Waterbury Democrat., 1901-04-08
FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS
Billy Madden Tells a Few Things About the Scrappers.

There Are Many Clever Chaps Who
 Do We'll in Private But Lose Their
 Nerve in the Ring-Where Will the
 Big Fight Take Place ?--Dan Stuart
 May Bring Jeffries and Ruhlin To-
 Gether.
 q have been asked many times why it is that few clever boxers make good fighters" said Billy Madden yester- day. During the time I have been identified with pugilisfn, which has covered a period of twenty-five years, I have had one thing in view before picked out man who thought would be able to reach the top of the ladder in his class, and that was to see if he was game. Now, this Is one of the most important things to consider when person wants to branch out as a fighter. Without 1t may safely say no one can become successful in the ring, no matter whether he is a past master at the art of sparring. This is chiefly why some of our noted boxers are not champions.
 About six months ago 1 picked up a colored fellow by the name of Den yer Ed Martin. He is a robust fellow, strong, muscular and a giant in physi- cal proportions. When he came to me he could handle himself fairly well. That is, he knew how to protect him. self, side step and all that. l put him against Gus Rnhlin and made him the Akron Giants sparring partner. He learned q great deal from Gus, and tell you 1t is a downright treat to sec the pair go at it. Martin has become so clever that I really think he will be another Peter Jackson He can punch hard, too, and what is more, he is intelligent. But, mind you, l don't know what he can do in a real battle. There's where the trouble@is, and that is how it comes that many of. our sup posed great pugilists take a lofty tunl- ble. They are all right in a gym nasium or on the stage. They can make even some of the so-ealled cham pions look like counterfeit. So long as they know it is only an exhibition 1t is plain sailing for them. But when in a genuine scrap, a fight for glory and money, why they fail, They lose their nerve and get licked.
 Half of the men who get defeated nowadays should not. 1t Is their own fault, for the majority of the victims know really more about the game than their conquerors. Take, for instance, Steve O'Donnell. There is not q cley eTer man in the business than Steve. He can make 8 monkey out of lot of heavyweights in exhibition bouts, But you know as we'll as I do that he loses his nerve when he gets into the ring and he goes down and out quickly, as his two scraps with Peter Maher will prove. Then there is .Yank' Kenny, a clever fellow; Billy Otis of San Francisco, Doc O'Connell, Cyclone Smith, Doc Payne, Joe Kennedy, Bill Hanfahan and a lot of others cannot think of just now All these chaps are great in gymnasiums, but in the ring it is a different story. I receive a num- Der of letters weekly from ambitious youngsters who are anxious to adopt pugilism as profession. Boxing is great exercise and the pastime should be encouraged rather than condemned.
 "The minute I realized that Ruhlin was game I knew that he would make a great pugilist and fight for the cham pionship some day. As said, I get a lot of letters and I invariably reply to my correspondents, telling them by all means to take up boxing. I impress them with, one fact and that is. that they must be game to be successful. And another thing I tell them-not to lose their nerve or confidence whether it be an exhibition bout or the real thing. If you have got an idea that you can beat the other fellow stick to it. If you haven't you lad better not fight him or else don't try to show. it. John l.. Sullivan, the greatest pugf1ist the world has ever known, licked half of his opponents by soaring them. Terry McGovern, who is a pocket edi- ton, in my estimation, of the big fel- low, has the faculty of soaring his rivals, too, and in this way succeeds in beating them handily.'