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Show Jim Flynn's One Chance Is Johnson's Fast Life Unless Negro Has Deteriorated Like Sullivan, Cor bet t and Others, Fireman Has No Show. H By W. W. Naught on. Bv International News Service. SAN FRAXi sVGO, April '27. So rar M cu be .iudped at this writing. the Jobnson-Flynn matrb for tbe fbampionsbip of tbe world is a fixture. Tbe financial .'irrangetnents. whatever they inn' be. were agreed upon long ago. Tbe only thing that clouded tbe atmosphere was the question of a battleground, and now all uncertainty uncer-tainty on this score acema to have been removed. The passage of a law in Xew Mexico providing for the handling of pugilistic enterprises in that section sec-tion opened a new field for tbe wajodermg knights of the padded mitt and when, on tbe day the Tripp measure went through "the bouse " at. Santa Fe. .fa' k orJey named Las Vegas the place of meeting for the championship there wus a suggestion of team work aud the eternal fitness of thing?. Nothing succeed liko success, and now that Purify has BUf Ceedod in paving the ay for his champion-I champion-I ship venture he will compel cfH-its cfH-its and sporting men generally to .sit up and pay attention to the heavyweight event, ll will be pr! ty hard to eradicate the ppijgioll that Fireman Flynn is not a worthy adersary for the btaek-ekinued world beater, .lack .lohnsou. Tiw only pnasible way to induce the public to regard Flynn's chauces with any degrt of ierioiwniMii t to cause speculation w arise, as to the fleet that a couple ot YMtn of ind.-ifnec ai ; -luxury baVt hnl ujcii Joliuson and .lohnM-j"? upper-cuts. upper-cuts. IP THERE were good grounds for thinkiug that Johnr-on can tnko up his work again and perform as dexterously as he did ngainst .leffnes at Reno this match that bangs in the balance would be a fit subject for investigation by some of the societies that make a specialty of preventing uncalled-for uncalled-for cruelties, But there's the rub, In Finn's case there is a reason for believing believ-ing that he is improving aa ' fight cr, The best evidence in favor of this assumption fori be found in his- defeat! of Al Kaufmann and Carl Morris. In both affairs the fireman performed in a workmanlike workman-like manner. At (hat, howovnr. the gains he hae made would nvail Mm nothing if Johnson could be .minted .mint-ed on to display his eld-time form Johnson has passed hih thirty-fourth thirty-fourth year and has not been in the ring for two years. John l. Sullivan was thirty-four and had been out of the harness for three years wheu be lost o Jim Her-bett. Her-bett. There is al,vas a disposi tion to attribute the detent of ,i champion to physical deterioration and slowing up. It was so when Sullivan loT. to Corbett, and tbe chances are that Sullivan, if he had been a few yoars younger and he had not enjoyed a three-year layoff would, have made things far mere interesting for Pompadonr Jim. Jim (Jorbett waa only a few months past his thirtieth year when he lost ha laurels to FitB-aimmons. FitB-aimmons. Thia was in March, 1SD7, I and three yearn bad elapied since Corbett defeated Charlie Mitchell BO signally at Jacksonville. e WELL, it mav be that Fitzeim-mons Fitzeim-mons would have proved Torbett's master if they had met years sooner, but I have mv doubts. In speed and clever- ness ".orbett did not show any par-licular par-licular falling away at Carson itT, but in nerve force--in the ability to endure fatigue and remain proof ?gaio?l exi itement, he was a mere mockery of the lad who tronneed Sullivan nnd Mitchell. Fitsurjromons was 37 when he went under to Jeffries at. Coney Island, and had been out of the rine a couple of years. It is a hard thing to fgnre in the ease of n freak-, indiyi.joal like Fitzsimroon?. There was fcomfthmc about the fellow that age could not wither, and a jlaee at his record will suggest that so tar a?- pngiHstic prestige is con-eerred. con-eerred. be had as many lives rig a cat. But the -tyle of fight put up with -iff trie? indicated that bi two vpflr holiday had taken th-i edge off his fiphting prowess. A year later, when he made an active campaign, it will bo remembered remem-bered tbnt he knocked out a whole lot of fellows in short order, tbe litl iueludinc Tom Sharpy and Qua Rnhlin, both of whom were disposed of within a week. . - . JIM TFFFRTES was a few months o'. er the twenty oine-e;ir oine-e;ir notch when he boxed Jack Monroe iu San Francisco. Shortly afterward he retired, lit-erally lit-erally became there was nothing in the shape of a human fighting aninuil that eonld hold n candle to him. six years later, at the clamoring clam-oring of press and public, and because be-cause he wanted the money, be came forth to give battle to Jack Johnson. Now. this is a painful subject, but if there was anyone at Reno who saw anything about Jeffrie to recall the pulverir.er of six vears previous, he has not been located. Of course, six ye.ars is enough to put a man out of touch with sny kind of a game, but in the present instance it. is not a ques tion nf what difference six-vears will make, but what two yearo will make. It may bo that two years would have made as much inroad on Jeffries on fighting fores as six years. .erordin to popular opinion I hrorj year a knocked nil the championship cham-pionship class out of John I.. Sulli van and Jim Corbett, and this, too. when Sullivan was tho same age as Johnson is now, ami t'orbett was nearly four years ynunuer. In vicrv of v.-1 n t has happened down through the championship years, this does not seem a fallacious fal-lacious line of reat-oning. In a man of .Johnson "s habits and age. a two years' enr i his activities i sure to work to his detriment to some extent. How nicch has Johnson depreciated depre-ciated since he boxed Jeffries? How much would he have to depreciate to make Flynn an even money - ' |
