in his home base in New Orleans...The fight starts off slowly with Wills using all his physical advantages to blunt Langford's attack and score big points of his own. Sam begins to find his footing in the fifth round and lands some of his heavy artillery, but Wills continues to pile up points at long range. Near the close of the ninth round Langford catches Wills with a dynamite left hook that leaves him on wobbly legs at the bell. In the tenth Harry is still groggy when he comes out of his corner and Langford rushes in, ducking a right cross and driving a left to the belly that doubles up Wills, leaving him open to a sweeping right that nearly twists his head from his shoulders and deposits Wills in a heap on the canvas where special referee Tommy Burns administers the full count...In a series of odd coincidences that begins with Fred Fulton knocking out England's Tom Cowler in four rounds at the St Louis Arena, four other significant fights that week also end in four rounds each. Angel Rodriguez stops Mexico's heavyweight champion Francisco Segura in four at Miami City Stadium, Georges Carpentier kayos Jim Coffey at Sohmer Park in Montreal, Honeyboy Wilson knocks out Bill Brennan at New York's Hippodrome and John Lester Johnson puts Al Reich away in front of 800 paying fans at St Nicholas Arena...In Kansas City a fighting fit Jess Willard takes on newcomer Jack Dempsey again in a hastily erected arena outside town and despite having a fifty pound pull in weight, takes the worst beating of his career, finally slumping to the floor midway through the eighth round forcing the referee to stop the carnage as Willard struggles to rise...In the main event in Miami the other afternoon Gunboat Smith was awarded the decision on a foul in the seventh stanza from Uruguay's Valerio Ruelas thanks to a low blow only seen by the referee and Smith's corner. A check of the referee's card later showed Ruelas well ahead five rounds to one..At Doyle's Arena in Vernon, California, South Afrika's Boer Rodel stopped journeyman Buster Bergen in seven brutal rounds, ending the latter's string of seven wins...