In the Ring

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 43, 21 February 1925, Page 19

In the Ring

Br "Milo."

JEFFRIES AN OPTIMIST

AT HIS PRIME WOULD HAVE LIKED DEMPSEY \

GENEBAL 1 ITEMS pF INTEREST,

I met Jim Jeffries a few days ago. Jim looked astonishingly young and fit. i .naveiit seen. him. in such apparently fine condition since he"-was..champiou pi the .world. . He caraied.jio^iat, and.iiis face was lean without being wrinkled, his akin sun-baked to a da/It brown writes Robert Edgren in the^'San Francisco Chronicle." "What in.the world have you been doing?" I asked. ."Training to come back?" " Just. working on the ranch, outdoors all. day, and takin" caro^of myself," said-Jeffries. '"' I never felt better. : Probably- I'-could put up-a pretty .fair .scrap,.,but:.you...know,, what youth is. I'd like' to be 21 again "and going after Dempsey. We'd have a nico nght. , It wouldn't last more than a round or two, for I know Dempsey would come in and take chances, and I'd meet him in the same way. They didn't fight me that; way in the old days. AH the nghts ,were,.long.iights, and^it wag.the style to stand gff. and; box and.. look ' fbr openings and try to wear the other fellow upwn and then get him. I never had anyone come at me the way .Dempsey would, but if I'd ever..-fought-anybody like Dempsey I would have been glad to meet him at his awnj game. , I don't thing Dempeey could.have put me down in those days. When I was 2i or 22 I was as near punch proof as any man «ver would be.

oi tomans best fighting age. is from 21vt0.26 not over that. I was at my best at 21: to, 24, and. never quite as good afterward. ;I . could, tuna hundred dose-to ten seconds then, and speed makes the fighter. Dempsey isa great puncher, "but I W onder if he can hit any harcier than Bob .'Fitzsimmons. Anyway, ■r *? 0" hardl? place hJB Punches better. 1 thmk iTitzsimmons was the greatest lighting boxer I ever saw. He wasn't a ?ancy boxer like Corbett, but. for effective boxing he had the world beaten I remember after training Corbett to fight iutesimmons, I sat there at.the ringside looking at the fight, and I couldn't understand how Fitz slipped in and fooled Uirbett all the time, tfitz wag crafty— as cunning as a fox.: IJe 'could think a couple of moves ahead of anyone he lought. . -.....■■ .

You remember how everyone thought he knocked Corbett out with.a solar plexus punch? Well, old Fit*- told me years afterwards that he didn't hit Corbett in the pit, of the stomach at all. He_ got Corbett to-leave an opening, shifted, and just stiffened his left-arm out and^caught Corbet on the edge of the ribs on the right side of the solar plexus, to drive the ribs in with the punch. -I used the same punch on Corbett myself in San Francisco, and ,You remember how he went down. TJiat was Bob's greatest punch,, and nobody ever leajned how to use it the way he aid. •. .•.-... : ;

