on points. The rematch with McFarland was set for 4 July, Independence Day, to coincide with the world lightweight title fight between champion Joe Gans and Battling Nelson held in California. The Welsh-McFarland fight was gaining much press attention, and this increased after fight promoter and owner of the Jeffries Arena, Jim Jeffries, had offered Gans a $20,000 purse to face the winner of the bout in August. Betting was heavy for the match, and was to be refereed by Jeffries himself. Fought over 25 rounds, Welsh had the upper hand for the first nineteen, but after an announcement was made that Nelson had won in California, Welsh's game slipped with McFarland taking control. In the final two rounds Welsh took a heavy beating and was knocked down to the canvas in the last round. At the end of the encounter the decision from the referee was a draw. McFarland took the result badly and launched into a vicious tirade of abuse towards Jeffries, though Welsh too thought he had done enough to win in the first two-thirds of the fight and sent a cablegram to Wales stating such. After the McFarland draw, for the first time the American press began questioning Welsh's credentials as a champion contender, mainly due to his inability to finish off his opponent due to a lack of punching power. Welsh was hurt by the remarks that he was a 'snowflake puncher', and used his next three fights to prove his critics wrong. Johnny Murphy went the full twenty-five rounds but suffered a terrible beating, Frank Carsey was knocked out in round four, lying unconscious for five minutes; while Harry Trendall was laid out in the sixth. Although Welsh was chasing Nelson for a title shot, Nelson took an eight-month sabbatical after winning his rematch in September over Gans. Around this time, Welsh received a promise of a fight from fellow Brit Johnny Summers for the European title, but the major challenger in California was Abe Attell, the featherweight champion of the world since 1906. Attell had run out of opponents, so after much advertising of the match, the two men met on 25 November 1911. Although Attell's boxing weight was half a stone lighter than Welsh's on the night, both men weighed in at . Under stormy weather conditions, Welsh won by points in a fifteen-round match, with one newspaper reporting that although Attell