BOXING.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 85, 10 June 1913, Page 7

BOXING.

THE PUNCH.

■ mDE FITZSIMMONS FAMOUS. i"ta referring to the recent contest irfireen Pat Bradley (the Irish Amer:£lv and Sid Stagg (the Englishr boxf\ dt the Sydney Stadium recently, ?fhioh Stagg was knocked out in the iU round, after having all the bet!L 0 f the contest, the sporting writer jntbe Sydney 'Sunday Sun' says: fufbe man with the knock-out walIdP jg the one to bet on always. That ks been demonstrated many a time. p»t Bradley impressed it upon the siinds of thousands of spectators at L Stadium last night week, and tlie tot afforded food for discussion. SkiU «ill always beat the punch if skill j, alert all the time, but the punch ■ frequently catches skill napping, or the cunning of the man owning the much has drawn skill into a well-laid Lp after a good deal of angling. It ■ rt s S o when Pat Bradley put that deep-producer over on clever, plucky Sid Stagg. Pat had for a long time ' ore d warily towards the end ac(oniplis'"*l - Frequently he endeavored to catch the Englishman as he came in close, the while Pat was covered up, ; ij* Stagg knew too much; he had ■ jrobably been warned. Tlien the Irishman tried other methods, to rind him- ! B ]f beaten, until at last the opportunity offend, and he was ready. Ijtjijg's boxing skill was talked about '■ t irreat deal for days afterwards, and there were not a few who deplored the 'alleged fact that one with little more tian the punch to recommend him I should have been able to win over a l.pod class exponent. Those people .ipoke without thinking. Did they imagine that there was no skill, no 'shrewdness, no reasoning out. in in? ijiind controlling that punch? Surely ■ jtrasiiot believed that" the blow which linocked Stagg out was a lucky on* ipnre and simple. Could so clean, sc (quickly placed a wallop be the result ;oj mere chance, particularly as the ■ panrh is the best part of Bradley's jidjek-in-trade, and what ho relies upon uost to pull him through ? Bradley's still is not of as high a. qua'ity n: rStagg's. but he has skill beyond th;;t ordinarily met with, else he could nerer have lived long enough or beei able to conserve his powers sufficiently to rise to the opportunity that situation in the 13th round presented. And ifter all, it is the man with the powei 'Wild his fist who is best remembered. Think of the ureal many really skilfv tkeary-weijdits without a punch who an

[forgotten. Think, if you can. of he of [the higher poundage brigade who could [rith a single blow drive his adversary lino dreamland that the sporting world !jMS not still talk about. I "It is tie recollection of John L. punch that keeps him where ;fe is in the minds of his countrymen, jit is the memory of Bob Fitzsimmons' [power to put an opponent out with a (single smite that causes thousands to [follow him about, and newspaper men to write so much regarding him, as lie loves from one American city to ancther. Though only a middle-weight. EM met men from 2st to sst heavier [fan himself, and heat them as fast

'hi they came along, because he had is punch. He was a middle-weight r'nen he knocked Jim Corbett out, ind became champion of the world liter being toyed with—made an absolute plaything of, almost'—during several rounds. Did Stagg make Bradley kok foolish at any time? When twothirds of Stage's sweeping right upperrats brought up on Bradley's fendinp mother or his elbow, was Stagg's or Bradley's skill the better 'i When Bob Fitzsimmons met Jim Jeffries first Ik «s a middle-weight. Jeffries said afterwards that not one of the big fellows lit him as hard as did the New Zea-land-reared Cornishman. Fitzsimmom lad a business-like way of fighting, and »has Bradley, who' should get full credit for the fact. Fitzsimmons never faced nround. He never wasted an

iSrtion. He did not spar nor tap. Every Aw sent out had a mission to perform. Some boxers land numbers of punches on an adversary's body or chin todo no more than cut and annoy. TO well calculated Fitzsimmons wallop wiped out completely the effect of J hundred such blows. Watch Bradlev's Wing_ next time, and eee if what I foresaid regarding Fitzsimmons is not noticeable. Like Fitzsimmor. . Bradley *»en being worsted patiently work's "i way in. and waits for too i-Lmce ''.drive that left or right ■!■ ok or mug or cross in, and so put an end wfhe contest."