daughter for the first time. Championship years and World War I Just 25 days after becoming lightweight champion, Germany declared war on Russia, and the Great War began. His expected payout touring theatres was curtailed and he lost more than $50,000 in music hall engagements alone. Thanks to a manager of the White Star Line, he, Fanny and Elizabeth obtained first class passage to America on the Olympic. In some sections of the sporting press he was accused of cowardice for not joining the British Army. Welsh countered that he undertook numerous engagements to rally support for troops and stated "I can do far more for my country out of the trenches than in them." In 1914 only two U.S. states allowed twenty round championship bouts to a verdict, Colorado and Louisiana, and no promoters in either state were offering large enough purses to risk losing the championship title for. To earn as much money as he could from being the champion, Welsh fought in as many ten round 'no verdict' matches as he could. As long as he was on his feet at the end of the ten rounds, he could not lose his title. Still, Welsh wanted to show he was not going to choose soft opposition and began a series of bouts against serious contenders. His first defence was against Matty Baldwin on 27 October in Boston, a match he won on points. This was followed six days later by a contest against Al Wolgast, the former champion who had avoided Welsh when he had the title to lose. The fight was a near sell out at Madison Square Garden in New York, with the crowd firmly behind Wolgast. Although the first few rounds were fairly even between the two fighters, at the end of the fifth round Wolgast blocked an uppercut with his right arm. The blow broke his ulna three inches (76 mm) above the wrist, forcing Wolgast to box on with just his left hand. Wolgast kept on fighting but could not continue after the eighth. A week later Welsh faced Charley White, the man most sports-writers believed was the natural contender for the lightweight title. The ten round bout, held in Milwaukee, was a one-sided affair with Welsh landing four times as many punches as White. Despite White having the stronger punch, it was not until the tenth that he managed to draw