The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-08-23
FITz AND sHARKEY.
Their Battle of Friday Night is Ea
gerly Awaited BY the Sports. ).

SSiiy tAWuileu ny the oPoA 10.
NEW YORK, Aug. 22.--Frlday night
another heat in the pugilis.ic heavy
weight stakes will be. trotted. There
IRE two entries In the event, Robert
Fitzsimmons and Thomas Sharkey.
That the meeting Will be y good Que
goes without saying. Several interest
Z Ing points are being discussed by the
followers of the sport, two In part!cu-
lar enGrossins attention-has Fitzsim-
mons lost his stiffness? anu did JEFF
fries knock aii the fight out OF sharkey?
Z II one were to judge by7the style OF
fight he put up against Jeffries and
4 Rubin, Fitzsimmons Is, not as shifty
as he was in other years. He certainly
makes fewer moves, and until he has
another fight or two behind him 1t is
rather early to determine whether he
captures more men. When Bob first ar
rived In this country he was q dashlns
boxer OF the Jem Mace school. He out
pointed. outgeneraled, and finally out.
punched his opponents. After he had
gone against few heavywelghts he
appeared to change his style. He de-
vised short cuts to victory, and FItz-
simmons the clever became known as
Fitzslmmons the knocker-out.
Like all Australian boxers, he had
the proper conception OF the value Of
timing or striking only at an object
as 1t bent toward him. This lends dou-
Bile force TO the punch II 1t reaches the
mark. He made an especial studyaof
distance, and given an opening could
drop his man With but few Inches OF
leeway for whichever fist he brought
into play. He became shIfty In every
sense OF the word. He felgned distress
at times to lure his men on: to get
them excited and to thrown them off
guard. Then. when the opportunity
presented Itself. he tumbled his oppon-
ent like u house OF cards and stalked
to his corner without stopping to look
at his handiwork
In his fight with Jeftrtes Fltz saemed
fired with n desire to go close and swap
rights. JefrrIes' crouch puzzled him,
but still he did not resnrt,o hhiftlness.
He kept walking UP the cannon'a mouth
until the end came, For nearly five
rounds he made n smuggling match OF 1t
with Rubin. Had the finish come any
time before the end OF the nth the
match would have gone on record as a
.blow-for- elbow engagement, which was
won by the harder puncher. Even ms
1t is, the thing fingers In the memory
OF hundreds as IN affair OF that de-
scrlption, although there Is no doubt
that the cornishmnn became tricky
toward tho end OF the fight.
To say that Fltzsimmons has lost his
stiffness" on his showing with Rubin
would be premature. It is said that no
fighter can map out n battle until hi
faces the foe, and It may be that some
thing which ;ranspired early In the
Rubin Fitzslmm1ps match caused ,lhn
CornIshman TO press in and give smash;
for smash. Possibly he decided after
sampling Ruhlln's punches that lie
could more than hold his own with Gus
In willing engagement.
Fi,zsimmons has limited that no will
handle Shurkey somewhat differently.
Tho Inference 10 that hG has good
deal OF respect for the sailor and his.
cannon ball rushes. II Bob adhercs to
hfs purpose he may give us II reliable
line In regard to his resuurcefulnrss.
While deciding whcthYr Fitz Is MS shlt,y
as the Fitz OF n few years ngo. tho con-
test may also determine whether. the
battcrlng Jerrics administered to the
sailor impaired thu lntttr's ussfrlncSs
M n fighter.
Gardner md bernstein Tonight.
NEW IYOpK Antr no -0u,,c f,r,I