Show w S 'S An Authoritative Sport S SS the Foremost Foremost Fore Fore- S Fea Feature ture by most Sporting Writer Writer 5 L' L and Cartoonist in America S Men May Not Have Been Better in the Old Days ButS But S Our Ten-Round Ten No NoDe Fighters Certainly Were Our Were Champions Are a Joke When Compared to toS S the Finish-Fight Finish Artists of Fifteen Years Ago AgoS' AgoS Ago Ago- S' S You Cant Can't Make a Fighting Champion by Bringing I S Him Up on Croquet or Tiddle de S S I. I By ROBERT EDGREN The breed of men today is as good as ever and perhaps a little bit better But the tle b boxers of today dont don't compare with the thc boxers of fifteen years ago The difference is caused by the different ring conditions Today all of th the bouts are short and there are no decisions In the old days twenty-five twenty and twenty round bouts were common and in the West forty five rounds or to a finish was the usual thing in a championship match Decisions and twenty rounds or more of fighting mad great fighters They had to struggle hard to reach the top Today a champion is half an accident sometimes accident sometimes entirely an accident and we have a laughable situation with supposed contenders for championship honors devoting themselves exclusively to short bouts ife V nn no wonder the nf of today is s a laugh lauah compared to the real fighting man mar S of fifteen or twenty years ago Jess Willard looks more like a real champion than any of the others and we dont don't really know how good J Jess Jessis ss is and how he would compare with the best of the I would j class him below Jim Jeffries who won won the championship in his tenth fight and who met several pretty good men in the other nine Jeffries was Vias a more powerful man than Willard although four or five inches shorter and about I I twenty five p pounds lighter when in his best fighting condition Jeffs Jeff's strength was amazing He was tremendously muscular all over and had a world of speed and unlimited endurance Jeffries could stand an amount of oC work vork that make WilLard VilLard very weary judging from the training I 1 have seen them both do 10 championship fights Jeffries thought nothing of covering covering coy coy- cov cov- coyIs ering ten or fitten miles on a run and hed he'd run at a fast cUp clip nearly the entire distance Although he weighed about 22 1 pounds stripped striped and was all muscle a great athletic authority Walter Valter Christy told me inc that he believed he lie could train Jeffries to run yards in ten seconds I flat Jeffries always alwa's had speed When lie he was t as a youngster training with Jim JimS S Corbett while Corbett was preparing for Cor his fight with FitzsImmons Jeffries could I run lun away from the lighter champion on the road and easily beat him sprinting Jeffries became a very effective boxer I and he had a tremendous wallop when he wanted to use It He lIe could hit fully fuBy as hard with a left hook hool as with a right The only man who ever extended him in ina ina ina I I a fight was Fitzsimmons and he knocked FIts Iltz out twi twice e. e He retired from the ring at last because he was regarded as so far 1 I I superior to all hu other heavy weights that 1 no one could give him enough of a fight to make it Interesting to the public While I S Jeffries tried to come back six years I later lie he was a a. different man from the S Iron Irol giant of the earlier days Hard Fights Made Jeffries a Better Fighter Than Willard Willard might be as great as Jeffries Jeffries Jef Jef- fries fIles if he had the fighting fighting- to do that made Jeffries great Standing 6 0 feet 7 inches and weighing pounds in good condition his bulk alone makes him for for- forC And he has speed and kno know kno ledge of boxing But Willard Villard isn't the trie sur surly aggressive fighter Jeff was lIe He isn't naturally a fighting man lies lie's humorous hu liu- liu liue and good natured A fight looks like e a joke to him Even the fight in Havana nna couldn't l keep the smile from Willard's Willards face and he laughed several times at Johnsons Johnson's sallies We dont don't know exactly c how o to o class Willard la be because because be- be bb cause he never has a a and never will h l be extended He will retire from the ring because he lacks Jacks the real fighting spirit that makes a champion like to show his wares Willard Is lazy Hes He's fond of an easy life He is making a lot of money in a circus Hes He's satisfied and is growing fat When Jeffries was champion he fought often Willard wont won't do It The Present Middle Weight Champion Is a Joke Drop to the middle weights Al McCoys McCoy's right to the title in that division Is clear as he knocked out the champion and hasn't been knocked out or fought for fora a decision since And Ami McCoy Is A joke H Hes He's a