THE BECKETT FIGHT.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The Spectator always welcomes criticism, and I feel sure that you will permit me to pass a word or two of fair animadversion on your contributor's article describing the Beckett-Moran fight. Your contributor overlooks one essen- tial element of such a contest—the real art and skill of the eombatants. The article contains, no doubt inevitably, nothing about this. It agrees with the general newspaper reports that the fight illustrated only what brute force can do. Now boxing, to uphold -its good name, must above all evince skill, not mere ponderosity. That has been the British tradition from Tom Sayers onwards. That tradition is being recognized at the present day by boxers like Car- pentier and Wells, and with these men and their like lies the future of boxing in Europe. Dempsey, and Beckett, and Moran should retire on their doubtful and perishable laurels. Britain has no credit by her present champion.—I am, Sir,
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