Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-02-14
THE FIGHT ANALYZED.
Too Much Money Up for a
Hard Mill.
SPLENDID SCIENCE SHOVE
The Advantage if Anything in
Favor of Myers at the Finish.
Bets are All Off.

The $4,000 side worlds light weight
championship fight, between Jack Nc
Auliffe and Billy Myers, in North Jud-
son, Indiana, which ended to-day in a
draw, was fought in four hours and
thirty-five minutes. 1t was sixty-four-
round affair, consisting chiefly of light
sparring, seasoned with the most accu-
rate science ever seen in the ring. The
bloodthirsty gentlemen were all disap-
pointed. Each of the contestants in the
battle satisfied his hackers, and the
people most interested seemed to con-
slider this achievement the height of
modern attainment in the ring. If.
howveer, instead of from 100000 to
$4,000 hanging upon the result,
there had been purse of $500
or 30, the general opinion appears to be
that there would have been genuine
fight, and as the talk goes Myers would
have stood good chance of winning.
Dick Roche, the backer of McAuliffe,
openly congratulated Myers in the ring,
and agreed to back him for IS 900 against
any ybody in the world. The fight seemed
badly managed, about the only mastery
stroke of policy apparent being the nam.
ing of Michael G.. Mcdonald, the we'll
known ex-gambler Of Chicago, as referee.
1t was past o'clock in the morning
when the fight began. Upon reaching
Judson the fighters went at once to bed
and slept all the time from midnight till
morning, the outsiders enduring the cold
in tramping the streets or riding up and
down the railroad to carry out in pre-
tense the various pretexts on which the
public officials had allowed themselves
to be "persuaded' that everything was
in accordance with the law. Betting was
seldom 80 spirited on any similar event,
"odds and even" in almost every wager.
One stakeholder alone had Sill 800, an
other $1,000, and there were enough
others to foot up a certainty of $31 1000,
besides the original stake and gate
money of over $4,000.
Abilities backer, bet $500 on the first
blood, and $500 for the first knock-down
for McAuliffe. A few smaller bets were
made on the same issues, and Myers
hackers won both events. Myers scored
first blood in the twenty-ninth round and
first knock-down in the forty-third. This
is the only money of the thousands up
which changed hands on the fight. The
Streator people had been saying that
Myers would, almost at the very start,
break McAuliffe's neck, and smart east
ern fellows claimed to be sure that Nc
Aulife would win in lone bloody
punch" Neither assertion was any
where near correct. The style Of
fighting was usually lead by McAuliffe,
which was either countered singly or
doubiy by Myers. Moauiitfs's appear
ance and action were superb, while N.Y.
ers showed an awkwardness and lack of
finish that would have been fatal but for
the marvellous quickness he was seen to
possess. The high state of training in
which both men entered the ring caused
blow to redden the skin instantly,
but the mark faded almost as sud-
denly as it came, and on the way home
neither principal could have been picked
out by the crowd by the marks he bore.
Twice during the fight Myers failed only
by hairs breadth to knock McAulife
out, but the latter's science checkmated
the strength and quickness of Myers, just
as these two qualities saved the Streator
boy from the powerful jabbing and rip
ping undercu!s of McAuliffe.
The contestants joked continual
ly with each other during the
fight. McAuliffe would say: "Why
don't you fght?" and Myers would re-
tort: II m only an amateur and you're a
~nofonnso,,l - oto Thus ~ v,roooodod
Men got tired and went to breakfast only
to come back to find the fight in the
same innocuous desuetude in which they
left it. There was too much money
up, it was evident to everybody,
to allow either man to rush
the fight and run the risk of an accidental
knockout. At the opening of the sixty
fifth round, referee Mcdonald an
nounced, apparently much to the fight
ers' surprise, that he would decide it a
draw. Each had few moments previ-
ously declined to acknowledge that such
a settlement would be acceptable, but it
evidently was, nevertheless, if not to the
fighters themselves, at least to the men
who controlled them. Referee Mcdonald
said: "Each man had succeeded in
keeping the other from winning"
The Daily NeWs sums up the affair as
follows: Betting men now control the
prize ring, not in the way of jobbery,
but "safe" fighters are the highest pro-
duct of the trainers art, while the aver
age citizen wants action for his money.
The Myers -McAuliffe fight, on account
of it's money surroundings, is unquestion.
ably the greatest scientific lightweight
battle on record, with honors slightly in
Myers favor.