The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-12
JEFFRIES ISSUES STATEMEN'

L.
James J. Jeffries,. champion heavy
weight of the world. today issued an
open letter In which he says he Is anx-
fous to give Fitz and Tom Sharkey each
another chance for the championship be-
fore Sept. /, and states that he proposes
to do II.
With Rubin, who was the logical con-
didate for championship battle, out of
the way, four men are left who might
want battle with Jeffries-Fitz, SharKey
Corbett and Mccoy. All of these are
matched, their money is posted, and not
one of them would allow the other 10
break his engag cement and fight the cham
pion
Jeffries in his letter says that when he
fought Fttz the latter's manager forced
him to give FitZ Is per cent of the purse
win or lose, and in order to obtain the
chance he agreed to this Since then, he
says. he holds that he is entitled to q
similar division If he agrees to meet him
again.
IN his letter he says: eff Fitz Will meet
me before Sept. 16 l will agree that tho
winner take all, or that the purse be d.
Vlded,. rs per cent to the winner and Is
per cent to the loser.
If he claims that it would not be jus
tice to Sharkey to declare the present
match off between him and the sailor,
Will then make a somewhat novel propo-
sition. l will fight both Fitzsimmons and
Sharkey before Sept. l, Fitzsimmons first,
on or about Aug. Is, and Sharkey Aug.
81. This proposition is made with the
he wants to recover the championship
and not to do Sharkey any wrong by
shutting him out OF his chance to battle
for the title. If by Tuesday I have re-
celVed no favorable answer from FitZ
shall discontinue training and refuse to
meeting any one until on or about June /,
1901.
eff Fitz should beat me on Aug. % I
will waive my match with Sharkey to
him, and IL this way it can be very pleas
antly shown who is the champion y
~ c Kennedy, manager of the Twen-
tieth Century Athletic club. said he
thought Jeffries challenge was spectacu-
lar end lmpracticable; that If Fitz and
Sharkey broke their match to meet him
there would be a scramble as to who
anxious to secure the matches if they
were made. for the Garden. because they
would involve a large outlay of adver-
Using, ETC., and If the second fight failed
TO come off the club would lose a large
amount of money
Referee Charley White took Kennedy s
view OF the matter and recalled the time
and ODonnell on the same night q i'll
broke his hand on the former, which pre-
vented him from meeting O'Dornel He
thought SUCH contingencies could be off
felt
When told of the statement made bv
.ieftries that he would like to arrange
hight with Fitz and Sharkey, Fitz said
tonight:
'Jeffries is the enc man in the world
| would Ike to meet and beat l fought
aim when he was but a fourthclass man.
Luck was his way that time. and he
whipped me. l should like very much
to accommodate Jeffries with a fight and
feel confident it will be quite possible
$2,5O to meet Tom Sharkey on the night
Of Aug. rs. Next Tuesday 1t will be
decided before which club we meet.
feel confident of beating Sharkev.
nf he HorI,%
as lid In my fight with Rubin | shall
be pleased to meet Jeffries before Sept. /
In this city. allowing him to dicta te terms.
he to take 50 per cent win or lose. if he
is afraid to meet me on basis of the
winner to take all. ! know / can bAat
him. He is a good man, but the VIC
tory. ever me at Coney Island was the
result of luck / shall again be chamnioE
of the world