OLD TIMERS DIDN’T FIGHT SO VERY OFTEN

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 417, 27 July 1928, Page 1

OLD TIMERS DIDN’T FIGHT SO VERY OFTEN

Although our present crop of world's champions engage in very few contests during a year, it cannot be said that such was the case when they were aspirants merely, for then they battled hard and often with all and sundry. The fact that world’s champions so rarely risk their titles seems to be that when a boxer has won through to the topmost rung of the ladder he declines to be hustled and bustled into engagements, because he feels that his reward lies mainly in the fact that, having reached calm water at last, he can rest on his oars and engage in a contest practically when and where he chooses for a stake almost as large as he cares to name. The old champions never fought so consistently as do the men of modern times; in fact, many of the very best of ancient days hadn’t very many more really live contests in the whole of their careers than some of the presentday boxers have had in two or three years. In 14 years J. Ij. Sullivan engaged in 28 short encounters, while Corbett took part in 27 bouts in 17 years. Tommy Burns averaged about four fights a year, and Jeffries averaged three a year, so it can bo seen that even if the champions risk their titles rarely it is nothing new, for the old-timers, either through choice or force of circumstances, did exactly the same.