Arizona republican., 1899-06-22
EVOLUTION or THE RING
PriZ< Fighting in OIden Times Con-
 iraStsd With Today.

] the fight between Jsffries and Fitzsim- mons may be looked at dispassion3te- ly It speaks volumes for the climate
 of the Pacific coast that it has been
 able to raise and send east such a fine T and intelligent specimen of humanity
 as Jeffries and great credit is due to
 his able trainer. California may also
 take credit for producing Corbett tex
 champion), probably the most scien- tific boxer who has appeared in the
 p1ize ring in modern times. Fitzsim-
 mons is undoubtedly a good man, who absolutely fought his way to the front,
 but he was a slugger-that is, one who
 could give and take hard blows.
 The result of the recent encounter
 for the championship goes to prove
 that John L. Sullivan, who held the i belt for a dozen years, was a, very eX-
 traordinary man: but, according to i the old proverb, every deg has his day. i A boxer and a race horse are both trained up to their best form, but let
 either get out of condition, and it is 1 difficult if not impossible to regain the ] perfection Of condition lost. How l1ng
 did it take to get Nebuch8nner into i condition after being seven years out at grass? is a question which has been
 often asked, probably the time oeeu pied was past score.
 There IS. another QusSt:On Cften asked, How is it that in days gone by prize fights were extended 0vsr. say one hundred rounds or more. and now the whole fight is made and over in say under One-Quarter of that number of rounds?" The answer is not diff cult to give. Boxing is a very ancient science or art practicsd by the ancient Greeks in the time of Homer and Of the Olympian games It is prCtablv
 coeval if not older than the fntroduc-
 ton of shillalee, credited to Bryan Born, and perchance war clubs. The
 Greeks in their contests used the cas-
 rus. a sort of boxing glove, made of cowhide interlaced with strips of lead.
 Truly 1t was a formids ble wsaDon%
 worse than a knuckle duster. A feat is recorded as performed by Milo. the Cretan, celebrated boxer of those
 times He won an OK in a prize fight.
 Knocked il down and killed t with one
 blow from his fist and then he ate 1t.
 The legend was recorded on the top Of the famous hotel and coaching house callsd"The Bull and Mouth" St. Mar tln's le Grand, London, England. O. posite the general postoffice.
 There were unwritten rules of the prize ring even in those early days
 A noted boXer st the Olympian games was so annoyed by beng challenged Tn front of the judgcs that he struck lis would-5e opponent with his thumb extended. rip2ed him up and left him, so 10 speak. d.samboweled This was hard nut for the judges who talked about murder, but it ended Tn the boxer being disqualified from ever after taking part n the Olympian games, which was considered then t9 be the gre2t5st disgrace which could be inflicted upon him. Tn modern times there were oral rules of the prize ring. For instance, a man must not hit his opponent below the belt nor hit, kick or jump upon him when down. When one man was down that ended the round. His second and bot tie hC!def could then sponge him over and he had three minutes to come up to the scratch after the um- p.ra called "Time." This gave a man a chance to get refreshed and get his wind and it is guessed there was a good deal of leniency and latitude in the matter of times When a second saw that his principal was sure to lose he would throw up the sponge. The old prize fights were all fought with naked fists and strange as it may seem hard padded glove inf1icts a more simplifying blow than the naked fist
 The old prize fights were described in full in London sporting papers. es- pecially Bells Life in London, and some have besn reprinted but they got to be such exhibitions of ruffiaa- ism that they had to be put down by law. as had heen the case with cock | Bull beating, bear busting. l badger drawing, dog fighting and oth- fC iol1 indulged. Prize fighting was hard to i kill, determined to die hard. All | kinds of devices were resOrted to in | to evade the police There l are very, few sports who have not heard of Shclto John Douglas, mar | quis of Queen5berry. The marquis, | when aJ Oxford university, was a | noted amatsur boxer and great. tales | are still told of his prowess in fst3- cuffs in encounters with bargemen and | others. As the marquis grew up he became recognized patron of the prize ring. Under ths maruuis's aus ices the rules and regulations of DugiliStic encounters now universally adcrted were compiled. The Queens berry rules, as they are called. Under these rules the fight gOes on from start 10 finish and when one of the boxers gets such a knock-down blow that he cannot come up while thefref- -rse counts ten the other boxer wins md this makes short work of il. At 10 time has boxing been more p0pu- ar or more practiced by amateurs nan 1t sat present. Any nation which can turn GU such men as Jef- -rie2, the Champion, and such sailors and soldi5rs as have served under the stars and stripes 5 a long way from icing effote and may yet put cn her ;laim to rule the world.
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