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Show I Johnson Could Have Knocked Out O'Brien j Johnson who met O'Brien If he ever meets Ketehel. I : The following Is written by R. H. (Dick) Kain. sporting editor of Tho Philadelphia Record, one of the coun-try's coun-try's greatest authorities on pugilism, and one who fearlessly expresses himself, him-self, regardless of public opinion: ."After seeing Stanley Ketehel beat Jack O'Brien In Jig time at the Na- , tional Athletic club the bulk of the big audience camo away with the . idea firmly fixed in their minds- that here was the very' man they had been look- J ing for to win the chanipioneaip from j Jack Johnson. Their wish was In many cases father t tho thought, for there seems to be on every hand the greatest desire to 'oave the big Texan whipped as quickly as possible. "Ketehel may beat Johnson If they ever meet in tho ring, but his showing show-ing with O'Brien as compared with the showing of Johnson would not be a very good foundation on which to place a big bet. Ketehel took three rounds to stop O'Brien, while Johnson did not stop the white Jack in six rounds. True enough; but Johnson showed very plainly that he oould have stopped O'Brien in one round had ho tried. Perhaps if the conditions had been the iame Johnson would have done so. "Johnson did not train a minute to meet O'Brien. Possibly he did not have to, under the terraB on which the match might have been made. Tho terms of the Johnson-O'Brien match have never all been made public- It was generally understood that Johnson was to get $5,100 for his end of that match arid O'Brien worked on percentage. per-centage. Johnson has shown more than once in his business transactions that, no matter what else he may be, he Is not a fool, Johnson a Good Business Man, "Knowing that Johnson was not a fool when It comes to money matters, there were a lot of people who wondered won-dered why Johnson agreed to take the paltry guarantee of ?5.000 to meet O'Brien in this city, where a $20,000 house was possible and where he and not O'Brien was the card, owing to the fact that O'Brien had recently been whipped by Ketehel in New York, while Johnson was making his first appearance in public since he had won tho championship by whipping Tommy Burns in Australia. "Under these conditions Johnson was worth the big end of the money, and no one knew this better than Jack Johnson. Well, what is the answer? an-swer? It may not be the correct answer, an-swer, but there Is a story going the rounds downtown among, the colored spoiling men. .who lost money betting on Johnson, that the champion got $5,-100 $5,-100 for boxing with O'Brien, and that he got $3$.000 extra for not knocking Johnson out. The story may not be true, but the financial end would figure fig-ure up just about what would be coming com-ing to Johnson as his share of the receipts, which were a shade over $20,000. One of the men who is telling around that Johnson got $3,-000 $3,-000 for not knocking out O'Brien, states that Johnson told the story himself, and gave that as his reason for not extending himself when the men met recently in this city. "Those who saw the Johnson-O'Brien contest could see that the black champion cham-pion was not extending himself, for he knocked O'Brien down and almost through the ropes with one punch In the first round, and then did practically practical-ly nothing for the rest of time till the fifth, when he again hit O'Brien hard, knocking him to the floor and closing one of the white fighter's eves completely. com-pletely. . The fact that John was in poor condition, hog fat and twenty pounds at least overweight, caused some to think that it was this lack of condition which tied Johnson up. but there was abundant evidenco that oven as he was, hewas not trying' to go his best pace, for the work he did was nothing like that which he could and did do on other occasions in thia city Ketehel Too Light. "In his match with O'Brien. Ketch-el Ketch-el showed that he is a fast and terribly ter-ribly hard hitler, but it takes more than that to niako a great fighter. He fights like Terry McGovern did, and something on the same ftvle that Sullivan used when he was in his prime. Just slam. bang, smash, hit wherever you can, with tho right hand dojnj the m)6t execution. Long be-fdrc be-fdrc any of the present-day fighterj were born it was proven that, other things being equal, a left-hand stralcht puncher would whip a rigbthand stinger, and there has never been any fighter produced in the ring in the laet twenty-five years who has proven ' the fallacy of that theory. "It is a matter of ring history just what happened when Sullivan slacked up against a really good left-hand, straight puncher. Terry McGovern's finish camo in one round when he stacked up against Young Corbett. a man who was a quicker and cleaner hitter than himself, and who heat him to the punch, although It "aappened in Terry's case that, it 1 was a right-hand tap on the jaw that put Terrv to sleep thft first f.lTn. In Vila rlno- . c .. enol mav beat Joonsv-.n when he meets the big black next fall, but the ex-cowboy ex-cowboy will have a great handicap to overcome. Johnson Is much heavier than Ketehel ever will be. although Stanley will take on considerable weight, but ho is not tal enough to carry anything like the weight which Johnson totes around. "Johnson is a great deal taller than Ketehel and he can hit even harder than Stanley, and it must not be overlooked over-looked that Johnson is a much cleverer clever-er boxer than the middleweight champion. cham-pion. Ketehel is a good little man. but Johnson ia a good big man. even if he le black, and there is an old ring adage to the effect that 'a good Httlo man can't whip a good big man. Ketehel Ket-ehel Ls a very open fighter, who has practically no defense, for he thinks he does not need any, depending entirely en-tirely on his terrific punching powers to put his mau away. But Ketchel's style is not based on scientific boxing, and. with Johnson trained and in condition, con-dition, a different story mav have to bo written the day after thev fight And Johnson will not be the sort of |
