BOXING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 858, 2 July 1910, Page 12

BOXING.

ON THE EVE OF'THE BATTLE, GREATEST IN RING ANNALS.

(Br Mercdbi.l.

Monday—World's Championship, John- : son v. Jeffries (Nevada, . U.S.A.); Ivetchell v. Langford. July G.—Wairarapa B.A. Tourney (Town --■ .Hall, Masterton). . July 27, 28, 29.—New Zealand Amateur Championships (Palmerston' North). September B.—Burns v.-Langford.

All Eyes on Reno. Monday, the fourth of July—what does that date not stand for'wherever men of i. British descent are gathered together? At | no time has interest in any sporting event ' . been keyed up to such a pitch as it will. i bo the day after to-morrow—indeed, it is i keyed -up now. Oar eyes are on that 'little mining town in Nevada, and on it ; hard. For Reno, come Monday, is the i , site of the biggest pugilistic encounter in the annals ■of the ring. Reasons which have made it'the biggest were reviewed j last week, and, perhaps, it will now be ■ interesting to say a word about tho men's ; chances. Not a very big word to be sure, but at all events as interesting a word ! as may be sjid at this end of the world, i . Ogre eyes—tho ogre eyes of Uncertainty i- •; ' —are still to be seen peering through the [ ; cables. After all, is the locale of the ; , battle to be Reno or somewhere else? The • messages in the daily press still stick to j. Reno, the principal city of Nevada, as I' the favoured spot, but a cable received j by the "Referee" (presumably from Mr. I W. W. Naughton) definitely states that [ Goldfields has been decided upon. This j i latter centre is a small mining town that ! has already been tho deciding place of I several important battles, notably that i between "Joe" Gans and "Battling" Nel- } 1 eon for the light-weight championship on i;. September 3, 190G, when the negro def featcd the "Durable . Dane" on a, foul [ after a terrific. encounter lasting 42 i . rounds. '.Up to this timo this match was. !v for tho biggest purse on record—33,soo h dollars—the receipts establishing tho then | .: record ,of 69,715 dollars. This matter of locality, however, -is not a vitaL one. Except thoso immediately ! (and 1 financially) concerned, no one cares where it takes places. On this point tho 1 , news is reassuring. It appears that in ; .' 1897 the Legislature. of Nevada passed a law legalising boxing contests on the I payment of a 1000 dollars license fee, 'which . law 1 is still', in the statutes, and under which tho present contest is to bo permitted. Can We Measure Up Johnson? The first thing that strikes anyone endeavouring to come' to an unprejudiced conclusion is the extreme paucity of reliable information upon which to build up a case for either side. Of the cham.pion, Johnson, of course most is known. 1 ' Since his acquisition of the title by his defeat of "Tommy" Burns in Sydney onBoxing Day, 1908, he has-figured in five battles. These were air in 1909, and are as'follow:— " March 10—Beat V. M'Laghlen, Vancouver, 8.C., G rounds. May 19—No decision, "Jack" , O'Brien, Philadelphia, G rounds. June 30—No decision, "Tony" Ross, Pittsburgh, G rounds.' September 9—Beat "Al" Kaufmann, 10 rounds, San, Francisco (stopped by. police). • -'. ' October 16—Beat Stanley Kctchell, 12 rounds, Colma (knock out). Unfortunately noAe of theso affairs are of any'use as criterions of his chances with Jeffries, owing to the poor rating of his opponents, except in the case of Ketchell. In addition to this, all that there is to go upon are reports, exasperating! y contradictory and obviously unreliable, as to mode of liviDg, his reluctance to get' into serious ■ training, his splendid ' .performances against, his sparring partners, his own alleged assertions as to tho : perfection of his physical'fitness, and so. on. To put it'plainly—as