Cap's New and Improved Alternate Universe

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From the April 1903 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...Just before going to press we rec'd an update of IBU rankings based on recent results...Jack Johnson has announced his retirement after a pathetic performance against unranked heavyweight Al Palzer at a small club in El Paso, Texas three days ago...An unverified account claimed Palzer had put Johnson on the canvas and managed it more than once...Al Kaufman has lost his Pacific Northwest title belt to Montana cowboy Luther McCarty...According to the San Francisco Call, Kaufman was a veritable punching bag from the second round onward and had to be rescued by Referee Ed Graney midway through round four...It seems this is the same McCarty or McCarthy who boxed a six round draw with Jack Johnson at Chicago some weeks ago...Carl Morris the hulking "Tulsa Brakeman" earned a draw with Philadelphia's Battling Levinsky last week and some wire reports suggest he did enough to get the decision as Levinsky was left in a sorry state...England's Bombardier Billy Wells has been offered a fight with Boston's Dan 'Porky Flynn' in the main event at New York's Madison Square Garden next week in place of Jim Stewart the popular Brooklyn pugilist...Stewart was forced to back out because of an injury sustained in his gym work...Gunboat Smith and Georges Carpentier are winding down their training camps prior to their match scheduled for April 10th...Joe Woodman, US agent for Sam Langford, hinted to the editor of one New York paper that Langford might be willing to give Smith a shot at the world title if he beats Carpentier...Meanwhile Joe Jeannette sits idle while his manager works to provide his fighter with a suitable opponent to keep him busy until the ABA can set up a title match, and Jeff Clarke seems a likely candidate...Battling Jim Johnson has returned to New York and is challenging any of the IBU's top twenty to meet him over eight rounds...

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From the April 16, 1903 afternoon edition of The Winnipeg Free Press....Regina businessman and boxing enthusiast Pierre Gauthier packed them in with a surprisingly good card at the Regina Theatre on Dumont Street last night, headlined by a ten round bout between Bill Mackinnon [180] of the Maritimes and Alberta's George McRay [198]...Winnipeg's own Charlie Robinson [185 1-2] alias "The Black Cyclone" was featured in one of two eight round fights on the undercard and hammered out a decision over the formidable looking Hector MacDougall [211] the former amateur champion anvil-thrower...In the other eight, local lad Joe McAuley [187] came within seconds of knocking out Toronto's Frank Osborne [201]...Down California way the much anticipated battle between Gunboat Smith the American champion and EBU champion Georges Carpentier was reportedly a big fizzle as neither man was apparently willing to really exchange their heavy artillery, though Smith did manage to put the Frenchman down for a brief count in the eighth round...Referee Ed Graney declared it a draw after ten uneventful rounds...At New York's Madison Square Garden Bombardier Wells the English wonder scored a knockout of Boston's Dan 'Porky Flynn' in the seventh stanza...Flynn later complained of having broken his left hand in the second round and fought on virtually one-handed...At McGuigan's Arena in Harrison, New Jersey highly rated Joe Jeannette delivered a thorough boxing lesson to Jeff Clarke "The Joplin Ghost", seemingly content to take the decision in their ten round contest...Clarke tried his best but could not really hurt his opponent and took a considerable amount of punishment in return...Jim Stewart the Brooklyn heavyweight is said to be considering a match with fellow New Yorker Tom Kennedy for next month...Sam McVea, conqueror of Australia's Bill Lang, has issued a defi to Gunboat Smith and put his own NABF title belt on the line...Sam Langford is considering an offer to tour Australia and New Zealand and defend his world title against Tommy Burns if the money is right....

