The record-union., 1897-03-16
said White, land he will be a little bet
ter, if anything, when he goes into the

decided upon his plan of battle, White
replied, Certainly he has, but you can
not expect that he will say anything
about that at the present time. / will
say this, however that Jim is going to
fight a careful battle and he will take
no chances any more than come to the
common lot of the fighter, when he
gets to work with Fitzsimmons. I can
not say, of course, how many rounds
the fight will last, for it is very diff
cult thing to say who is going to be
the winner and how long a time it is
going to take him to win. l do not
think, however, that it will be very
long fight. The longer it is the better
are the chances of Corbett's winning.
Nov, l know that Fitzsimmons is in
good shape and in my opinion if the
fight depended upon condition the men
would be able to fight until night and
the fight would then be declared a
draw l have been with FitZsimmons
in many of his fights and have helped
to train him. He is in the habit of
keeping himself in training most of the
time and he has such robust consti-
tuition that it never takes him long to
train into the finest sort of shape when
he once starts at it. / understand that
he is rather fine but 1 doubt if he is
any under 100 pounds. He can fight
best at from 100 to 1G4, and his best
weight is at 1872. When Fitzsimmons
is at that weight he is fit to fight any
man in the world, no matter how big
that man may be.
Il consider Fitz at 1872 pounds one of
the greatest fighters the world has ever
seen, and no man has the right to over
| look him in anything. / know that he
has trained carefully for this fight, and
l know what it means when he trains
we'll for anything. 1t means that he is
an exceedingly dangerous man for any
body to tackle.
Il think, however, that COrbett will
beat him without any great trouble,
and when I say what I have about
FitZ you can see what 1 think about
Corbett and his condition. 1 have been
confident from the start that Jim
would win the battle, and l am more
confident than ever now. We will pay
a great deal of attention to his wind
from now on, as without much care the
wind is likely to be affected up here by
muggy weather. Corbett is perfect in
that particular now, and we intend to
keep him So"
The champion was as confident of
victory as his trainer. After his work
to-day he said:
Il never felt so well before, and know
that 1 could not possibly be in better
condition for fighting. 1 am in per-
feet shape for the battle and 1 am
going to win it. There has been some
talk about my over-confidence, but my
critics will see Wednesday that 1 know
what 1 am talking about when 1 say
that 1 will whip FitZ. I have been
waiting a long time to get a crack at
that fellow and it is a sure thing that I
will not lose the opportunity to forever
stop his talking about his ability to
best me- am more than satisfied with
the manner in which my trainers have
handled me and if lose it will not be
their fault
Fitzsimmons wound up his work of
preparation to-day, and announced
that from now on he will do very little
He took short run in the morning,
punched the bag a little and boxed
with his trainers. This was all done in
the morning, and in the afternoon he
did nothing. Fitz is, notwithstanding
his declaration to-day that he would
do no more work, likely to do some
more tomorrow. He is apt to take
sudden notions, and act accordingly
For the latter part he trains himself
and does not allow his trainers to tell
him what is best for him to do. He
is his own training master, and is
probably the only man in the ring who
is so. His conduct in this regard is
against all precedent, but Fitz has
proved conclusively that he is not to be
gagged by ordinary rules, and has
shown time and again that he can get
himself into the best condition with
out any assistance from his trainers in
the point of advice. He is the best
judge of his own condition, and when
he decides that he will be better for
little work he will take it without hest
tation.
The stories of the weight of Fitz at
the ringside have been very conflicting
but the probabilities are now that he
will not weigh far from 100 pounds
and according to the assertions of the
men in his camp he will be rather over
| than under that figure. He fought
Maher the last time at 15S, and when
he put out Dan Creedon he weighed
1541a. This time he will weigh more
than in either of those fights, and from
this time on he will take on weight, al
though it is not expected that he will
allow himself to take on more than
three or four pounds more than he
now weighs. The chances are very
great that he will not be called upon to
concede more than fifteen pounds to
Corbett when they enter the ring.
Fitzsimmons and Corbett narrowly
missed meeting on the road this af-
ternoon. For several days Fitz has
been in the habit of taking a ride with
his wife in the afternoon, and has been
driving through the town and for
short distance out on the road toward
Shaw's Springs. About one-half mile
north of the town there is fork in
the road, and this afternoon about 8
o'clock, as Fitzsimmons with his wife
was driving north on this road and
was still to the south of the fork in the
road, Corbett came down the road from
his training quarters toward the town
The men were very close at the forks
but Corbett, instead of coming on
toward the town, turned at the fork
and went north on the other road.
Fitzsimmons arrived at the fork of the
road within a few minutes, certainly
not over three, after Corbett had
turned into the other road He contin-
ued on the road to Corbett's training
quarters for short distance, and then
turned his horse around and returned
toward the city.