to his present form we know nothing. As to his past iform we do not know much more.. Up to his meeting with Bums, he had met no one with serious claims to championship honours—his victories had been-all "old-timers," some "of them not even that, j Even, the Burns affair did not disclose ■much. -~ ' [Did His Burns Battle Tell Anything? Looking at that contest with Burns it must be apparent that . the black was not, in racing parlance, "asked to gal- , Hop." His victory carries a testimonial. .';to his ring tactics, his patience and his 'highly developed defensive qualities, but, as to Ips aggressiveness,' speed, and ca; ipacity for taking punishment, and his ; demeanour when "up against it," it furbishes no indication. at all. And this is what we want to know. On Monday ;ho will require speed and aggressiveness and more than anything, will he need the capacity, for taking punishment. For win or lose, he is bound to be tested in this respect. For once he will bo outeized, outreached, and - ontweighted, and, moreover, his immense strength will be : -opposed by power, at least as great and ,perhaps even greater. Against this there are in his favour a ,slight advantage in years—one cannot say youth—for he is 33 against Jeffries's alleged but queried 35, and a greater advantage in'the fact, that he has never .allowed his bodily condition to get the :better of him as. his adversary has, and that he/has been "in the game" continuously, and therefore does' not' have to . "come back" to condition. Outside of this everything must be pure conjecture. i.The Negro's Iron Courage. In ono respect, however, must credit •be given to Johnson, and that is as reigards his courage. It was the fashion once, to jeer at him as being the possessor of a "yellow streak." This he may fairly have said to havo lived down. • Although there have been few opportunities of judging of his "gameness" in the ri'ug, ho has shown thjit he is amply endowed .with moral courage—by far the higher quality. No moral coward could havo pushed the affair to its culmination as he has done without wavering in one degree and knowing, as he must know, the danger that victory will mean for him— that very danger to life itself that has been used by those opposing the contest as a lever to bring about its prohibition. He must , know, too, that defeat will mean complete and utter downfall—a drop from world's champion to "plain nigger"; for Johnson, unlike other ex-champions, will never get another chance. If beaten ho goes down and out. The persistence cannot bo account td for as merely negro conceit, and a desire to occupy the limelight on the public stage. Johnson's demeanour in the ring on the fateful Boxing Day in Sydney, when, in front of a hostile crowd, he whipped that crowd's darling with a smile and a taunt, showed his disregard of possible consequences. His behaviour since goes to show that he is no coward. A braggart he may bo, and seemingly is. But even that we may easily pardon. In the States, braggadocio is as necessary a tool in a boxer's kit as any other. Ho could not get on without it. "Jeff": Alfalfa Farmer and —-? Now for tho champion of tho white races—James J. Jeffries, ex-boilermalter and world's ex-champion, piusent-day alfalfa farmer and music-hall performer, the man who has never known defeat, nged 35, height Gft. l}in., weight 16 stone, and when that is said what moje can be added with any -degree of certitude? Not much. Little as we know of tho ahampion's present fighting i aluo, it is awsiderably more than we know of tho challenger's. The only news that has eome to us has been from oi his training staff and personal friendschannels whioli in these cases are not too reliable. Certainly press representatives have kept us schooled as to . his physical appearance until we know that