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From The Tacoma Western Courier July 14, 1903...In a surprising turn of events, Gunboat Smith forced a stoppage of Sam McVea at Oakland to lay claim to the North American Boxing Federation heavyweight championship...McVea, although past his best days, was still generally favoured to beat the gangly ex-sailor, based on his relatively easy win over the Australian Bill Lang...Smith played a waiting game, allowing McVea to tire in pursuit before unloading his big guns in rounds 5 and 6...McVea did manage to land his vaunted left hook with some frequency in round seven, likely fracturing one of Smith's ribs, but paid for it in the following stanza, finding himself on the canvas for a nine count from a well-placed right on the jaw...In the 9th round Referee Roche was forced to halt proceedings after Smith had sent McVea sprawling three more times for eight counts...At Havana, Cuba Eduardo Herrera knocked out reigning UBAL champion Heriberto Rojas, gaining revenge for two previous losses...Supporters of Joe Jeannette were disgusted by a judgement rendered in his bout with James "Sailor" Burke of Nova Scotia when the referee declared it a draw...An unbiased view was that Joe had failed to take rounds 7, 8, and 9 which went by narrow margin to his opponent, while the final inning was decisively won by Burke...At Boston's Arena Jim Barry threw away a win when he struck Alf Langford when he was down and got himself disqualified...At Brooklyn's Clermont Street Arena Carl Morris mauled Jim Stewart before Referee Tim Hurst pulled him off to save the local man from further punishment...Many in the crowd cried for Morris to be thrown out for deliberate fouls well before the final 9th round...Various wire services report Tommy Burns has agreed to meet Sam Langford in Canada for a guarantee of $15,000 plus expenses...Langford's camp has yet to confirm, but say their man will definitely defend his title in two weeks time against someone like Bill Mackinnon or Danny Whitebear at Colliers Field in Sydney, Cape Breton in benefit of wives and children of striking mine workers...Much speculation revolves around European champion Georges Carpentier and his continued North American campaign with some sportswriters saying his obvious opponent is England's Bombardier Wells, provided Wells doesn't decide to return home or fight someone like the big Iowa farmer Al Palzer...Palzer's people have been seen in the lobby of the English fighter's hotel in New York and may be trying to arrange a contest at Madison Square Garden...Some Pittsburgh papers are wondering if Frank Moran will accept an offer to fight Jeff Clarke next month or do a bunk for the west coast...Al Kaufman has announced his retirement...The former Pacific Northwest champion compiled a record of 34 wins, 25 by knockout, with 10 losses and 3 draws after a career beginning in 1894 in San Francisco...

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From the afternoon edition of The Barnsley Earwigger July 20, 1903....The star bout at London's National Sporting Club was the 10 round main event between Scotland's Derek Beattie and England's Tom Cowler...Cowler was a slight favourite going in but Beattie upset those odds by boxing wonderfully, eluding Cowler's rushes and wild swings midway through the contest and bringing blood to the nose of his opponent with a smart left jab that the English lad seemed unable to avoid...It was obvious Cowler had underestimated the Scot and failed to press any advantage he gave himself in the certainty he could land a finishing blow late in the fight...In the end only the most partisan fans could deny the victory belonged to Beattie...Cowler showed good sportsmanship in grasping his opponent's hand and has promised himself the result will be different if they meet again...In Norway Bjarni Thorsen suffered defeat in his rubber match with PO Matty Curran, just two two months after stopping Curran in four rounds at Paris...Thorsen started off strongly but let up in the fifth round and appeared to run out of petrol as he let Curran back into the fight and took a grueling from then on...At Palermo, Italy Giuseppe Sciacca eked out a home-pitch decision over Denmark's Bryn Pedersen in their 8 round match and appeared in poor condition...At London's Palace Theatre Wm Iron Hague battered the Belgian Henri Caradec for 10 rounds but could not put him down...For his part, Caradec seemed distracted by a shapely brunette seated near his corner who frequently called to him between rounds...At the popular Salle Wagram in Paris newcomer Alphonse Dumoulin administered a thorough drubbing to local idol Marc Gaucher who has fallen on hard times in the ring lately, losing three of his last four...Gaucher's sole victory was against what the Americans call "a member of the pork & bean brigade", Damaso Silvestre of Spain...At Marseilles promoter Charles Ouimet brought together touring South Afrikan heavyweights George "Boer" Rodel and Fred Storbeck in a limited rounds contest with four ounce gloves...The two novice pugilists had met before in December of 1901 at Pretoria with Storbeck prevailing, but this time Rodel gained the upper hand when the referee stopped the action in round two when a cut Storbeck had suffered in training reopened triggering the gendarmes to order a halt...Rodel's manager has cabled this office with a challenge to any English heavyweight to meet him in an eight round contest with a side wager of £50...

