Salt Lake Telegram | 1906-06-23 | Page 7 | Corbett Tells Latest Lucky Punch Story

CORBETT TELLS LATEST-- LATEST-- LUCKY PUNCH STORY BY JAMES J. CORBETT. (Written for The Telegram.) The readers of this correspondence have no doubt all heard of the lucky punch; how a fighter will be traveling along a sure winner when like a flash his opponent will deliver a wallop that will send the surethlng man to the floor for the count Well, in all my recollections of the ring. I remember of one of these sort of punches that was surely a surprise. In training for my fight with Charlie Mitchell at Jacksonville, Fla., I had as assistants Dan Creedon and his lifelong life-long friend and pal from far-off Australia, Aus-tralia, Tom Tracey. , Tom was one of the best of fellows, and as a second he had few men in the ring that had anything any-thing on him, although he was not widely known in this respect. - He had helped to train me for tbe Mitchell fight, and I was sure that he I had nearly all thecharacteristlcs of a great pugilist In fact, it was his advice ad-vice as much as anything else that put me in tip-top condition for the Englishman. En-glishman. Well, after his stay In my camp and because of his association with Creedon, Cree-don, . I looked to see him reach the top. But it was the "lucky- punch" that stayed him in his climb. He was matched to fight Joe Walcott at Boston Bos-ton some time in April, 1894. Tracey was going along well in the lead and seemed to have it on Joe at every angle, an-gle, when the famous Barbados black, with eyes hlf closed and half dazed from the punishment Tracey was giving giv-ing him, hurled over a punch to the Jaw that ended the fight. There have been surprises and surprises, but the spectators at that fight say that the punch landed by Joe in that battle ended the career of another of those great Australians that played an important im-portant part in the American prize ring during the past decade. Talk about salaries paid fighters of today and of the low purses fought for, , Tom Sayers, probably the greatest great-est of England's champion fighters, comes very near holding the record. 9 9 One of the first big battles Sayers ever engaged In was with Aby Crouch. The contest was fought on the turf and in the open, and a large amount of money was waged on the battle. But all there was In It for Sayers was a five-pound note, which he wagered on the outcome. Can you imagine a battle today to a finish between two well-known fighters for so, small an amount? Yet In those days they were satisfied and they fought with bare j knuckles.