BOXING

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 90, 12 October 1929, Page 25

BOXING

Br "Aeneas" IN THE OLD DAYS

STRENUOUS TRAINING

MILES OF ROAD WORK

The lads used to do a lot of work for what little money they earned fighting. Old-time records of the bare knuckle days show that fighters didn't have much luxury in training camps, .writes Robert Edgren in the "San Francisco Chronicle." Take John C. Heenan, for instance, when he went over to England in 1860 to fight Tom Sayers, English champion, for what the publicity of to-day would announce as "the championship of all the world." John went through a daily training schedule like this: .

Up at 6 a.m.: Two hundred stretching exercises with light dumbbells to loosen muscles and increase circulation. Dress. Walk of three miles on country road. Half a dozen 100-yard sprints at top speed. Hard rub down if perspiring. Half-hour rest and breakfast. Half-hour later, bati in tub containing soft water with.rock salt dissolved in. it. Puts on sweat suit. At 9 o 'clock starts on road with one trainer for ten-mile walk, , carrying eightpound dumbbell in hands. Four miles at easy pace, then, faster. .;, Last four miles with face covered with white flannel sweat mask to make flesh lean. Jogs at pace of ten minutes to the mile, finishing with last mile at top speed. In training quarters sits beside firo to increase sweat. Hard rubdown, followed by glass of sherry with raw egg in it. At 11.30 begins hard work with heavy dumbbells, clubs, and punching bag. Rest and reading. Dinner at 1 o'clock. An hour later' starts a walk of eight or nine miles returning at 5 o'clock. Light meals bed at 9. ■■■ • ■ - ' . '

Sayers's training was much like Heenan's, with a few slight variations. He did the long walks and runs, being rubbed down • afterwards with a rough towel, and then with horse hair mittens such rubbing as few could endure." After the rubbing his skin was moistened with Irish whisky and he dressed, havers covered about twenty-four miles a day on the road, not including a "gentle walk" of four or five miles after a meal of tea and dry toast in the evemng and "a ramble" for ah hour before dinner. Both fighters ate plain meals, dry toast, tea, mutton chops, or roast beef. No ale and very little to

In London prize ring days it was important to have hara, tough skin and bodies, arms and legs fit to go to a nnish, no matter how long the fi<*ht Might be. Heenau and Sayers, by the .way, tought thiity-seven rounds, at the end o± which time Sayers was hanging on the ropes helpless, like Freddy Welsh was when knocked out by Benny S" **» lightweight W in ™> <,£*■* J heaio^ tore down the ft££'i 4 P? hee. a PPe=»-ed, and the reo°eL?on\tX eial■■«»*«*« ned from the ring by his seconds, helploss, and Heenan claimed the championship, jumped over- the one rema£ 2/» sll, 6d through the threatening crowd, and ran 600 yards to the rail TZt tho'%' £ h0 refe*eo later *>«S that the fight was over when he left the ring and that whatever happened afterwards was unofficial. That lefUt m ™" In more modern times fighter's

wiill Corbott, opP o,,a D«l«,"° £$' .Perhaps too much drying out on the ;Wi?J£fff B.ffi»J2C

diH } y \2' , ran moro than Corbott did. Fitz always believed in a lot of running. Ho had many o f the oldtuno pme nng days ideas^-in f act , he started with baro knuckles in Now Zealand, just as Corbett did in San Fran-

I reinomber seeing Fitzsimmons start his training to fight Gardner for the light-heavyweight title. Old Bob took quarters at Croll's Gardens in Alameda, and was ready for work His I?,". 1"™ g Btuff was flayed on the road Old Fitz wouldn't wait. He went out for a long ten or fifteen mile run on the road—and when Fitz went for a run ho ran! Bob had on a pair of tight patent leather shoes. They cut his feet to pieces. Always callous to pain or injury; Fitz ran all the way and came home with the blood trickline from his shoe tops. Next day he patched his feot up and wont on the road again.

