The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-11
JACK DURANE'S PHILADELPHIA
BOUT WITH MISSISSIPPI.

The Philadelphia Transcript prints
the following concerning Jack Durane's
scrap in Philadelphia last week:
The Kentucky Rosebud could not
get down to weight and be fit to fight
= Mississippi last Tuesday night, at the
Southern 4. c., so at the last mo-
ment Jack Durane. the clever lad from
Savannah, was persuaded to take his
place. Durane was not physically fit
to fight; besides, he had been out of
training, and had no time to prepare
himself to night anybody, much less
to go on with so good a man as Mis-
sissippi. There We're three reasons why
Durane should not have gone on-his
poor physical condition, his bad right
hand, which he broke IN his fight with
Young Rubin, and which has not yet
mended right, and his lack of training,
he not having done any of it for
month or two. At that, with all those
draw backs, he put up a rafting good
fight. Durane at least made a draw
of the bout, and if Mississippi had not
taken all the steam out of him py
repeated fouling, the negro would prob
ably have been badly whipped.
At least twice Mississippi hit Durane
way below the belt and once pushed
his knee hard up between the white
mans legs. which caused the latter to
suffer intense pain. Mississippi also
butted Durane several times with his
head, and as a whole fought in mas
ty, foul way 1t looked as If Mississippi
realized before the end of the second
round that he was up against better
man than he is himself and took
chances of fouling to either weaken his
man or lose on a foul, rather than be
whipped fairly. He got away with the
trick all right, because of Referee
Crowhursts leniency. though the lat
ter had to step in twice and warn the
black fellow.
At the end of the fourth round, long
after the bell had rang, Mississippi de-
liberately hit Durane while the latter
was on his way across the ring to his
corner. Mississippi evidently wanted to
be disqualified for fouling, and he
should have been chased out of the
ring then, but Referee Crowhurst had
his back turned at the time and did
not see the foul committed. Notwith-
standing Durane's poor physical con-
dition, and that. he had nearly all the
steam taken out of him by the way
he was fouled time and again, he put
up a great fight, and in the last round
put it all over Mississippi so hard that
the latter was lucky to escape being
knocked out.
Durane, who is a good two-handed
fighter, with a stiff punch in both,
started out briskly in the first round
by singing Mississippi time and again
with his left, until he had the negro
fairly bewildered. Durane's foot-work
was great. He kept away at a good
distance, and his style resembled that
of Jack O'Brien very much, as he feint-
ed then rushed in under his opponents
guard and landed heavily at the same
time ducking to one side and getting
away again without a return In this
manner he pummelled Mississippi good
and hard in the first two rounds, twice
bringing the negro to his knees in the
second with stiff right-hand counters.
Mississippi now began his fouling
tactics and soon had Durane weak
from the pain he was suffering. AS
result, Durane fought more or less on
the defensive in the third, fourth and
fifth rounds though he occasionally
landed a stiff one that Jared the col
ored boy from head to foot He gave
a clever exhibition of scientific block
ing, ducking and side-stepping in these
three rounds. Durane was recuperat-
ing all the while, and when the sixth
round began was fairly strong again.
He now went in and mixed it up Tor
fair with MISSISSIPPI. his IeIl kept
shooting out all the time and landing
hard. on the negroes face, and every
now and then he crossed over with his
right. which shook Mississippi UP as
if hit with blackjack. The colored
mans face was covered with blood,
and once he went down
from hard right jolt on
the Jaw. The gong was a well
come sound to both men, especially
Mississippi. for Durane had him go
inc Durane showed himself to be
crack-a-iAck. and if he would get him
self in good shape and attend to bust
ness he should be able to whip not
only Mississippi, but every one else in
his class.