Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-01
THE RING.

Pugilism for heavyweight champion
honors is shaping itself to fall into the
Sau1egrOovas, as before the Horton law
made 1t possible to pull off championship
fights in the State of New York; that Is,
plenty of talk but little chance to fight.
Before Jim Corbett and Tom Sharkey
fought their unsatisfactory all bets off"
battle at the Lenox club a contest for the
heavyweight championship of the world
in Greater New York was considered an
impossibility. True, there had been
fights galore between good heavyweights
in New York City and Coney Island prior
to the Corbett-Sharkey affair, but they
practically passed unnoticed by the OBJ
j%ectionists. The feeling, however, against
championship battles was SO strong all
over the country 1t simply would not
down..
This was most forcibly illustrated when
Corbett and FitZsimmons were first
matched and driven out Of the states OF
Texas and Arkansas. When Dan A.
Stuart first conceived the idea of pittinS
Corbett and Fitzsimmons against each
other at Dallas, Texas, he figured the pair
a strong card to draw the sports from all
Fover the country. When forced out or
Texts an opening to pull off the contest
appeared at Hot Springs, Ark. The pow
errs that be in that headth resort assur-
ed Stuart everything was serene, and
the fight could go on without molestation.
rms was given TO Ian So SlIOISly THAT
he matched Tommy Ryan and Myster-
locus Billy Smith n Peter Maher and
ftSteve O'Donnell as a S ide attraction.
\ There happened, hoWeverS, to be a
governor in Arkansas as in Texas, and
at the last m Governor Clark of the
former state called a halt to proceedings.
That virtually barred Corbett and. Fitz-
simmons from fighting in the United
States, not because they were heavy
weights but because they intended bat
thing for the championship.
Maher and O'Donnel, also heavy
weights, and also barred from fighting
at Hot Springs, met in New York a short
time afterward, found it out, and no at
tention was paid to it. Corbett upon that
| occasion stepped into ring, after Peter
mad knocked out Steve, and rendered him
the championship, stating that he had re-
TIRED. Maher n Fitzsimmons were
then matched to fight for the champion
ship, but the word championship not
only barred them from fighting in New
York but in the United States, with the
| result they were compelled to settle the
question of superiority in Mexico. Be-
fore and after that battle heavyweights
were permitted to slug eoch other to a
standstiH in the east and other parts of
the United States, but when Corbett ana
Fitzsimmons were again matched, with
the word championship in
the articles of agreement, he gates of
every state in the union were 1mmed1ate-
~ barred against them. Dan Stuart,
who matched the men, managed, how
ever, to get a fight bill squeezed through
the legislative halls of Nevada. but for
which fighters would still be ignorant Of
the solar pleXus blow.
After that battle the fighting game
took a formidable boom in New York,
and that with the Horton law and Tam
many politicians as a safeguard against
championship battles not only a posi-
bility in New York but a supposedly long
felt want.
Thefghts between Sharkey and Rub
lin, Jeffries and Armstrong, Rubin and
Maher, Mccoy and Sharkey, and the lat.
ter and Corbett, We're simply opening
wedges for the championship battle be-
tween Jeffries and F~itzsimMons and the
others thai followed. Before this cham
pionship presto-change transformation
occurred it was, as referred to in the
opening. paragraph, plenty of talk but
little chance to fight" and just as the sit
uation appears to me at present.
4 The game has. been god, and the names
Of good. bad and indifferent fighters have
appeared in print SO. early and often that
the sudden change of affairs has sent
them into comparative oblivion. The hit
tie fellows have simply been wiped out
of existence. and the big fellows. to keep
4 their names before the public, are COM
i.pelled to fling challenges At each other
irrespective of when and where htey will