SPORTS AND PASTIMES

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14776, 15 October 1921, Page 15 (Supplement)

SPORTS AND PASTIMES

BOXINQ. —Continued. picture intereats it would not have gone half the distance it did. Ten or twelve rounds at the most are all the movies want of a prize-fight. Another thing I wish to say is that Willard could have finished Johnson in half the time it took to do it had he been told to go in and end the job. But Tom Jones would not stand to have big Jess take a chance. "Don't you attempt to light Johnson until 1 tell you to," Jones would say to Willard every time he returned to the corner. The Actual Facts. "Remember," Jones'would say to Willard when he bad left his corner, "this light is for forty-live rounds, and I'll tell you when to start," ana Willard obeyed Instructions to the letter. The fact -is Jones held Willard back longer than I considered necessary,' for when the fifteenth round was called it was obvious to all who were present that Johnson was done for. This was so plain to me that I couldn't understand why Jones didn't send Willard in to slog. Jim Savage, who was one of Wile lard's seconds, was standing near me, and, thinking perhaps there was a reason for holding Willard back that 1 didn't know, I said to Savage sometiling like this for the purpose of feeling him out: "Say, Jim, is the big smoke faking grogginess or is he all. in?" "The big black," replied Savage, "is all 'in." Then why don't you send Willard after him?" I said, and Savage pointing to Jones, said: "He's tlie boss." That was the actual state of affairs when the fifteenth round was on. Johnson was as grey as a badger from the top of his head to his ankles at the time, and if those who were there wilt remember Johnson was shiny black when he entered the ring. Willard had beaten Johnson from an inky black man to an old grey man wtrn drooping eyelids in the first fifteen rounds. A few rounds after this Johnson sent for Jack Curley, and when the latter came the big smoke requested him to get his' white wife and escort her from the ring which Curley did. When the bell sounded for the opening of the twenty-sixth round Tom Jones said to Willard: "Now go gc_t him," and Willard did. As soon as they had their hands up Willard lashed out with his left, and they went into a clinch in Willard's corner, where they pulled and hauled for a moment or two before breaking. Instantly after the break Willard let go with his right, catching Johnson on the jaw when down the big smoke went for the count. As early as the eight round Jack Welsh, of San Francisco, who referced the battle, came over to where I was sitting, and, leaning over tthe top rope, said, in an undertone: "Johnson is all In now," and the way tie was wobbling around on his legs indicated very plainly that Jack Welsh had the right dope. For the first few rounds Johnson did very well. He actually fought in his old-time style when he was the champion. But he soon began to die away, and could not have lasted through the twelfth round had Willard gone at htim. I was in Havana for a week before the fight, and probably was as close to Tom .Tones, Jack Curley, and others directly interested in the fight as any-man in Cuba, and never once did I hear an intimation from anyone that the fight was a frame and that W'iHiard was to win. Courage and Determination. My opinion, after seeing both men in their daily workouts, was that the only way Willard could possibly lose the fight was by quitting, and said so in my dispatches to The Morning Telegraph at the time, and, as Willard didn't quit but fought with as much courage and determination as any man ever did who either tried for the championship or defended the title, lie, of course, won, and by a knock-out. And here as something else for these wise people who are insinuating that the fight was a cooked-up affair to ponder. When Johnson was on his way to Havana he stopped for a while at Buenos Aires, in South America, where Tex Rickard was living at the time. "Who is this big fellow, Willard, you are going to fight?" Tex asked Johnson one day. "I don't know anything about him," replied Johnson, "but I guess he's one of those big white hopes that are running around loose in the States these days. I know," continued Johnson, "that I'm not as good as I used to be, but at that I ought to beat this big hope in a few rounds." Johnson didn't say anything then that would lead Tex Rickard to even suspect that the fight was a frame-up. On the contrary, he said everything that would lead Tex Rickard to believe that he couldn't lose. But, what should settle a'l doubt anyone might have about the merits of the battle is the distance it went.

No crooked fight ever went twentysix rounds. As a matter-of-fact, no frame-up fight ever went half the distance. These framed affairs usually terminate in a few rounds. The longest frame up I ever heard of was the bout between Jack .Johnson and Stanley Ketchel. That bout lasted twelve rounds, and was fought for the pictures. That may be news to some of our 'sporting authorities, but it's the truth just the same. That bout with the knockdown scored by Kctchell and the subsequent knockout put over by Jack Johnson bad been rehearsed for two weeks before the fight. Kctchell is dead and can neither deny nor affirm this assertion, but Johnson still is with us; also the man who managed him at the time, and I challenge either to deny the foregoing statement. I have often laughed when reading the thrilling description given by our sport writers of the Johnson-Ketchell twelve-round battle and how little Ketchcll knocked down the giant negro, and a lot of other guff that went with the story. And it's safe to say that Johnson has often chuckled to himself when he also read the same stuff. That Johnson had faked a number of dimes no one familiar with his record will attempt to deny. Hut he didn't fake with Jess Willard at Havana, and if he says he did he tells what isn't true.