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Excerpt from The Melbourne Argus morning edition August 1st, 1903....Promoters Charles Campbell of the Gaiety Athletic Hall and Walter Young of the Golden Gate Club convinced the Australian and New Zealand Boxing Federation to allow them to stage an elimination tournament to crown an interim heavyweight champion to represent them while Bill Lang is away on tour...Ten top contenders were selected by the ANZBF to participate and the first bouts were held July 28 with Jim Quigley meeting Jerry Jerome at the Gaiety and Bill Turner taking on Jack Whittaker at Hobart Hall in Tasmania...On subsequent nights Colin Bell boxed former champ Des Quinlan, George Stirling faced Archie Greaves and Jack Howard got his rematch with Peter Kling...Quigley, Bell, Stirling and Howard emerged victorious but Turner and Whittaker will try matters again next week following their draw...In two weeks time the tourney will match Quigley & Howard and Bell & Stirling at the Golden Gate Club, with the winner of the second match to meet the winner of Turner and Whittaker two weeks hence...The winner there will fight the winner of Quigley & Howard sometime in September...Young Pat Doran, the Melbourne lad, entered the cash-class last December and dropped a three-round nod in his first go-round...Since then he'd done quite well for himself racking up 8 wins over a mixed bag of local mitt artists...Tuesday last he took on veteran Ned Ryan at the Melbourne Boxing Club and got stopped in the waning seconds of the sixth and last round...He put Ryan down in the first stanza and got carried away with himself as he swept the following rounds until walking into a wild swing from Ryan that dumped him on his pie-eater...A minute and some later he was being doused with water after being knocked down twice more, while a grinning Ryan was having his arm raised...Headlining the same card, Adelaide's own Ern Waddy put the kibosh on Wallsend Smith via technical knockout in seven and promptly issued challenges to ring-wise Les O'Donnell and Kelly Mansfield to meet him for a side wager of £25...Tommy Burns has boarded the White Star liner Suevic sailing to London, where he will eventually take ship to Canada for a lucrative battle with world champion Sam Langford...

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Snipped from the August 1st morning edition of The Coaltown Gazette...The Clarke-Moran fight is for the vacant American Boxing Association heavyweight title...Joe Jeannette had already agreed to fight Eduardo Herrera and booked passage from New York when the IBU announced the fight to fill the vacant ABA championship...

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From The Boston Crier August 11, 1903...Carl Morris, Oklahoma heavyweight, scored a surprising four-round knockout over Dan Porky Flynn of Boston, in a scheduled 10-round bout before 2,500 spectators here last night...The big Okie battler showed unexpected power when he flattened Flynn for a nine count with a solid right to the jaw after two minutes of battling in the fourth round. Flynn was still groggy when he arose and another right to the jaw dropped him for five. Again he struggled to his feet and Morris had him draped over the ropes, pounding his head with both hands, when Flynn slumped to the canvas where he was counted out...At Madison Square Garden in New York highly favoured English heavyweight Bombardier Billy Wells was enjoying a one-sided seven round sweep of his fight with Al Palzer when the burly American landed a desperation left hook that dropped Wells like a sack of potatoes...The elongated Brit staggered to his feet only to be met with an overhand right to the jaw and a left to the heart that stretched him out flat...Georges Carpentier, the French idol, upset local oddsmakers by surviving an early knockdown to kayo Australia's Bill Lang in the third round at Hazard's Pavilion in Los Angeles just days ago...A right uppercut snapped Lang's head back followed by a swift left-right that turned his lights out with seconds remaining...Jeff Clarke "The Joplin Ghost" is the new American champion thanks to a fairly close decision over hard-punching Frank Moran at Tattersall's Arena in Chicago...Even with a round deducted for a low blow in the eighth, referee George Siler scored it six rounds to four with two even for the clever Missourian...Moran's manager complained bitterly of interference by Siler but few sided with him...At Havana, Joe Jeannette took every single inning in his ten round battle with Argentina's Eduardo Herrera and emerged without a mark on him...The Argentine and Latin American champion was not so fortunate...It is reliably reported that Jim Stewart the "Fighting Architect" and Boston pug Alf Langford are part of a troupe of boxers sailing to Europe after a short stopover at Halifax to pick up passengers, among them Danny Whitebear current holder of the Canadian heavyweight championship belt...Tony Ross the Pittsburgh pugilist is on board the Cunard liner Montreal bound for Cape Town, South Afrika where he is contracted to meet one Gawie De Klerk of that country, reputed to be a tough proposition...

