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Show If MONTY REVIEWS FIGHT CHAMPIONS If Johnson Defeats Willard Monday He Will Break a World's Record. VETERAN PUGILISTS Sullivan, Jeffries and Negro Hold Title Longer Than All Other Prize Fighters. T Agp whm Years in Beaten Ring John L. Sullivan 34 14 James J Corbett 31 11 Robert Fitzsimmons. 87 19 James J. Jeffries 35 M Jack Johnson (If WU lartl wins) 37 16 (By MONTY. New York. April 3 It Jack Johnson John-son defeats Jess Willard in their bout at Havana Monday, the negro will break a world's record. He will have held the heavyweight championship at a more advanced age tlvan any other man in history. Last Wednesday . was his thirty -seventh birthday. Bob F1t7.sImmons. who holds the pugilistic longevity record, was S3 years old. plus five days, when he lost the championship. cham-pionship. Johnson will be that old on Monday If Willard beats him tomorrow, he will miss frying the record rec-ord by the scant margin of a single day. Fitxsimmons was born on June 4. 1S62. and lost the heavyweight championship cham-pionship to Jim Jeffries on June 0 1899. Johnson was born on March 31, 1878. Next to these two in point of age when he lost his crown comes .Teffries. who was born In 1875. and was beaten for the championship b Johnson in 1910. when he was 35 years old John L Sullivan was 34 j years old when he was stopped by Jim Corbett, and the latter was 31 years of age, the youngest of the bunch, when Fitzsimmons put him to sleep with the solar plexu9 blow. I Johnson a Veteran. In still another respect Johnson is considerable of a veteran in the game. He has been fighting just a little over a month less than sixteen years, his first bout having been on May 6. 1899, when he lost a five-round no-declslon affair to a third-rater W named Klondike in Chicago. Again Fitzsimmoas is the only one who surpasses sur-passes him for this mark. Fitzsimmons Fitz-simmons had been a ringater for nineteen nine-teen years when Jeffries beat him. Jeffries and Sullivan each had been fighting fourteen years up to the time they were dethroned while Corbett's mark was eleven years. If Johnson's career as champion should be reckoned from the day he beat Tommy Burns in Australia, July 4. 1908, he figures for still another longevity record. That was three months less than seven years ago Corbett was champion only four and a half years and Fitzsimmons two (. years. Sullivan held the title ten years. If the retirement period of Jeffries from 1905 to 1910 is included. Jeff was champion for eleven years. Thus, according to this method of calculating. cal-culating. Johnson has held his title longer than any of the bunch except , Sullivan and Jeffries. But the crown should not be reckoned as belonginc to Johnson after he beat Bums, for Burns never actually was champion, from the standpoint of being the superior su-perior of all other men It will be recalled that, when Jeffries retired in 1906. he refereed a bout between Jack Root and Marvin Hart and presented his title to the latter upon Hart'3 achieving tho victory The entire claim of Burns was based upon a victory vic-tory over Hart. v. ho was a poor second-rater Leaving out the stretch of time just after Johnson beat Burn6, the negro has been champion only since July 4, 1910, or for four years and nine months Forty-five Round Go. Monday's battle is scheduled for forty-five rounds There is little chance, practically none, however, for It to last that long if one is to judge by what has occurred in the past when the championship changed hands. The longest bout of the bunch was that between Corbett and Sulli- van just outside New Orleans on September Sep-tember 7, 1891'. when Corbett wore down the veteran and knocked him out In tho twenty-first round When Johnson dropped Jeff In the fifteenth round at Reno, that made the second longest. It took Fitzsimmons fourteen four-teen rounds to land his solar plexus punch on Corbett and Carson City. Nev., on St. Patrick's day. 1897. Jeff took the crown from Fltz in the eleventh elev-enth round of their clash at Coney Island, on June !, 1S9 That includes all the title-shifts back to the time Sullivan won ihe crown from Daddy Ryan on February 7. 1882, at Mississippi Missis-sippi City, Miss. Nino rounds were required but the round instead of being be-ing three minute periods were the old style rounds under Ixmdon prize rim: rules, a new round bing counted over time either man was knocked 1 down. Queer Kinks in Career, One queer kink in the career of Johnson Is that, although he has been j the most unpopular champion that ever ev-er drew on a glove, he has fought before more bin; crowds than any other man. That Is due perhaps partly to the increase of interest in sports, partly to the greater population and partly to the larger amount of general gen-eral prosperity now as compared to a number of years back. Frobably a more important reason is that a sood many people have paid to see him beaten without any other Idea than exchanging money to be in at the death Of course the biggest gate Johnson ever fought before was at Reno, when he licked Jeffries with a $270,000 crowd present. His next biggest crowd was at Sydney, Australia, Aus-tralia, where he beat Tommy Burns before a $131,000 mob. Other big thrones paid to see him fight Al Kaufman Jim Flynn, Stanley Ketchel and Frank Moran Altogether, Alto-gether, probably twice as much money mon-ey has been paid for entrance fees to Johnson's bouts than those of any other boxer. Monday's huge assemblage assem-blage at Havana race track certainly will help swell the total How records of Johnson and Wil- lard compare While the betting in Havana is reported re-ported to favor Jack Johnson near the eve of his clash with Jess Willard Wil-lard for the heavyweight laurels of the world, there are many points in Willard's favor He Is ten years younger and Is generally credited with having a more powerful punch than the black. He has an advantage of twenty pounds In weight Although Jack Is a big man. Willard Wil-lard is about 5 3-4 inches taller. Wil-lards Wil-lards reach is 83 1-2 Inches, com pared to Johnson's 76 inches. Willard Wil-lard has never been knocked out or even knocked down In tho course of a ring encounter Johnson has been knocked out at least once Without going Into the question of the quality of their opponents, statistics sta-tistics show Willard has knocked out twenty-seven of his last thirty-eight opponents, while Johnson has put away only fifteen adversaries in as many years Probably Willard docs not know his own strength He killed unfortunate unfor-tunate "Bull" Young, with a right up percut. the blow with which he hopes to end Johnson's ring career. Willard Lacks Ring Generalship. But Willard lacks experience, gen erals-hip and boxing technique. These are the factors which may cost him the fight. Jess has a faculty of stepping quickly Inside of a left Jab and lift Ing his right to the head or body It 1 was this blow, which traveled less than two feet that settled Young. Jess seldom used the blow in train-! ing bouts for fear of Injuring his sparring partners. Willard backers point out the Johnson John-son has nevor met a man the size of Jess and say the sight of such a giant before him will Intimidate the black Willard has nover lacked gameness, but neither has Jack. Willard's chances for victory lie in his stamina and his great punch. Johnson Is expected to be there with his smashing right uppercut and it certainly will be a battle worth see- 1 ing. |
