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Show BP CAN FRANCISCO. Tha giny is in ' Tom Sharkey's hair nt an nye of 68. but the barrel chest still remains. The must famous of nil the fighting I' 1 ' sailors still looks toucher than a battleship. bat-tleship. Shn rkcy fought them nil Jeffries twice. Corbett, Fitz-simmons Fitz-simmons the top of the list. "Your toughest fight," I suggested, "must have been that 25-round battle at Coney Island?" ... "It was in one Cirantland Rice .. 0, , .. way, Sharkey said, "but In another way I had an even tougher scrap. 1 kuow this was the hardest fight I ever lost. It was against a fellow known as Mexican Pete a tough guy. The referee was even tougher. He wai -v Horse Johnson. Around the middle of the first round I got set and nailed Mexican Pete on the chin with a full left hand. The back of his head hit the .floor and Mexican Pete was colder than a mackerel on Ice. But Horse Johnson leaned down and lifted Mexican Pete's right hand. 'Here's the winner,1 Johnson said. "I was ready to kill him. I rushed at the referee and said, 'You're either ei-ther crazy or crooked. That was a clean knockout,' " 'I say Mexican Pete won,' ,lx Horse Johnson said. "And as he said it he pulled out a forty-five and stuck it in the pit of my stomach. I didn't even think twice, for we were fighting In a tough town where everyone had backed Mexican Pete. Tfou're right,' I said. 'Mexican Pete wins.' "Those were tough days in the fight game," Sharkey recalled. "We fought in rain and sleet and snow, and no champion ever aspired to be a gent. We fought with a bunch of guns around the ring, looking for trouble. They were hard days very hard days. " The Jeffries Fight "I still think I beat the greatest heavyweight of all time," Sharkey said, "when I fought Jim Jeffries at Coney Island. I know Jeff cracked three of my ribs. But what are three cracked ribs? For that fight I weighed 169 pounds and Jeffries weighed 208. I had to spot big Jim 39 pounds. But the point I'm making is that I was the aggressor - through 25 rounds. Remember that line Paul Armstrong wrote about me 'Round after round Sharkey came on like the surf.' "Jeff stood and waited. I had to do all the rushing all the leading. They gave me no credit for that And it was still close. I still believe the fellow who forces the fighting should get more credit than he gets today. Suppose I had stood and waited for Jeffries. There would - have been no fight. The Iron Man "And yet I think he is the greatest or at least one of the greatest heavyweights that ever lived. Jeff was big, strong and fast. He was dead game and a murderous puncher punch-er with that left hand. He was hard to hurt. I don't believe there ever was another fighter who could take the beating that Jeffries could take. As some said about him: Yon might -s well be punching a hydrant. "He wasn't even close to the real Jeffries when he fought Jack Johnson. John-son. He was the "hollow shell' they called him later. A middle-aged fellow who had been out of training for five or six years. I know Jack Johnson never beat the fellow I fought at Coney Island not by 10 miles." Give and Take I asked Old Tom, the sailor, what It took to make a good or great fighter. A- "Many things," he said, "and that's why there are so few good fighters. First of all there must be heart and speed the fighting heart, pins fast hands and fast footwork. After that there must be the ability to take it. A good fighter must be able to punch and also able to take a punch. These are two of the important im-portant things the old give and take. "There's another thing," Sharkey added. "The good fighter must have good legs. I've always been a great believer in road work. Most of these modern fighters don't even know what real road work is. I mean 10 or 12 miles a day. And through many days or many weeks. Or even many months. I'd say Gene Tunney was the last of the crop who knew what condition meant. Tunney worked hard for six years to be ready for Pempsey and he really worked. Success and Softness ' "The boys today don't want to be bothered about this road work stuff. They'd rather ride. If you haven't got good legs you haven't got a chance. I don't know who'll beat Joe Louis but the one who does will have trained a lot harder and will have better legs. Too much success Is bound to make you soft in time. "I know that nobody trains today the way Jeffries, Corbett and I trained for a fight I mean road work, shadow boxing, skipping the rupe, sparring partner workouts. |