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From the September 1903 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...A New York newspaper carried a cartoon depicting Bombardier Billy Wells in disguise boarding ship for England with the caption "Bound for the Greener Pastures of 'ome!"...Wells indeed cancelled his North American tour citing an invitation from the prestigious National Sporting Club, denying his departure had anything to do with his knockout loss to unranked Al Palzer...In Australia Bill Turner was slated to fight Colin Bell when this issue was going to press, with the winner to fight Jack Howard for the interim ANZBF championship belt after Howard disposed of No.1 ranked Jim Quigley August 17th...Jeff Clarke has been instructed by the American Boxing Association to accept a challenge from Joe Jeannette and an offer from promoter Marty Muldoon of the Marathon A.C. in Chicago, the fight to take place no later than the second week of October...Georges Carpentier reports he will be returning to France this Fall unless he can secure a rematch with Gunboat Smith or some other match of equal importance...For his part, Smith is negotiating with Bill Lang's camp to meet next month in Los Angeles with a sizeable purse in the offing...Lang is demanding a 60/40 split for the winner...Sam McVea issued a challenge to either Carl Morris or Frank Moran to meet in two weeks time in the headline event at McNaughton's Pavilion with a side wager of $2,000 and a declaration he will retire if he loses...Moran, presently in Chicago, is said to be interested if the promotion will cover his travel expenses...Sam Langford is considering moving from his camp in Toronto to a set-up in Montreal where he has purchased a hotel and tavern...Langford reportedly fired his chief trainer George Byers last week and hired former featherweight contender Jimmy Walsh to prepare him for his title defence against Tommy Burns...

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From the pages of the 1903 Mitt Slingers Boxing Record book just hitting the newsstands...

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Tommy Burns' complete up-to-date record....A typo was missed by the printer...McVea stopped Burns in 11 rounds at Toronto in 1900...

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Excerpt from the afternoon edition of The Glasgow Herald, September 19, 1903....Keen followers of Scots heavyweight pugilist Derek Beattie were heartily disappointed by the result of his match yesterday with the "Cumberland Giant" Tom Cowler when Referee Reid declared it a draw after 10 furious rounds...Most of the 3,000 spectators present at Edinburgh Hall thoroughly enjoyed the fistic display put on by the two dreadnought-class boxers with only the most ardent supporters of each man disputing the verdict...Beattie might be given a slight edge in the scoring because of his knockdown of Cowler in the 4th stanza, but it was brief and was likely nullified by points taken from the Scots champion for repeated holding in the final round...Cowler (13st 12lb) landed the more powerful blows, but Beattie (13st 5lb) was the aggressor and showed cleverer boxing skills...The Edinburgh Athletic Association has promised to bring these two together again in a rubber match...At the National Sporting Club, London, Wm. Iron Hague withstood the early assault by Packey Mahoney of Eire and battled back with devastating effect to score a clean knockout in the last minute of the eighth round...Hague says he is looking for a rematch with the big Norwegian, Bjarni Thorsen to avenge a disputed points loss at Manchester last year...Thorsen, now 32 years old, proved he is still a force to be reckoned with when he took a decision over the young German Ernst Rosemann last week...In France, Marc Gaucher, the man many expected would replace Raymond Berenger in the hearts of Parisian boxing fanatics, was handed another shocking loss when America's Al Kubiak made him take the full count in the fifth round of their contest at the Cirque De Paris...Ringside observers report Gaucher was never in it, appearing in poor condition, his blows lacking real force...The American had announced before the fight that win or lose he would be returning to the States...Canadian champion Danny Whitebear kicked off his European tour with a tenth round KO of France's Georges Neret in an open-air card at Luna Parc...In the semi windup Alphonse Dumoulin knocked out Jim Stewart of New York in five rounds improving his record to 14-2-1 with 8 KOs...Stewart was ahead on most scorecards just prior to the fatal fifth...Stewart's sparring partner Alf Langford (16-1-0) scored a knockout in his European debut match over Emile Masson, a local lad who had won his six previous bouts...

