OLD BOXERS GIVE WAY TO YOUTH.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 22 June 1911, Page 10

OLD BOXERS GIVE WAY TO YOUTH.

FITZSIMMONS AN EXCEPTION. There was only one Ruby Robert Fitzsimmons. Only one gawky blacksmith, who, at the age of 35, went out and won a world’s championship, and for five years successfully defended _it. Old Bob set a record that will probably stand for all time in the archives of fistiana- Fitz was the Mme. Bernhardt of fightdom. Age did not leave any defects upon him and he was fighting great battles when other men were past the meridian of their years. The freckled Cornishman established a goal that fighters of the present day will never be able to touch. There are few old glove rammers in the ring to day. The rusty arms of antiquity have evidently been consigned to their proper place —'the junk man’s back yard. Age cuts small figure with the exponents cd the man y art of pummeling. Youth is king, and a man’s proficiency is not gauged by his years because all of the children of the God of Fisticuffs are pretty equitably matched in this regard. In the hit and get away game of to-day, a man past thirty is rated as

being on the decline of his powers. He is looked upon in ring circles the same as an octogenarian. Such a man has not a chance of ever ascending to a title, although one does hold one now —Jack Johnson. But the negro is an exception. Only five fighters who are now making their living by sticking gloves into an opponent’s features are over 30. These are Jack Johnson, Cyclone Johnny Thompson, Mike and Jack (Twin) Sul’ivan and Jim Flvnn. Only two are 30 —Jem Driscoll and Rudolph Unho’z- Of those passed the acknowledged period of decadence, Cyclone Johnny Thompson is the eldest. Sycamore, Illinois (U.S.), was the first training quarters of the cyclonic one 35 years ago. Thompson is the oldest fighter of the present time. However, he didn’t start as early as some of his competitors and has only been in active conflict nine years. There is a queer angle connected with the Cyc’one’s history. A lightweight and welterweight until 35, he turns into a light heavyweight, heft registered at 161 pounds. Next to Thompson is the Champion, Johnson. The negro has participated in the sorrows and joys of mundane existence for 34 years. Johnson has come the closest to Fitz’s record. He was 32 when he won the title from Tommy -BurnsThe two antiquated bald-headed

twins, Mike and Jack (Twin) Sullivan, rank next in order in the list. Jack has been stopping cross-coun-ters and moving his hands in faultless rhythm for nearly 13 years. Mike is the junior twin of the ring sport. He only took up the game in earnest in 1901, when the fame of his brother began to permeate his being. Jim Flynn, the Pueblo fireman, is 32 years of age. The fight game has known him for nine years. Flynn is the last of the millers over the one score and ten. Following are the ages of the other oldest ring celebrities of to-day, showing positively that youth is dominant: Owen Moran, 27; Tommy Murphy, 26; Harry Lewis, 25; Willie Lewis, 27; Abe Atte 1, 27; Tony Caponi, 29; Hug® Kelly, 28; Fighting Dick Nelson, 28; Jack Redmond, 27; Battling Nelson, 29; Jem Driscoll, 30; and Rudolph Unholz, 30.

A 20-rounds contest at Melbourne last week, between Billy Elliott and Frank Thorn, resulted in the latter gaining a points’ victory over the New Zealander, after an exciting set-to. * :i: * * Bill Turner the Tasmanian heavyweight, is very keen on getting a chance at showing his sk’Tl against Jack Lester, but so far the American has turned a deaf ear to his haranguings. > $ * Says an eye-witness of the Jim Flynn-Al. Kaufmann fight, in which the latter obtained such a gruelling at the hands of the fireman: —“Kaufman was knocked completely out, a

swinging right uppercut to the jaw, followed by another to the chin, after the Californian was almost helpless earlier in the round, being the finishing wallops to one of the best battles seen at Kansas City between heavies for a long time. From the third round on when Kaufmanj, under a shower of blows, took the count of nine, the battle was all in favour of the fireman.” * * * * In these columns is reproduced a photograph of a group of well-known Aucklanders, who met togethei’ to welcome their old friend, Mr W. W. Naughton, during the latter’s visit to his native town some few weeks ago. In order to commemorate the occasion, Mr Arthur Myers, M.P., exMayor of Auckland, invited the members of the group to Jenkinson’s studio to have their photographs taken, and presented each of them with a copy, a considerate action that was greatly appreciated by the recipients. He * * # Al. Kubiak, who was spoken of some time ago as an American heavyweight likely to visit Australia next season, was recently beaten by Joe Jeanette. The last-named showed that he had the “Indian s sign” on Kubiak by stopping him in the ninth round. The pair had met twice previously, the coloured man winning on each occasion-