,1 L J as at m. y best the'night I won tub- championship from :FHzsimmons at Coney Island. I don't think any man /.TV?- l! aye Rocked me off. my feet that night. -FitzSihiihohs hit me many a punch, but I can say •'that I never felt one .of .them.: I remember that in one round he swung a punchon ■my-.ehin and caught me perfectly, with everything he'had, The blow raised an egg on my chin. vWheii I tfeh4 back to my corne^ my second said: ' Jim, that Was a bad one onUhe chin.- Did'it bother you much?' ' I didn't feel it at all, .1 said - And that was the Strath.I was p^inch proof that night. • "X read, '.? S^y of yours about trailing, a while ago," Jeffries •' went on. lott had the; right, dope, but let me •tell.you. a few things about training. Jack Deinpsey takes great care of liimm\ d°eSt£ hf* ,He ™™r drinks or ffi"'< J%- doe6n b ' isßiPate, and he boxes and-does some work-all the time. That s fine. | But let mo tell you someWM' ift n °a" dlss»Pate more and hurt himself by^ eating than by drinking. 1 .If-, you -'are a friend of'>. Dempse/s- tell the boy to watch his eating ami' keep away from peopled he wants to stick as a champion. I'm going to tell you Ss^S ab°u t U he time TwL the cham" pionship It's never been told before. I want to show you -*hat perfect condition means. .1 began to train for Fitz'simmons .five months ■ before, the fight, when Brady went after' the: match/ £ tiained two months on- theVroad 'm'the ordinary way. Then I put in three months of the hardest kind of work running, boxing, and above all', dieting for he fight. .The worf was what eveiy [good fighter does. I had Tommy Ryan, and at the start Tommy was faster than LTi V id Cr uld hit mo, whenevei' he ..wanted -to. _ I ■ weighed,,,247 >- p ound 3 stripped .when I..began- the ■ real work of conditioning, und;that ,was my/normal weight—not fat. ■ ■ ■ ■ . 9-, tl,;!f °1' vre?j T nihi * ate lordly, any--1 t£ v I 9"' bi imazed to .know Ww little* a big man really needs' to - eat, nnd how .much stronger a man becomes that people dig their graves.with their teeth. I would eat two small lamb chops for my- dinner,.with all. the fafttumned to each chop, I. had.a. little, fruit and mt t f^r f OU, sfc for «'ontl)B-Tery tt V w faifr-f-M s0 mu«h «<•}' toast that I lost allhking for ,toast, and never A»tCu l'e I,° l\, l|i ■af ain unfil Just .Jatdlv. All through that, hard training ,1 atoas .t le as possible, and drunlcahpostno-' thmg.at all but a .litUe,;cool'.Water,with lemon juice in it. - fi*'J he diT- bef-01f UlB fiellt-'our' cook fiJtod up a big pitcher, of cold water.and lemon ju.ee. I took a small glass of it and sipped because I was so dry that everyi fibre in me' was crying for water ■TdE,lV* T lt iWrt■>«'• s'le said: I drank the whole pitcher,. just to feel .-the coolness of it going dpwn;: and to Si^ d t l7 ih^ c- Theni.slipped out back of the bam and put my finceis down my; throat aad got rid of it 1 eased up on the day of the fight a jittie' and weighed 204: pounds at ringside f weighed after the fight-just 196 .pounds, the hghtset IVe ever been since I was, a boy. I lost eight pounds in eleven rounds, and in the hours of waiting b e . fore .getting into the ring. It was the excitement more than anything else that took the weight off. ■ l "f u Zlimmons fou Sht desperately when he felt he was dippini,^ after I dropped m , Vltv.'- a lah m the second roVi.d nnd he hit me many a hard punch. Hecouldn't land just ,riglffc,i to I had a trick of turning my head with the punch as it landed. Bttt he hitme an-S Jot of glancing punches around the head I never told anyone this before;, but the top and sides of my head Were so | scraped and bumped up by Bob's fists I that I. couldn t bear to comb or brush my hair for a week after the-fight. Bob could sure bit;,.y e t^none of the punches shook me, and even the one that raised an ep on my chin didn't daze me ' £ the least. After the fight I went to a turkish bath in New York for a day and just went into one shower -md' ' plunge and steam after another.. Mr dned- out body must have sopped u» water like a sponge, through the" pores> even in the steam room. I drank -I couples of bottles of. champagne, ■ and '

I weighed 218 pounds. I had put on 22-,' pounds in a singlo day. I always train-.;, ed hard for fights, and got into goody condition,- and-I-always cub my eating! i'T.u W," t(? almost nothing in training.", i IJiat.s the wuy to. train mto perfect con, I aition. But I never felt, alter beatm-. Fitzsimnions, that I had a huid job^ wf I?t any fi Bht. an* I grew, careless. When there were no more heavy. weights the promoters would put on with ■W^.aS JWWfo., .1 trained * ten months-for ihe^Reno-fighV-Bix- yeatii*! prf^ 'ii an-d J? 0k off the weVt. and look cd all right. But I lacked sometliingX It wasn't there.; I've, been living out fa the sun workiag around "the ranch-forK •'rm ,P If V '-y?ars ' Mtinß' and dnnkfnf:: ,?? "»* I need,,and I'm probably 4' ; condition . t£day.. jhjn ;# •hnfi •■^•s-^-" Dem Pscy .lives-as carei:';. .fuily,as I.do he,ought trße'acnampfchf ? t lon?, t»ne- :J. feel that if I'd doneit I would have held the title a goodS .many .years more. : , . >:.. ■ \-..■-■?. "Thero was another cirenmstaricss that affected the fight at Reno," I said,V wi 7 g *3--<- bo:'tli«>i'y that Jeffries-« was- drugged the night before the event. 5- . I'Maybe, • said Jeffrie indifferently^^ that ..was--a" Jong''-lime- agoy <and' IVo ; stopped thmking-about it^rkW**** :■«"*■■« any case;Llacked something n j>* amount of training could bring back 7'ot speed and endurance of all sports and' a: man is at his best at 21 or 22 J.S: haps up to 26. That's the peak. After-: ■ahi'^^? 81 fOJ a eoolintny^: see the toy beaten/-and\nl ess 'he fight^ of U3 T I—i. 11? 1, 1 E° ]ike the rest:' (Xfi ' es?. thl, n88 when he's young 1:. \TJ iW :«>e ■■ranch, while y ou }fe - ought% d l ive!'' hoWyOUh°^ a>llo>f