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From The Australian Star afternoon edition, October 1903...The tournament to decide the Interim heavyweight champion of Australasia ends with a fairly one-sided trouncing of "The Taz Tiger" Bill Turner by the Sydney favourite Jack Howard in front of some 10,000 spectators at Sydney Stadium...Turner who appeared in splendid condition in the days before the clash had no explanation for his poor performance and told reporters he would head back to the gym at Griffo's Academy as soon as his jaw was healed...For his part, Howard was as exuberant as expected following his win and proudly showed off his silver championship belt to all and sundry...He told friends he could have fought another twenty rounds and felt no one in Australia could have licked him yesterday...In the only preliminary to the main show, Young Sonter the Melbourne phenom knocked out Joe Costa of Brisbane in three fast rounds...At the newly refurbished Adelaide Arena rising star Ern Waddy came back from a slow start to put away former Australasian champion Des Quinlan with a single explosive right hand in the 4th round of their 10 round headline event...Quinlan had taken rounds two and three and was looking strong when he walked into a right cross to the temple that left him in a heap on the canvas as Referee Scott delivered the full count...Cobar's George Stirling lost no time in getting back at it, battling Jim Quigley at the Golden Gate Club last Wednesday evening and won in lightning fashion taking the legs out from under the Sydney-sider less than a minute into the 4th round...Quigley had to be carried back to the dressing room, and didn't come round for a good five minutes, in a room vacant but for his chief second and his two brothers...Six hundred folk at the Metropolitan A.C. witnessed South Afrika's big man Pierre Coetzer drop a decision to Albert Cripps in what was a dismal effort by both men...Coetzer tried for a quick knockout in the first three innings but couldn't land cleanly and began to tire as the scrap dragged on...At Melbourne's Crystal Palace Jerry Jerome out-maneuvered the much larger Wallsend Smith to cop the nod after eight strenuous rounds, improving his record to 18-6-4 and moving him up a notch in the list of contenders for the Australasian title...On the same card young Pat Doran boxed a six round draw with Ballarat's Pat McIntyre and showed marked improvement in his foot-work and defence...The Crystal Palace's impresario Midge Connolly liked what he saw in his protégé and expects big things from him...

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Large half-page advert carried by The Toronto World, the Daily Mail and Empire, The Toronto Telegram, The Mirror, Globe and Mail and The Toronto Daily Star...Similar adverts later run in major newspapers in Montreal, New York, Detroit, Boston and all over the Great Lakes region...Tommy Burns has returned to Canada and set up training camp at a friend's lodge north of Toronto while a wealthy supporter of Sam Langford has supplied a gym facility in Hogtown's west end...Tommy's new chief trainer Eddie Loftus hires Larry Temple, Battling Levinsky and Canadian amateur heavyweight champion* Frank O'Malley as sparring partners...Reports from the champion's quarters reveal Sam has rehired George Byers to work alongside Jimmy Walsh in his preparation for the coming battle, and is working with several local heavies including Arthur Pelkey and Montreal's Art Beaudoin and novice middleweight Roy Carson, said to have a ring style similar to that of Burns...Promoter Tom Flanagan has signed Buffalo's unbeaten George "One Round" Davis (6-0-0) to meet rising local attraction Al Lambert (5-1-0) for one of the four 6 round preliminaries...[*Ed. Canadian amateur boxing championships held each year in February sponsored by the Dominion Boxing Foundation. Lambert was the 1902 amateur light heavyweight champion.]

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From The Buffalo Evening Courier November 1903...In a column carried by the Hearst chain, boxing commentator Don Koss reported on preparations for the upcoming world heavyweight title fight between Sam Langford and Tommy Burns observing that "...No expense has been spared by the promoter to draw a good-size crowd to his show at the Toronto Coliseum and the response has been overwhelming with strong ticket sales for the prime seats. Numerous celebrated personalities from the sporting world, the theatre and political realm are expected to attend, including baseball's Nap Lajoie, Connie Mack, and Eddie Plank; members of the 1902 Stanley Cup Champion Winnipeg Victorias; stage actresses Madge Adae and Bonnie Maginn and the notorious Evelyn Nesbit; former gunfighter turned newsman Bat Masterson; reputed gangsters Babe Halloran, Monk Eastman and Paul Kelly; industrialist JD Fournier and the mayors of Toronto and Montreal. Many local fight managers and their proteges are expected as well..." ...Fighting at Woodward's Pavilion in San Francisco, NABF champion and former gob Gunboat Smith took a narrow points decision over Australia's Bill Lang. Both men took terrific punishment over the course of the battle, but Smith landed the more accurate and effective punches, particularly during the last three rounds...Lang has reportedly resigned himself to returning home on the first available steamship...Joe Jeannette has finally recaptured the American heavyweight championship belt with a one-sided win over now ex-champion Jeff Clarke in St Louis...Clarke put up a brave effort, but was no match for the "New Jersey Adonis" as Jeannette was really in fine form and could likely have put his opponent away any time after the 10th canto...Joe emerged almost totally unmarked and told reporters he felt ready to fight Langford tomorrow if a fight could be arranged...In a shocking ending at Oakland, California, Sam McVea KO'd Pittsburgh's Frank Moran at one minute and 52 seconds of the first round..An explosive left hook to the head shortly after hostilities commenced sent Moran to the canvas for a nine count and when he arose McVea drove him into a corner and rained a dozen unanswered blows to his body and head; a final hook to the body doubled Moran over and he lay face-first as though he'd been shot..The forward progress of young giant Al Palzer has been brought to a halt by the wily veteran street brawler Fireman Jim Flynn who exposed Palzer's lack of a fighting brain in a bloody punch-up that could have been stopped in the eighth or ninth round as both men were covered in gore...Only Palzer's incredible stamina and heart kept him on his feet in the face of a relentless barrage from Flynn...For his efforts Palzer received just over $3,500 while Flynn took home his guaranteed $4,000, the gross gate receipts amounted to $13,207...

