[Cap]

From The Pittsburgh Messenger February 22, 1902...Fireman Jim Flynn 27-9-3[20] takes on unbeaten Soldier Kearns 11-0-3 [5] at Brown's Arena in New York expecting a walkover win but takes a points loss instead...Denver Jack Geyer put Thad Spencer of Oregon to sleep last night in the ninth session of a scheduled ten-round battle at the Seattle Ice Rink...Thirty American Hope aspirants were whittled down to eight at Bill Kurtz's tournament at New York the other day with the most promising eliminated on the first evening...Dan Daly, the Newcastle Goliath, was named the tournament's winner when he defeated Al Benedict of Brooklyn...Tony Ross "The Italian Bearcat" accepted an invitation from Toronto promoter Tom Flanagan to box Canadian champion Bob Day ten rounds for a fat purse...Ross now regrets taking him up on his offer after losing on a technical knockout in a fight he says he was on the verge of winning...Day, a mountain of a fellow, proved very awkward but Ross was in command when a chance blow opened an ugly cut on his brow in the eighth round, then reopened in the ninth. At this point the referee, a local man, stopped the bout and awarded the verdict to the Canadian despite protests from Ross and his corner...Al Kaufman was given the decision over Jeff Clarke at Oakland, California yesterday allowing him to retain his Pacific Northwest title belt...A quick poll of the boxing writers at ringside scoring on their own had Clarke an easy winner seven rounds to four with one even, the exact opposite of referee Billy Roche's scorecard...In the only preliminary Charlie Miller "The Frisco Motorman" garnered the win over Jack Rowan of Philadelphia after six slow rounds and improved his record to 10-3-2[5]...Miller, when asked about his poor condition and sloppy effort, claimed he'd taken the match on short notice when Rowan's original opponent had to back out...