southpaw with a It wallop that he can cant can't t land on any clever fighter who Is looking for it He knocked out Champion George Georga Chip with one left leCt swing on the chin chin chin-a a fluke Since that time he has been picking the fairly easy ones and ha has 1 I stayed In the short game What does Al McCoy amount to beside any of f the ob middle ld weight 1 1 kings l 1 There r was Dempsey e Fitzsimmons z S lc- lc cOY oy Tommy Ryan Wonderful men every even one Each a real fighter brought up to fight at the drop of a hat over any route for any purse offered They rhey all fought heavy weights too Fitzsimmons was u et middle weight when he won the heavy weight championship of or the world In the welter weight class of fifteen or twenty years ago we had such men mea as I Mysterious Billy Smith Matty Matthews Rube Ferns and Joe Walcott Each was I Ia S a knocker out a a real chamE cham chain S IS E pion o Jack dk Britton today m is fg a very ryr clever boxer r and a good hard fighter t fearing nothing nothIng but but he wouldn't get far lar In the tho company named above They'd go over him rough shod Walcott last of oC the old line of long distance champions knocked out and a a. few other heavy weights and was T perfectly willing to tc t fight Tom Torn Sharkey Jim Jeffries or anyone any any- one else They said It would look rid ridic ridic- Ic- Ic ulous the the same thing modern heavies heavier 3 say ay about fighting Dillon Walcott was war just five feet feel one inch tall taU and weighed I pounds He had a sixteen inch bleep a a. 1 sixteen inch neck and an enor enormously I dynamite muscled flet torso alt all right He lie I He was a was a a aPi reat a package creat bod body f r f and frequently cracked his rivals rival ribs There were just two other fighters near his own class claes who had his number i an could occasionally trim him They were Tommy West and Kid Carter I Welsh Taps and Runs Nothing Like That In Old Days I As AI for the light weights our present champion is Freddy Welsh of England I I Freddy is very ery fast and very clever He lIe used used to fight in the long bouts and he hel won many decisions It took a a. McFarland to him He won the tite title from fron Willie Ritchie in England on points Since Sine acquiring that valuable Welsh has been as money getter timid as RS he was formerly for for- merly bold lie He has stalled i through score of S1 a 1 bouts and has avoided ia decIsions Smi 8 Only once has he shown his class and that was In n a a. ten round no- no decIsIon other bout with Benny Leonard an S H fighter who doesn't know what it means to box over ten rounds What a. a joke it Is to even think of COIn COIn- paring to tire the real champions Tack McAuliffe Lavigne Erne Gans like JUte and Battling IFT- IFT fid Nelson IS Erne who plon pion fifteen i was champion cham- cham years ears ego ago was wag t far faster and more clever than Welsh and was a genuine fighter Always s ready to take any ring ne risk and fight tight any distance He could box hox and he could fight A smooth handsome handsome hand hand- bo some Bom boy Erne had the strength of a middle weight and didn't show it until It IK wanted to win a fight with a knockout He never stalled like ilk Freddy and he heI her her I r S S didn't know what a bout waa WM 9 They didn't have them in his da day Kilbane a Dancer Dancer McGovern McGovern a Fighter Johnny Kilbane our present feather feathe featherweight featherweight S r weight champion is said to have real fighting ability Unfortunately Ive I've never neve neverseen neverseen seen him show It In all the bouts Ive I've I 0 seen him box through he has danced as ar astonIshingly astonishingly as- as well ivell tapped a a. few times grinned widely and has lias done nothing g I t tse te e at all alt That has been his system n since becoming champion lIes lIe's a a. met mere a Joke compared with George Dixon meta and a Terry McGovern who were rattling fight fight- ers Little Chocolate was one or It of the greatest fighters that ever lived McGovern ern was wonderfully aggressive an and I an amazing hitter with either hand B He Bit e usually won with a clean knockout It was a habit McGovern l didn't know ho hod how w to stall He never tried to He started starts d with a furious rush at the first bell an and Id never stopped fighting at top speed uni until something dropped As for the bantams there bantams there were a a. score e of them fifteen years years ago ago who would easily easily easi easi- I- I ly trim up Kid Williams WilHam or Ertle Ertl e. e And they used to fight twenty or twenty twenty- tAnd t- t five rounds for a a. championship and a purse of it was different in tho those te days s Fighting was a matter of inclination L- L I I tion not not a cold business proposition I I 1 Copyright 1916 by Press Publishing Co j S I |