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One example of headlines splashed across North American newspapers Wednesday November 18...Referee Joe Francis is severely criticized by many ticket holders and sports writers for stopping the fight with Tommy Burns still on his feet...Sam Langford had come on strong in the final minute of the first round, staggering Burns with a fusillade of punches, and continued the onslaught in the next round...Burns fought back but was being hammered and seemed on the verge of being knocked down when the referee stepped in and shielded him from further punishment...Tommy protested the action vehemently but to no avail as Francis left the ring through a corridor of large police constables...The champion offered his hand to Burns and appeared as confused by the outcome as those at ringside...In minutes rumours were rampant of gambling corruption and payoffs, forcing the local commission to order Joe Francis to appear the next day to explain his actions...

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Excerpt from The Detroit Tribune December 2, 1903...Some activity in the smaller clubs north and south of the border, the US venues featuring a handful of the so-called "American Hopes" like Tom Kennedy, Kid Kenneth, Sailor White, and Dan Daly...At San Francisco one of the best of the newer crop of heavyweights Luther McCarty retains his claim on the Pacific Northwest title with a convincing decision over Jim Cameron the Black Hercules...In Cameron's corner acting as chief advisor was none other than Sam McVea, and Sam challenged McCarty when the two sides came together as the verdict was announced...McCarty's manager stepped in and let McVea know in no uncertain terms that his boy will be after easier opponents for now...McVea poked the man in the chest and declared that the IBU might have different ideas if McCarty plans on holding onto his title belt...At Newark, New Jersey Jim Savage turns the tables on the favoured Dan Porky Flynn taking six of the eight rounds of their headline bout...Flynn is coming off a knockout loss to Carl Morris but was expected to easily outbox the Orange New Jersey fighter and instead adds a fourth loss to his last six fights....At the Pelican Arena Bill "KO" Brennan stops Brooklyn's Ray Simon in four rounds, improving his record to 15-0 with 8 knockouts...At Mexico City's Club Olympico, rising star Francisco Segura forces a stoppage of Bob "College Boy" Jones in three lopsided rounds and puts an end to the latter's ring career as Jones immediately announces his retirement...Segura, a native of Juarez, is now 7-1-1 (3)...Jones finishes with a record of 37-14-7 (15)...

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Clipped from the January 1904 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...Part of the year end summary...Report in the New York Evening World that Joe Jeannette and his manager Dan McKettrick are in Toronto negotiating with Sam Langford for a world title fight sometime in the new year...