■: Of the contest between Bert Brown « 'W M-'Carthy, ,of Auckland,, genera 4 al opinion seems, to be that it Wifs not '1 'mpinng. . The pair met a'A^dZ'? the occassion of. the Purdy-lflvnn ma±chf & 41b; M Uarthy, 3st 111b. . Brown VfiSwi showed more science than his opponent '^ was awarded the decision fr tbe seventh' *i W» first round M'Cartiiy sewed: ■* With his right to the body, and followed ' this with a left hook,.but:Brow^S 3 matters by using his'left'effectively and ' * sconug with a, Kght hook. M'G'ail v ' bu?"Jn^ '?i ?^ 'second '■*>&s'% but jn the tlvrd, which opened quietlv,"il Brown warmed up and made the , M ce'-ft He scored with both-hande in the fS» roimd;. but then M'Carthy sent in a left'fl jtnd a. right to. the body. Brow* l,a^ f the advantage' in the'nextiwd.;iounW4i which were not very interesting Tli'u M end camo in the seveiith session -T-he?^ wf erfA.'n^u m^'S iSwhen■ JM'Carthy "went - down- and' l-olleS*^ over. -He was getting to his feet• at'^ i e 'j j ,Was groggy and the referee^ 5 awarded the contest to Brown ; ■■ M <->ood entertainment \vas: provided ''hs% two willing amateurs in a preliminary,^ !;''i tbe recent professional contests in Auck:'"^ land. lh 6j boys, Gordon- Temple aud?* Lewis. London,, did not hurt each: bther • i 1 very mu cu> but they danced arouudmeiv.-i •rily and never cased up from gong, to -! gong m.four rounds. At one.stage of | the proceedings there were cries of <?cock- ■•! a^oodlc-do' from the gallery, but the ij performers were not disturbed. l'Jio •■ crowd was. delighted- with this bout. M which.was won by London. , /-I . Dick Loveridge, the light-weight wjio '■:s will be remembered locally for his sue- - cesses at the last New Zealand amateur" 1 boxing- championships, took the ring afc :' New Plymouth last week. His opponent: Was O. Jia-ggie, runner-up for the Auck-^ land . light-weight amateur ; champion: : o P-?k,, Xhe bo >'s vvent "lto tho ring at Hst'lOlb and ibught four good rctmds ' H-aggie was'.wiy of his" redoubtable opponent and kept in close so that in-fight- .- ing chftracterißed the gi'cater part of the *; boUt. Hero Loveridge scored witli hooks ■' :to the. chin and to the ribs. Wheft the?, fighting opened'up, Loveridge gave aii ''-' exhibition of his pretty distance work, - - but he did not liayo it all his own way, -v for Ha-ggio frequently scored'with nicely '■)': timed letts to the side of the'face. -.Hag- -^ gie made things interesting in the fourtliS V round,' when he 'boxed in more open' ,; fashion and scored with both hands, .bub': S .Loveridge kept the score in: the round-^ fairly' oven." Haggie would- probably X have done better had he adopted -■ this - course all through,' .... ■■■' ■,'■,;.,.. ti-i A; Duggan; ofAurda; who but-clussßd % - Corliss, of Wanganui.i in a'iour-round':"; welter bout at^New Plymouth last.week, .:! has entered a* challenge to meet DickW Loveridge, and ■has agreed- to make lOsti A really fine exhibition of boxing was v 3 given by.;two lads, J./TuTjSitt .and,.^^ Robinson, in 1 an' amateur, bout ,-at'Gisr -g borne last week. Tho "weights were :—>, ] fTurbitt\ (8.6),.-Eobinson;(B.4). ;lur,bitt's<! right was used to good effect/ and, hei'Sl varied it with a. pretty left. Robinson S2 ■was inclined to swing^.wildly. at timesjSS. but he wae willing. Thejfighlf went ,to-?B .Turbitt....... v.'-.f■:■.;.,;,:;.--■, S.'^m

;■ Boxing :promoter to-packed--" housei,v'i "Ladies and'gentlemen,. 1. regret to', have '$. to announce, that the, heavy weight, figh'tij .will:not,.take'place. Unfortunately the Sj prmcipals have had.a quarrel!/1 -. ■■^■-',-.-■0