PRIZE FIGHTERS’ FORTUNES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1246, 16 May 1914, Page 4

PRIZE FIGHTERS’ FORTUNES.

Boxing to day is a short cut to fame aud fortune for any youth who displays exceptional ability at the “noble art.” Ex-Bombaraier Wells has made several thousand pounds from the roped square, and the contest with Bandsman Blake at the Palladium will no doubt have added more grist to his mill, yet he cannot claim to have received anything like as much as Jack Johnson. The giant black has probably earned more from his fistic ability than any other man who ever lived, though whether he has saved much of it is a moot point. His estimated profits from the great match with Jim Jeffries at Reno, Nevada, were : Purse ,£15,150 Moving pictures 33,000 Vaudeville engagements 20,000

This huge amount resulted from one fight alone, and of course he has made thousands since. He learned a few wrinkles in the art of getting easy money from Tommy Burns, the man he had to defeat before becoming champion. Tommy Burns was a FrenchCauadian who took up pugilism when he saw the big money that was to be made out of it. He was a business man conducting his contests on business lines. Before he would consent to fight the negro he demanded ,£6OOO, whether he won, drew or lost. He received the money. Now Johnson demands a similar figure before he will undertake a championship fight.

At no time was money evei easier for boxers. Jem Mace, the last ut the old bare-kuuckle fighters, made, it was believed, about £40,000 from bis hardfought tours round the world, but he died in poverty a year or two ago. John h. Sullivan, another onetime champion of the world, made a five figure fortune from the sport before he grew too old and stout to fight. When he won the championship all he received was £9OO. Ten years later, when J. J. Corbr took it from him, the atroun, o. cash which Corbett pocketed was nearly £9OOO. The Johnson-Jeffries fight at Reno holds the record for the amount of money put ini escalation by a fight. Boxin b enthusiasts travelled to Nevada from all parts of the world, and £r,000,000 changed hands over the contest. Half this sum was circulated by the Corbett v. Fitzsimmons battle at Carson City, Nevada, 1597. First, a temporary building was constructed at a cost of £2500. For admission to the fight 4000 people, paid an average of £5 apiece, and these spent in hotel bills and travelling expenses a total of £BO,OOO. Rut the chief expenditure was by the Press of the world.

The telegraph companies actually received £260,000 for special wire service for newspaper, ticker and private despatches. The extra cost to newspapers to furnish details of the fight, apart from telegraph service, was put at £60,000. The fight lasted ouly fiftythree minutes, and the purse and stakes amounted to considerably over £SOOO. Battling Nelson, who a few years ago was light-weight champion of the world, took £40,000 into retirement when he was defeated and abandoned the sport. He had a very rough time before reaching lame and fortune, having followed amongst other occupations that of water carrier to the elephants in a circus. But he came to the top at last, and scooped in plenty of big purses, receiving £2500 as his share when he lost the championship to Adolph Wolgast, who, although the winner, had to be content with less than a third of this sum.

YOU SHOULD BE DETERMINED in rejecting the worthless and tre quently injurious counterfeits which are sometimes pushed for the sake of greater gain as “just as good” as the GENUINE SANDER AND SONS’ PURE VOLATILE EUCALYPTI EXTRACT. Be not deceived ! SANDER’S EXTRACT is recognised by the highest medical authorities as possessing unique stimulating, healing and antiseptic power. The preparation of SANDER’S EXTRACT from the pure selected leaves, and the refinement by special processes give it curative virtues peculiarly its own. Therefore, be not misled ! Demand and insist upon the GENUINE' SANDER EXTRACT, and you will derive the benefit that thousands have derived from it before. When ill you should not depress yourself more by the common, bulky and nauseating eucalyptus oil and so-called extracts. What you want is quality and relia bility in small dose; and this jou find only in— SANDER’S EXTRACT.

Packey Macfarlaud is another young man who has made a substantial fortune from boxing, for, although only twenty-six years of age, he has accumulated ,£60,000. For his fight with Freddie Welsh at the National Sporting Club, which ended in a draw, he shared a puise of .£l9o° and the profits from the cinematograph rights,

each man’s share amounting to between two and three thousand pounds. Freddie Welsh, the gallant little Welsh vegetarian light-weight, is supposed to have netted ,£30,000 from the noble art, whilst Owen Moran, of Birmirjgham, is credited with very little less.