JEFFRIES RICHEST OF ALL PUGILISTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3313, 4 September 1911, Page 2

JEFFRIES RICHEST OF ALL PUGILISTS.

HOW SOME OTHERS ARE FIXED WITH WORLDLY GOODS.

James J. Jeffries is accused of being the richest pugilist, either active or retired, in the world to-day by an English writer, who took it upon himse.f to show where Jeff had stored away, in. real cash, somewhere like £50,000. Before the fight with Jack Johnson Jeff was in none too good financial shape, and lie would probably have had to go to work before, lie died. Ho made at least 200,000 dollars out of the Reno battle, and this more than put him on Easy street. Since then he has added to this by investments. But the money he made wasn’t a drop, in the bucket compared to' the- cash that was lost on him by his friends. No one person, lost anything like tire amount Jeff made, but the aggregate of the sma ll bets aind large ones probably went well past the million dollar mark. “Bat” Nelson is reputed to be worth in the neighbourhood of £20,000, and if the little Dane saved his money, as I believe lie did, these figures are not far wrong. He used better judgment than most fighters do in investing his cash in real estate and mortgage, which, are bearing a. good interest and increasing in value. Tommy Ryan, who; owns a saloon, in Syracuse, N.Y. is often classed as a wealthy fighter, hut the truth is that the famous ex-middleweight champion is far from independent and lias to keep himself busy to prevent making an inroad on his savings. He is one of the smartest, if not the smartest, pugilist that ever put on a glove, in a. fighting sense, and had lie not tried to make a farmer out of himself when lie knew he wasn’t fitted for the Avork, :hb might have more of liis money to-dajgi Tommy Burns is another orftbe ure-sent-day fighters who is classed as wealthy, and from what I cam learn of the former Canadian who threw down the whole white race, there is no.questifjn as to his financial independence. The fact is that Tommy has stored away in various safety deposit vaults, banks and invested in property more tlra,n £25,000. Then lie has a gcod brain that ought to keep-him busy alon g any other line of business when, he gets tired of dabbling in ring affairs. No fig'll ter in the business to-day is piling up the coin any faster than Ad. Wolgast, the lightweight champion. Ad. lias added about £7OOO to his pile in the last six months, and in the next sit months he will more than double this amount. He is worth £IO,OOO anyway right now, and if he keeps on investing his money he will be up in the race for the leadership among the richest pugilists. A. lot of people believe that Abe Attell is well fixed. The fact is the little Jew has made upward of £40,000, but lias gambled most- of it away. Jack Johnson' is also far from beings independently rich, but he can still add £IO,OOO or more to liis pile before lie retires.

After all is said, the English writer who declared Jeffries the richest pugilist in the world comes nrettv near being right. Big Jim has nearly a quarter of a million dollars any way, and one of the best paying saloons in the world.