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Show DOES BEATEN FIGHTER LACK ENTHUSIASM IN SECOND TRY? By TAD. WHY is it that a high-class boxer who has been beaten by another very rarely comes back. and pulls a win on his second try? He hasn't lest his punch; he is apparently as fast as ever, vet he is not the same man after that first defeat. Look over the records of any of the topnotchers and after their first lose you see them start the long slide. A prominent lawyer defined old age as the death of enthusiasm. Can it be that these fighters have lost the thirst for. glory? Has their enthusiasm faded? Terry McGovern never amounted to a hill of beans after he was knocked out by Young C'orbett at Hartford. True, Terry did fight many battles after that, but he was not the same McGovern. He fought Corbett again in Frisco, but the dashing, ripping, tearing Terry was a defensive fighter when he faced his conqueror the second time. It wasn't fear, for Terry had no fear in his makeup, yet he faced Corbett all covered up. He was set to cover, not to tear in, and in the very first round Corbett put Terry down on his haunches for a count. Nine rounds later Terry was counted out. t He was not the same man, although he was certain that he could lick the Denver lad. Klaus Couldn't Beat His Conqueror. Frank Klaus, who laid claim to the middleweight titlo', was knocked out by George Chip in six rounds. Later on he met Chip again and the latter put Klaus away in five rounds and had a much easier time of it. Klaus quit the game altogether after that. Joe Gans lost his titlo to Battling Nelson in seventeen rounds. He thought it was a lucky punch that cost him his crown and tried again with the Dane. He lasted twenty-one rounds the second time, but took a fearful lacing. Jim Corbett met Jim Jeffries at Coney Island when the latter was heavyweight heavy-weight champion and licked the big boilermaker to a frazzle for twenty-two rounds. Jeffries wanted to quit, the thing was so one-sided, but Billy Delaney made him stick. With his eyes puffed and his nose bleeding, the boilermaker kept plodding along, and in the twenty-third round, as Corbett bounced off the ropes, Jeff let a left fly and Corbett was counted out. Up to that time Corbett was a 1000-to-l winner. Gentleman Jim figured that if he had another chance he would keep an j eye on the springy ropes and lick Jeff with ease. They met the second time in San Francisco and Corbett was off his feed j a mile. He wasn't there. Jeffries hit him on the head in the second round ; so hard that the glove burst and padding floated all over the ring. There was I a delay until a new glove could be fitted. This saved Corbett from a knockout , in the second round. He fought eight more rounds, but he was not the same Corbett and'went out from a body punch in the tenth. Corbett ?s fear of that deadly left took his steam, his speed, his confidence and his goat. He wasn't the same Corbett who met Jeff in New York by 50 per cent. O'Brien Also Proves the Rule. Most of you remember the wonderful fight Jack 0 'Brien and Stanley Ketchel put up in New York some years ago. Eemember how the tide turned round after round? Remember both men cut and bleeding, -both groggy, when one punch would have settled it? Eemember in the tenth and last round how Ketchel, cut and reeling, drove an uppercut to O'Brien's chin and knocked him cold when the fight had only eight seconds to run? How that crowd howled! "What a bear it was! Eemember, then, when they met the second time in Philly and Ketchel cleaned up the Quaker in three rounds? What was it? Loss of heart? Loss of enthusiasm? Yvhat? Look at the Coffey-Moran fights. Coffey, a better boxer, better conditioned condi-tioned and a winner for two rounds, goes out in the next from a wallop on the chin. Billy Gibson, his manager, was certain that Moran sneaked over a lucky one, so they fought again. This time Coffey won all the way again up to a certain point. He was out-boxing out-boxing Moran and landing three to one, but the right that dropped him before was always worrying him. In the ninth round in a mis that right landed again. Jim was licked. - He wasn't out, but when he stood up again he wasn't the same old Jim, and down ne went four times more until it was stopped. He was knocked out before with the same punch, and that bugaboo was still hovering about, worrying him, whispering in his ear aud taking the heart out of him. Joe Thoma-s. after he had knocked out Honey Mellody and taken the welterweight wel-terweight title, met Stanley Ketchel, at that time unknown and a busher. They fought twenty rounds to a draw. They met a bit later in San Francisco and Joe was knocked out in thirty-two rounds. Not satisfied, he met Ketchel again. The "Assassin"' turned the trick in two rounds this time and was never even touched by Thomas. What's the dope on that return engagement stuff? True, there have been fighters who have won return engagements, but they are few, very few, and very far between. |