in looks lie is rips and ready for tho fray. That is something, but not much. What is wanted is information as to whether his long respite—ho has not been in the ring since August, 1901—has impaired his fighting faculties. 4 That is the point. Jcffrie3 Undoubtedly Hit, If ho can go to his corner on Monday the great fighting machine that he was in his prime, that is all one asks. If not one would naturally like to know tho extent of tho falling oIT. Until wo do, it is impossible to gauge his chances. That lie is physically fit there appears to be no doubt. On this head, Mr. W. W. Naughton is very reassuring. Writing te> tho "Referee" under date May 17, he says:— "I had talk with Jeffries, and he told me that he believed lie was better off, so far as condition was concerned, than ho ever had been in the palmy days. One thing is certain: His endurance is intact, his strength is as formidable as ever, and his wind seems'to be perfect; Out on tho road, ho leaves all his companions far behind. At indoor work his breathing is never distressed when his assistants are palpably , affected -by the rough, fast work.-.One. thing I know, I have heard fellowsTargue that it will be part of Johnsons plan to tiro Jeffries, nnd then go 1 in and lick him. From what I have' seen of I 'Jeff's' work, I think the fellow who ' tires him will find himself - in a dilapidated condition." , ~ But perfection of physical condition is not everything. .There is still that combination of the eyo with the brain, and of the brain with tho foot and hand, that is so essential, and it is this very faculty that is the first to go when a fcoxer "gets out of the game." Condition can be obtained by means of hard work and self-denial; the.other quality is more elusive. It can only come back by constant practice and use—if at all." It is as to whether, this,.essential has come back to Jeffries that-'tlie doubt exists, and it must "continue'..to exist until it is settled by. the l contest. .'The training work witli his sparring staff, "Joe" Clioyn6ki, "Bob" Armstrong, and J. J. Corbett, would not disclose tho secret. . These are all "lins-beens," and work that would appear fast and effective against them would _ lose these . qualities against a boxer like Johnson. "May the Best Man .Win.'-!-' To sum up, it must be admitted -that never have two boxers engaged in a world's championship contest whose fighting capacity is so difficult to gauge, and this in 'epito uf the. fact that never' has the preparation of two such gladiators been the subject of so much'press comment and advertisement, never has it been conducted so much in the glare of publicity. This being.,so, this scribe is free to admit that in his opinion any at-, tempt to pick out Monday's winner must bo guesswork, puro and simple. Ono naturally hopes that it- will bo Jeffries, and tho wish is also naturally father to the thought, which is th<s <,hly way one can account for the fact that he is favourite in the betting. In short, every sportsman, white > sportsman that is, seems to' be hoping as "Mercury" is—may the best man win—so long as that man is Jeffries. Wellington .Tournament. . The local amateur championship tourney on Wednesday furnished the usual good ... night's entertainment—whatever there was lacking in science being made up by the willingness and good, intentions of the combatants. The calibre of - the men was watched with special, interest, as from thoso competing is to bo chosen ■the Wellington ' Centre's representatives at the New Zealand meeting at Palmerston North at the'end of tho -month; Tho result was rather disappointing. Tlie men most liable to selection in their classes are Eudd (heavy), Tancred (welter), L. Porter . (light)j and -Ellis (feather). To these might be added Ben Tracy (bantam), but fie is not in his oldtime form, and, anyhow, 'is an unlikely starter. As far as could be seen from Wednesday's display, no satisfactory "middle" is available. - L. Murphy, last year's champion, was not a competitor, but. may be eligible for the big meeting. /To the above names has to be added Watchorn, of Palmerston North, the present New Zealand welter champion, who, seeing that Tancred is .in such good form, may possibly help tho centre along by leaving the welter title to tho Petone representative, and going after thß "middle" title. But this would bo a lot to expect. undoubtedly tho best form on Wednesday was shown by Ellis, tho "feather," from the Newtown Pastimes Club, who opposed Kutner. As the bout progressed he boxed, faster and stronger, and after wiping off some arrears on the first round gave his more' experienced adversary no peace, and had him in a bad way at the £nish. .In the light division, S. Porter was given no chance to show his true capabilities, as his opponent, Smitb, of Petone, who made a good showing in tho New Zealand championships last year, was quite out of conditoin owing to a recent bout of influenza, and could not stand more than ono fast round. L. Porter was well tested by Murphy in one of the best bouts of tho evening, but threw away his title by his behaviour in tho final with his brother. Attitude of the Crowd. Tancred and Rudd were easily too good for the opposition in tho - welter and heavy classes, the latter so much so that Dr. M'Lean stopped his bouts before they had time to properly develop, for humanity's sake—and rightly .so, although a section of the audieM? with fairly fierce" instincts and raucous voices apparently thought differently. Tancred's vis-a-vis, Adamson, gave a good display, but while boxing nicely and decidedly gamely lacked force and hitting power. Tho middle-weight contest promised to be very interesting, - but-in. the- third round Kronost, who had a points lead, mainly by virtue of a ' straight left, "cross-buttocked" his opponent, Tuke Morris, of Wanganui, and was ruled out. This was a willing, good-humoured "go," both men showing excellent spirit and a better knowledge of. the game than we have been led to expeot from local "middles.", Kronast's foul was' unintentional, but BtKiisiakable, .and lost him tho verdict, as the little difference there was in points was to his credit.