The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-27
WAS A HOT FIGHT
KELLY WON THE BOUT WITH MO-
RAN AFTER 20 ROUNDS.
THE DECISION A CLOSE ONE
BUT REFEREE JENKINS VIEW
SHARED BY SPECTATORS.

Kelly Had Hight and Reach, But
Moran Ably Took Care of Himself.
The One DisagreeabIe Feature the
Unusual Amount of CIinching and
Wrestling INDUCED in-This is the
Third Time the Men Have Met.
other Bouts Draws-MOran Chal-
IenEes Either Kelly or jenkins.
Jimmie Kelly of Boston won the deci-
sion over Tony Moran of New York last
night after twenty-five rounds of the
hardest kind of boxing that has recently
been seen in Savannah. The hot work
started in the first round and lasted
through the match, each man in turn ag-
gressor, and each giving and taking so
nearly the same amount of punishment
that no one could pick the winner even
up to the last round. In fact, at all
points so nearly matched were the men
that many thought the contest should
have been declared a draw.
Moran pursued the same tactics that he
used in his bout with Jenkins some months
ago. His work was steady and consistent.
He was always ready to take all that was
coming his way if by so doing he could
punish the other man. Also he was IN
excellent shape, hard as nails, and Wig
orously aggressive all through the game.
Kelly puts up much the sort of game
that was played here by Johnny Shields,
who, under the name of Austin Rice,
fought Peter Peretto during the early
| part of the winter He is only 10 years
old, but stands several inches higher
than Moran, and had also the advantage
| of a greater reach. His forte was a high
/ swinging blow, in which he used
either hand with equal facility and
which he usually succeeded in landing.
Moran besides his straight punches used
the blow on the kidneys which he had
found so effective in some of his former
contests. On account of his short statue,
in the clnches he had many opportunities
to use this blow, and he never failed to
avail himself of his chances. This sort of
pounding made Kelly Vince every once
in while, but he retahated by using a
stiff upper cut.
In the first round the men showed their
peculiarities, but this round as in fact,
| the whole match was rendered less in
| teresting through the mems habit of
clinching, habit that lasted through the
| match, and which caused the spectators
more than once to urge both men to
| break away" and also to call to the
referee to make the men break. jenkins
as referee had hard work to get the men
to break at any time, often, in fact, he
had really to pry them apart, and then
| they punched each other over his Shout
| der.
The rounds followed each other with
| but little variation in result, now one man
| had the better of it and then the other
| would manage to land the most and the
| Hardest blows, but in neither case did
| either of the men show any effect.
| In the sixth round. while clinched, the
men went to the floor together, but quick
| ly got up neither the worse for the fall.
| Several times in their clinches and the
wrestling that resulted, they would get
| through the ropes, but in no case did any
| damage result.
The seventh round was a particularly
hot one, but at its end honors were about
! even; the eighth was not specially no.
| Kelly by a series of rushes and long
! swings, landed several effective blows
and won the wild applause of the specta-
! tors with whom from the first, he SEEM
ed to be favorite.
After possibly the twelfth round Moran
saw that his kidney punches were not
| doing much damage, so let up on them,
only using that particular blow thereaf-
| ter when he could give himself swing
| that might make it effective if landed on
| any part of the body. Kelly too, about
| this stage of the game, appeared to lose
| his desire for any too much romping, so
both settled down to solid hard work 1t
! then became apparent that there would
be no Knockout; that the contest would
| go the limit.
! Every once in a while, the men would
make an extra squirt, however, and ex-
| change punches that made the knowing
ones think one or the other would go down
and out, but always the gong saved any
such result, and by the time the inter-
mission was up. both had recovered.
In beginning the last round, as is Gus
tomary, the men shook hands, but even
| while clasping right hands Kelly treacn-
| erously struck Moran with his left, land
! ing lightly on the head. He was Kissed
! for the act. This. the last round, was
| by far one of the warmest of the contest,
! each man understood that matters as they
! then were would make draw most prob
! able so they went in to mix it up, eacn
| hoping to secure the decision. Kellys
victory proved popular one, though
| many persons that were present thought
that the match should have been called
| a draw.
! The principals were handled, Kelly, by
| owen Zeigler of Savannah, and r. j.
| Mclean and j. j. Mcneil of Boston;
Moran by Tom Corcoran, Kid Davis and
| Frank Hart.
The chief bout was preceded by 4 pre-
| liminary in which Walter Heron and
Kid Davis took part Though neither of
| tie men were specially scientific thew
made good bout of it, probably the best
preliminary that has been seen here dur
ing the present season.
Kelly is a former pupil of Moran. He
has met him twice before i'm ten-round
bouts. each Of which was declared draw.
Moran feels that he was given the short
end of list nights decision. and has is
sued a challenge to meet again either
Kelly or Jenkins, the winner to take all
He is also willing to make a side bet.