OCR Text |
Show CORBETT UPPER-CUTS THE WHITE HOPES James .T. Corbett, past master of heavyweight boxers, has Just verbally uppercut the present crop of white hopes. The former champion looked back to the Jays of Sullivan, McCoy, Fltzsimmons, and, of course, himself, and then summed up ti situation by asserting that he deplored the fact there is little encouragement to be had from the heavyweights of the present day. "Gentleman Jim" admitted there are a number of good men, but asserted there is no one among them who stands out as a champion in the sense of the word, as It was accepted ten years ago Corbett spoke of the present crop of white hopes as follows. "I do not want anyone to think that I am living In an age gone by when I express the opinion that the fighting game today is not what it was in the das when I was a fighter. No one Is more anxious than myself to see some really good man of championship calibre, cal-ibre, come to the front, but I think the fight fans will agree with me that the past few years have not brought out any such man Champions Fall Down. "Tbe champions of today that ts, the men who are touted as possible champions are usually beaten and forgotten before they get anywhere. Just about the time some big fellow begins to look good some one else comes along and whips him and then, in turn is whipped by some one else "I think Gunboat Smith is a good man. so Is Battling Levinsky and a score of others, but I hope no one will charge me with egotism when I sav that these men would not have shone very brightly in the days of Sullivan. McCoy, Kitzsimmons and a number of others, Including myself. "In those days a champion was not made in a Ja. He had to fight his way to the top, and everyone of us who reached the top got there by good, hard work, and only after meeting meet-ing any number of men who would tower above those at the top today. |