The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-12-28
GEORGE DIXON
10 RETIRE.
The Little Champion to Leave the
Ring After His Battle With
Terry McGOvern

There is a period in the career of
every lighting man when it is time to
quit, and George Dixon, the clevereSt,
toughest and most industrious of the
workers in his class, feels that he has
reached that point. He has never quit
in a fight and he hopes to be able to
leave the ring with all the honors that
he has won. but, win or lose, he has
decided that his battle with Terry Nc
Govern, before long, shall be the last
uShC Tor MIN. His admirers, and there
are legiOnS of them, will not admit but
that he is just as good a man as he
was years ago, but Dixon has studied
his own work and he was the first to
suggest that his fighting days were
drawing to a close. His admirers were
enthusiastic over his handling of Lenny,
but the champion promptly proceeded
to pull his own work all to pieces. He
| showed them how his punching powers
were weakening, and he proved to them
that he was losing the lightning speed
that once made him the wonder of his
class. W lille he had licked Lenny, a
man who was no easy proposition, he
had not trimmed him as the old George
Dixon would have done. 1t is not often
| that one will meet a man who is honest
enough to admit that he is losing his
! grip, but Dixon is one of those who will
not struggle against the inevitable.
Rather than become a has BEEN he
will retire after one more fight, in which
/ he will do his best to uphold the honors
! he has won.
George Dixon has been in the ring
! continuously for more than thirteen
! years, and for nine years he has held
/ the championship of his class He is
1 without question the greatest fighter
/ that his race has ever produced, for
1 during the thirteen years that he has
! stood in the ring he has fought more
! than che hundred set battles. His
/ earnings in purses and stakes would
probably aggregate more than 5000, 000
Dixon first won the bantam cham
/ piOnship from Nunc Wallace, in Lon
don, on June p, $780, fighting at ia
| pounds. On March 81, 1891, he won the
1 bantam championship of America from
! Cal Mccarthy, at Troy, N. Y. fighting
at rs pounds. This fight was won in
| twenty-five rounds. but Dixon and Nc
| Carthy had already fought a seventy
round draw at Boston, February z, 1890
| Up to this time the bantam limit in
/ this country had been lis pounds and
4 it so remained until it was stretched
/ to 116 pounds to accommodate "Pedlar''
/ Palmer. AS there were no more men
/ in that class to fight, however, the
| plucIIy little negro boldly tackled the
/ featherweights and proceeded to put
them to sleep with astounding regu-
] larity He was the wonder of the world
! and never but once was his champion
ship title in danger That was on the
| occasion of his defeat by SOlIy Smith,
| but Dixon had no use for the word de
/ feat in his vOca bulary, and he prompt
4 " won back his somewhat battered
/ honors by defeating Sullivan, who had
| beaten Smith.
From that day his course has been
4 an even one. He has toured the coun-
1 try with theatrical combinations and
has defeated hundreds of young men
| who aspired to pugilistic honOrs, but
none OF these victories have been count
| ed as set battles. In meeting Meow
ern, however, he will be up against as
/ tough a proposition as he has had to
handle for many a day As the ban
tam champion of the world, AIcGovern
holds the same position in pugilistic
circles that Dixon once occupied. He
| now aspires to advance to the higher
class. as Dixon advanced, and he has
so much confidence in himself that the
contest viii undoubtedly be one of the
greatest featherweight battles in thu
history of the ring.