The desirableness of white gloves over dark is never more vividlybrought home than in a picture show. The white are easily followed, especially when one of the fighters is a coon. The dark glove is merged in the colored mass, and the eye is unable to follow it, while, as a fact, the ’graph can only faintly suggest it, anyway. V * * * The prospect of a club swinging competition between Tom Burrows and Jack Beamish, the Englishman, in Australia, is causing considerable interest throughout the Commonwealth, and as arrangements are now practically completed for the match, it should not be long before the pair measure endurance. Beamish has accomplished great things in the club swinging world, and when the last Australian mail leftj. he was engaged in an attempt at West Maitland to create a world’s record of 82 hours. Club swinging is at present booming in Australia, and on the 6th inst. Harry Lawson, a native of Macleay, beat Burrows’ record at the Theatre Royal, Kempsey, N.S.W., by five minutes, swinging clubs continuously for 76 hrs. 15mins-, and finishing wonderfully fresh. * * V * Those who availed themselves of the opportunity of witnessing the novel exhibition given by Gardiner and De Mar, jiu-jitsu experts, who have lately been showing on the Fuller circuit in the principal towns of New Zealand, will be interested to learn that a contest will in all probability take place shortly in Sydney, in.which the skill of jiu-jitsu will be pitted against pugilistic science. The proposed match is the result of a £5OO challenge recently issued by Professor Stevenson, a jiu-jitsu exponent, to meet any boxer in a contest for supremacy. This challenge has been accepted by none, other than Bill Squires, ex-Australian champion boxer, who is to fight Lang for the fourth time in August next, his match with Stevenson to take place before he tries conclusions with the Melbourne heavyweight. Squires, who since his retirement from the ring, has been engaged in farming pursuits, expects to be in great fettle by the time for the match with Stevenson rolls round, and has hopes of handing out a sleepproducer to the jui-jitsu man on that occasion. Gardiner and Le Mar’s tour of New Zealand sufficed to convince athletic enthusiasts on this side of the Tasman as to the effectiveness of jiu-jitsu holds when properly applied, and few, after watching their exhibitions, would view with any favour Bill Squires’ chances of winning the contest against an experienced exponent of this modern Japanese art of self-defence. Jack Johnson, world’s champion, is at present engaged on a boxing tour of Great Britain, where he will give exhibitions in the principal towns. It is now just on two and a half years since Johnson won the championship from Tommy Burns in Sydney, and during that period no boxer that has met the clever negro fighter has troubled Johnson in the slightest. The position at present with regard to pitting a man against the negro with any chance of success is infinitely worse than was the case a couple of years back, and with the crushing defeat of Jim Jeffries, it would seem that the only hope of the white race flickered out, as outside of the big boilermaker no boxer has yet seriously been considered a match for the black champion. After exhaustive try-outs the long list of white hopes has dwindled down, and though Carl Morris has perhaps emerged from the ordeal first in the public’s favour, he can scarcely be regarded as a likely opponent for Johnson, which means that there is only one man whose claims are worthy of recognition, and that man is a black —Sam Langford. It would give the white race but little satisfaction to witness a black beat a black for the world s championship, and, therefore, the average ring enthusiast cares little whether the Boston Tar Baby and Johnson are brought together or not. One thing is plainly evident, and that is the present crop of heavyweights, with the exception of the two negroes mentioned, is a decidedly poor one, and indications point to the fact that there is no likelihood of any Bob Fitzsimmons, Jem Corbetts, Tom Sharkeys, Kid McCoys, and other boxers of this stamp appearing on the horizon at present. Meanwhile, Jack Johnson may strut about without a care or worry, and being in a class by himself, there is nothing for followers of the ring to do but herald him on all sides as the undoubted champion of the world.