The San Francisco call., 1897-05-19
The Los Angeles Heavy
Weight Wins in Nine
Rounds.
Leonard Was in Very Poor
Condition, but Lasted the
Limit.
A Big Crowd Saw the olympic Club
Entertainment-Lawler Beat
Reilly.

Fifteen hundred ringsters crowded into
Woodward's Pavilion to see the boxing
entertainment of the Olympic Club last
evening and sweltered through three more
or less interesting bouts.
Two OF the six participants were in no.
ticeably pad condition, Mike Leonard be-
ing so fat that the hard fight with Joe
Cans trained him down at least five
pounds during the twenty rounds.
Henry Baker, the Chicago heavyweight,
who was scheduled to 20 twenty round s
with Jeffries, the Los Angeles giant, had
rolls of fat hanging over his belt as he sat
in his corner, and he had bellows to mend
before the fight lad been in progress fif-
teen minutes.
1t is this matter of allowing pugilists to
enter the ring in bad condition that puts
boxing in bad repute. Every little while
some pugil1st is killed as result of un-
dertraining, and then a cry goes up
against the brutality of the sport.
Both Leonard and Baker looked as
though they had trained on steam beer,
and their actions in the ring bore out the
supposition that they had. 1t was
rumored before the gong sounded for the
was of, because the former could not
weigh in at the limit of 1873 pounds, but
both appeared, and it was announced that
Leonard was i'll and had refused to weigh
in and had forfeited his 500 deposit to
Cans.
The colored lad was willing to fight at
any weight. and the referee announced
that the fight would go on, but that all
bets were oil.
Jim Reilly and Jim Lawler, two willing
local lads, who weighed in at 123 pounds
each, put up hard-hitting battle of ten
rounds. Lawler's straight left leads and
generally clever work winning him the
de cision of Referee Phil Wand.
Cans in his twenty-round go with
Leonard took a strong lead from the
start and chased the fat dude of the ring
persistently. Leonard got weak after
few rounds and danced about and
clinched to avoid punishment. Occa-
sionally be would back up against the
ropes and, using them es a spring against
his back, iunge at Cans as the Balti-
IN orean came at him, but he inflicted no
punishment after the tenth round.
Cans apparently did not like Leonard's
style, for he kept away whenever the Beau
Brummel of the pugilistic fraternity
made a stand against the ropes. His eau
tious leads and occasional scoring won
him the decision, though it was apparent
he was almost as weak as his opponent
when the gong sounded in the final Cans
was a disappointment to those who saw
him knock Charley Rochette out several
m onths ago.
Much interest was manifested when the
heavy-weights made their appearance.
Henry Bake. the fat boy Of Chicago,
came first. He looked like New York
Alderman; layers of tat hung over his
waist band.
Jeffries was trained to a turn. He
looked magnificent specimen of the
athlete. In fact, his opponent, when they
stood face to face, appeared as if he had
been put into the ring to fill up gap.
Baker scaled It's pounds and Jeffries
tipped the beam at 201 pounds, which is
nine pounds lower than he has ever
fought. Baker looked like pigmy along
side of the California champion.
Baker proved right away that he was
clever man on his feet. After consldsra-
Bile fiddling Baker shot out his left, which
landed lightly on "Jeff's" mouth. The
latter returned the compliment and then
missed Bakers face with a right swing
which, had it landed, would have done
.Jeffries went bang against the ropes.
Considerable ciinching was INDUCED in
and as the round closed Baker landed
left and right on Jeffrles' mouth.
LII tu0 SSCOBN lOuuu JtllIloS CauRuC q
hard right-hand punch in the left eye
which left its imprint. JeffrIes ducked
cleverly from several swings and in the
clinches which followed he was Kissed by
the gallery because he struck at Baker
when both men had one hand free, which
was perfectly proper and according 20 rule.
In the third round Jeffries played for
Bakers stomach, but the Chicago man
backed away and danced around the ring
with the big fellow in hot pursuit. Both
men landed, but the blows were not very
effective.
In the fourth round Jeffries sent Baker
under the ropes with body blow, but
near the end of the round Baker landed
hard right on Jeffries' mouth.
After this round, and until the ninth
round, Jeffries scored strong lead In
the eighth Jeffries knocked Baker down
with a lett on the jaw and then ham,
mered him all over the ring, but failed to
score a knockout. Baker went down
twice.
In the ninth round Baker received
Iefthand smash on the jaw that sent him
sprawling over the ropes, and Spider
Kelly, his second, threw up the sponge.