The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-14
SULLIVAN AND BURKE.
A Tame Exhibition at Chicago-Sullivan Wins
the Match Without Knock Down.

CHICAGO, June 13.-The grand stand at the
driving park and about two hundred and fifty
carriages contained over IL, 900 persons, at 6l5
o'clock this afternoon, when Jack Burke, the
Irish lad" weight ITO pounds entered the ring
to face John L. Sullivan, weight 237 pounds
for five rounds Marquis of Queensbury rules
Previous to the event of the day mixed pro-
gramme of wrestling and sparring had been
given and the crowd was somewhat excited over
some blood easily drawn from surprised mid
die weight from Bloomington, by wiry little
chap introduced as Tommy Warren, an ex-
feather weight from the Pacific coast
The appearance of the champion was the sig
nal for an exhibition of enthusiasm, but when
the Irish lad walked jauntily down the track the
crowd arose as one man and cheered. Some little
time was lost in arranging the preliminaries and
in selecting the referee, Sherman Thurston.
Meanwhile the sight Of the champion lounging
indifferently in his corner and looking like a
giant compared to his adversary, induced album
Der of persons to entreat Burke to keep up
your heart, my boy and you'll knock him out"
At 1923 time was called, and the champion
smiled as he shook hands with the little man in
front of him, and looked as though he would
laugh when the latter danced backward step or
two and made a feint suggestive of a medtated
left handler. He became slightly more serious a
moment later when Burke, cleverly lodging a
dangerous right handler, hit the champion rat
ting blow on the chin with his left. Almost in
stantly Burke was dealt heavy blow on the
back of his neck, which brought him to his
knees and left red mark that is there yet
Before the close of the first round
Burke was wildly applauded on &C
count OF several clever hits lev
eled on the champions face and neck, while
in the act of lodging blows that would have
felled an OK. In the second round, Sullivan
began to realize that his adversary possessed an
amount of nerve, dexterity and science that
that would make up for great deal that he
lacked in weight, but the round closed without
any notable advantage having been gained by
either, except for some more of Burke's left
hand work on the champions face during the
latters recovery from several terrific lunges.
The third round was uneventful At
the beginning of the fourth, however,
it was apparent that the champion had
decided that fifth round would be superfuous.
Though Burke was never squarey knocked
down, he was four times forced against the ropes
and three times fell on his hands and knees
Sullivan forced the fighting, and his blows be-
come so wicked that the referee and Parson
Davies master OF ceremonies, began to look as
thougn tney smelled blood When the men
retired to their corners it was evident that of
the two the champion was the worse wiuded.
In the last round Burke got in two
of his best blows on Suivan's neck
and jaw, but their effect would
scarcely have been more noticeable had they
been exerted on brick wall. The champion
forced the fighting, as in the fourth round and
though a number of times he had Burke against
the ropes and on his knees he was unable to get
in single effective blow, but the match was de-
cided in his favor, owing to the fact that all the
knock downs, such as they WERE were on his
side; otherwise the points were nearly equally
distributed. The Irish lad leaped from the ring
after the decision and walked down the track as
iauntiy as though five rounds with the cham
pion were hardly worth mentioning