The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-24
ACTION IN CONTESTS
WHAT PUBLIC DESIRES
Young Corbett Claims That the
Little Boxers Please Crowd
Better.

NEW YORK, April S.-Before Young Cor
bett sailed for Europe the other day he
wrote the following of his idea of speed in
boxing contests:
lone does not have to look far to find
an explanation of the growing POPULARITY
of the little men in the fighting arena.
Two reasons stand above all others:
Il. Greatly increased action.
So The diminished liability to serious
injury on the part of the contestants.
big men are necessarily slow. / have
seen bouts between good heavywelghts
which seemed tame and embarrassing be
cause of the want of continued action
The leviathans of the ring stand facing
each other without exchanging serious
blows for a minute at time. one swing
destroys their poise and they cannot re-
cover with sufficient aiacrity 70 continue
fighting before falling into a clinch.
1T is natural that their bouts should be
slow. In proportion to their bulk all animals
loose speed. The rhinoceros and the ele-
plant bound to be pFoportionately
slower than the horse.
AT one time in the history of the ring
the idea prevailed that the bigger the men
the better the battle. One has only to
witness a few heavyweight battles TO find
the fallacy OF this. The big fellows lum-
Der about the ring. impressing one witS
Their Their power; naturally: But 1t Is seldom s
played by them, and still more seldom
that their action is rapid
'Jeffries is fairly fast for a heavyweight.
but in point of speed | dare say that not
one-third as many blows are struck in his
battles are exchanged in even an ordi-
mary featherweight fight.
THE public wants action. 1t wants to
see each round fought hard from the tap
OF the gong. 1t wants blows, foOtwork,
blocking, leading and countering. 1t still
has some lingering notion that blood makes
the battle better, but even that idea is
dying out.
Time was when fighters loafed along for
rounds, scarcely exchanging half a dozen
spectator protesting. Try it now and a
storm of Kisses and cries of fake soon
wake the fighters up.
Contests between heavyweights are not
treated in this way to the same extent
that the little fighters are. 1t is because
so few big championship bouts occur that
the public does not know what it is en-
titled to expect.
But put on a championship bout between
little fellows and see what. happens when
1t slows up. The crowd simply will not
stand for it. You have got to keep fighting.
In my experience | have found this TO
be the case. When / fought fellow named
Jack Keefe at st. Louis | ran into this
phase of the situation. Keefe was a good
enough fighter in his way. and in the first
two rounds he carried the battle to me
nicely. | was nigh IN flesh at the time
and could not risk chasing him around the
ring TO a fare-you-well. / took il easy, ac-
cepting some stiff punches in the face. and
the first thing | knew the crowd was in
curing very loudly what sort of a cham
pion was this-meaning me. l kept TO my
policy of fighting deiiberately-I had to-
but the catcalls i received would have
made some people go III a hurry.
As II happened, was lucky enough TO
find my opening in the third round, when
/ dropped the East st. Louis fighter with
hard rap when he was not guarding
Ordinarily / fight much faster bouts
than / did that night. L had just come
in on a train was all tired ont and had
had no oportunity to work out
Although i usually go into the ring for
ordinary engagements much over my real
lighting weight. | am even then much faster
than the big men.
Take the battle between McGovern and
myself. | dare say there was seldom seen
more action in fights than in the two battles
| Terry and myself put up.