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From the January 1904 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...Contents include article on the rise of boxing in Europe and movement towards the pro ranks, and an editorial on the increased usage of rubber gum shields and padded cups in professional boxing and their pending approval by the IBU...There is a push against the IBU's influence by some US managers but the boxers themselves are happy with the current situation that restricts a manager to collecting no more than 20% of a fighter's purse...Gunboat Smith has reportedly severed ties with manager Cleve Peters and signed up with Jimmy Buckley's stable with assurances Buckley will get him a fight for the world title...At the Cirque de Paris Georges Carpentier announced his return to European rings with a convincing decision over Scotland's Derek Beattie in defence of his EBU championship belt...There were signs of ring rust as Carpentier started slowly and took several rounds to really get his timing going but Beattie failed to take advantage fearing the Frenchman was playing possum...At London's Blackfriar's Ring Packey Mahoney pulled a huge upset of the bookies odds in winning 7 of 8 rounds over England's Tom Cowler...Many at ringside thought Cowler might have been doped as he never put up much of an offence, looking content to box entirely on the defensive...The promoter held back his end of the purse until he received an explanation from Cowler's chief second...Bjarni Thorsen revived his flagging career with a 10 round decision over Canada's Danny Whitebear in front of a vociferous mob at Oslo's Stortinget Halle...The Dominion champ put up a good effort but was fighting on the back foot for most of the contest...In yet another upset in December, Eire's Private Dan Voyles outpointed Deutschland's coming star Otto Flint over 8 rounds at Dusseldorf's Rheinhall....Voyles is turning into quite a spoiler of Continental fighters...Followers of the sweet science in England are of the opinion that Scotland's young Colin Morrison was rushed along in meeting veteran Wm. Iron Hague, the result of which was an 8th round knockout loss after five or six lopsided rounds...Morrison tried hard but still has much to learn...Australia's Bill Lang has departed for home and brought along a few American heavies to try their hands in Antipodean rings...Noted New York fight manager Robert "Bob" Clark has left for Europe accompanied by a small troupe of local fighters including one Alfred "Soldier" Kearns formerly of the US Cavalry's Philippines Expedition...

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From The Melbourne Age January 1904...A survey by the Age of leading sportswriters confirmed ANZBF interim champion Jack Howard as the number one challenger for Australasian champ Bill Lang with Adelaide's unbeaten 20-yr old Ern Waddy a fairly distant second...Promoter Dick Rafferty had won the bid for Lang's next title defence at the Crystal Palace in central Melbourne with a purse of £300 and £30 training expenses...On the card of the Bell and Horn fight at Sydney's Golden Gate Club promoter Walter Young put on three 3 round bouts featuring the best of the new prospects...Alec Pooley KO'd Jim Scanlon in one round; Jack Darcy of Sydney outpointed Army champ Gordon Coghill; and Sid Neilsen (already called "The Great Dane") took the decision over Des Quinlan's brother Jack...At Wanganui Race Course in New Zealand Jim Griffin KO'd Bill Squires and convinced him to retire...In their third match Pat Doran clearly outpointed Pat McIntyre in his own backyard over ten rounds and lay claim to the Victoria State championship...At the Gaiety Athletic Club Les O'Donnell (12.11) stormed Wallsend Smith (13.7) and put him away in three quick rounds, the finisher coming from a left to the body and a right to the jaw...In a special 10 round bout to find an eliminator for the New Zealand title, a faded Jimmy Henry improved his record to 28-17-4 (4) taking the verdict over Tim Murphy now 16-21-2 (5)...

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From The Halifax Chronicle February 1904...In the absence of the current holder of the national heavyweight championship as an attraction, Promoter Willie MacLellan has organized a tournament of Canadian and American pugilists from the Maritimes and New England with the goal of crowning a regional champion, reviving the title once held by Sandy Ferguson...Supported by the Dominion Boxing Foundation "Mac" will offer a final purse of $1,000 to the eventual winner with shares of the gate receipts for the other participants...Barring unforeseen circumstance, the Halifax Forum card will feature the following pairings in round one: Al Lambert (Moncton) Vs. Walt Lanahan (Providence); Dan MacDonald (New Glasgow) Vs. Denny Kelliher (Quincy); Ned O'Mara (Halifax) Vs. Dave Sawyer (Rockland); Roddie MacDonald (Glace Bay) Vs. Andy Morris (Boston); Ray Mullins (Fredericton) Vs. Walter Altieri (Wakefield); Sailor Burke (Halifax) Vs. Charlie Haghey (Lowell); and Bill Mackinnon (Charlottetown) Vs. Dan 'Porky' Flynn (Boston)...Each bout will be of six rounds duration with the exception of the final which will be 10 rounds...Round two will be staged at the Forum one week later...Representatives of the Canadian Professional Boxing Federation and the International Boxing Union will be in attendance...Local referee Hugh MacNeil and Montreal's Yvon Beauchamps will officiate...