JOHN L. SULLIVAN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 4814, 11 March 1918, Page 7

JOHN L. SULLIVAN.

SKETCH OF NOTRD BONER’S CAREER.

John L. Sullivan, the ex-heavy-weight champion of the world!, _wh° died at Abingdon, Mass., U.S.A., recently, was one of the greatest natural fighters the world has ever known, and as long as the sport of boxing holds, liis name will be remembered. On one occasion, when big matches were slow in coining along, John L. toured the United States offering 1000 dollars to anyone who would stand up to him for four founds. “A Frenchman tried to get the IULU dollars I hung up on my grand! tour in 1883, in Victoria, British Columbia (related! John LI afterwards)- This was the funniest fight I ever hadWhen we struck Victoria, first came the Mayor of the city, asking if .it was a real 1000 dollar Ml I had up to any man who could stay .four rounds. He was convinced by giving him the money to bold. This gave me official standing. The Frenchman was a boxer -with considerable local reputation, and he needed that 1000 dollars "badly. At, tlie theatre that night when I was undressing to enter the ring, we got' a whiff of the dressing room where the Frenchman was making ready. One of my company made ail excuse to get into the Frenchman s dressing-room anfi lie reported that the aspirant for. the prize was he.ng rubbed down with fish oil. The oil idea was a new one for me, and I asked liiy pa] to explain it. “ ‘Why,’ said he. ‘the Frenchman ssecond's say they have piled him so your clouts will just slide off easy, so as not to hurt, and that is how lie is going to stay the four rounds and set the liionev.’ “When the French champion came on the stage he got me going away. He looked like a sardine. Not only was his body dripping with oil, hut around his stomach and waste were yards of red' cloth. Whether the red cloth was intended to represent the British, flag or to keep him from getting hurt I didn’t ask. I suppose that eveijy man in the house with few exceptions outside of my own party expected that mv opponent would surely stay the four rounds. I knocked my man down three times in the first round. The third l time he went down lie stayed down for half an hour. He sent for me when he came to, and in the course of a.conversation I asked him how it felt to go to sleep so suddenly. “ ‘When you hit me one. times, I i t’inlc I see one French soldier. When vou hit' me three time. I t’ink I see a whole French army, he saul. A RECKLESS SPENDTHRIFT. “Sullivan in two years cleared £22,000,” says a biographer, “but I doubt if he had. +he price of a bottle of wine two weeks after the season closed The big fighters of these davs fight for larger nurses than John L. ever got, but they never draw the money to the box office in their road tours that was pelted over the sheet by legions that flocked to see John L. .1 have often been asked if Sullivan, taken in the Zenith of his powers, would conquer thp latter-day boxer. Could lie, for example, whip Jim Jetfries—that is. if Nature woulfi sumI mon back all the physical abilities of ! John Sullivan, combined with his style of figbtin- would lie. defeat Jeffries? I doubt it. . The boxers who are in their prn le to-dav are more clever of hand and foot than the fighters who were in their flower when Sullivan flourished. Sullivan was of the rough-and-ready type, and charged on his victim in a way that ihe boxer of to-day would ayoicl bv side-stepping and slipping out of barm’s wav.. There was more of the stand-up, give-and-take fighting in those days. . But later on the j boxer began to realise that there is as much science in avoiding a blow as ' delivering one. The rough-and-ready I stvle of Sullivan was shown up to disadvantage by Coibett in his fight with ! John L.~ I will n.dmitSullivan was far ' from being in fine physical condition I when he met Corbett. Bur. there was enough of him left to distinguish the old school from the new. '’Hie oldfashioned left-jab, the left swing for the body and right cross for the I jaw, were the main, and, in fact-,, the I only blows that I ever saw Sullivan j use. Then what- business would he I have against- a man of . Jeffries j science? It would bo unjust that j Sullivan with tue old, style could com- ■ pete with Jeffries. Sullivan’s biggest fights included Paddy Ryan, at Mississippi City, February 7, 1882, London prize ring rules | hare knuckles. 5000 dollars aside and champion of America, 9 rounds. Charlie Mitchell, at Chantilly, France, March 10, 1.888, bare -knucKles, 2500 dollars aside and championship,.. 89 rounds, called a draw. Mitj chell looked a sure winner. Jack Kilrain. at R-ichburg, Miss., ■ July 8. 18S9 10,000 dollars aside and , championship of America, bareknuck- ! les, 75 rounds. Sullivan won. j James J. Corbett, at New Orleans, 1 September 7, 1892, 25/000 dollar purse j and 10.00 dollars g-side. Marquis of ! Queensberrv rules. soz. gloves, for j championship of America. Sullivan lost 21 rounds. At Boston in 1878-9 he boxed' Coclcev Woods, Dan Dwyer. Tommy Chandler. Mike Donovan, and Patsy Hogan.