Tom Sharkey, Fitz, and many oldtimers rubbed salt brine on their faces to toughen the skin so that it ■wouldn't cut too easily. Jeffries liked running ,and climbing. He would run all day over the mountains, carrying a heavy rifle, and como trotting back with a 200-pound buck over'his shoulders.He had unlimited endurance. He trained so hard for fights that the last two or three days, dried out and denying himself water, he'd be as ugly as a trapped bear. . S

Sullivan never liked training after his first two or three years of fighting. He preferred celebrating before and after fights.. Bill Muldoon, now New York Boxing Commissioner, and the best one New York has ever had, used a baseball bat to drive Sullivan to work on the road. But even Sullivan could work when ho had to. Under Muldoon, John nearly ran the soles of his feet off. Muldoon put him in the ring in condition, and wouldn't handle John at all when he was convinced John was through. The Two Tommies. Tommy Griffiths 'and. Tommy Donovan, who meet to-night at New Plymouth, met previously as amateurs in 1925 at the championships. Griffiths won on points, and then went on to win the title from Mark CarroU. Griffiths is to meet Frank Taylor at Te Aroha on Wednesday next. " ■ . , Is He a Champion? "It is doubtful if any other boxer in New Zealand has entered the professional ring with such a boost as that which the last Olympic champion, Ted Morgan, has been accompanied," writes "Uppercut" in the "Napier Daily' Telegraph." "For weeks he has been nursed along and boomed to the skies, but when he made his debut on Saturday night there certainly appeared to be plenty of good reason, for he very early finished off Steve Hughes in quite a business-like way, but at the same time even such a convincing victory over Hughes docs riot stamp Morgan as a champion." The Napier writer seems to forget that Morgan won a world's amateur championship at the Olympic Games, and if this does not stamp him as a champion it is difficult to say what does. When one considers that Fidel I*a Barba, ex-fly-weight

champion of the world, Jackie Fields, welter-weight champion of the world, and You Porat, who recently defeated Tom Heeney, were all Olympic champions in one year, one gets an idea of the standard required to gain the highest honours the amateur side of the game: can give. .As for the "boost" alleged to. have been given to Morgan, "Aeneas" a.l least has failed to see it. Morgan got what he deserved. Lougnran Poor Hitter. Of Tommy Loughran, who was easily beaten by Sharkey, "Snowy" Baker writes: Tommy is the best boxer in the heavy-weight game to-day. ■He could out-point any of the big fellows from here. But, my friends, Tommy cannot break an egg with his punch—and that is what the customers here in America pay to see when they go to a heavyweight fight. The American fight public expects a heavy-weight to be a terrific hitter such as Denipsey, John L. Sullivan, Jim Jeffries, Bob Fitzsimmons, and others of fame were. v Phiii Stone. On his showing against Ted Morgan, Phin Stone should not want for .contests, and it is up to the Wellington Association to encourage him. Morgan will very likely get plenty of offers further afield, but a contest or two in his home town would bring Stone on. It was unfortunate that he should be beaten in the first contest'as a professional, but someone had to win. This was Stone's second defeat in 32 contests—a fine, record. Contests for Morgan. Ted Morgan has been signei up to meet Reg. Trowern at Greymouth on 26th October, and in November will probably be matched at Gisborne with Artie Hay for the welterweight title.

There is some doubt as to whether Hay can make the weight, although he says' he can. '. ... ; Presentation to G. Thomas. . - '' Prior to the professional contest on Thursday night, Mr. Arthur Cartayrie on behalf of the Wellington •Association, presented to George Thomas a gold • medal given by Mr. Frank M'Parland for the winner of the provincial amateur lightweight championship. Thomas! was given an ovation by the crowd. M'Knight's Challenge. Nelson M'Knight, the Hamilton welterweight, who fought successfullyin, Australia and' America,' but who has been out of tho game for a time, has been getting into' trim again. He has been sparring with Ted' Morgan, and is now willing to meet any'welterweight in the land. . '- ■•_■■■_ '