Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-14
JEFFR|Es HAS
GREAT RECORD
SKE IcH OF CHAMPIONS RING
CAREER
WORKED IN LOCAL FOUNDRY
Alec oressalns First Tested the Big
Mans capablIltles-Fought
Seven Big Battles In
Five Years


the activity of the roped arena he will
be the only heavyweight pugilist to re-
tire with the title since the days OF
Jem Mace, nearly thirty-four years
ago. Mace won the worlds heavy
weight championship at London prize
ring rules by defeating Tom Allen, May
TO- 1870. Mace's last fight was with Joe
Coburn at st. Louis, Miss, November
3o 1871, and resulted in draw. This
was Maces last fight and as he was 40
years old he concluded to retire. He Is
still in the land of the living and re-
Gently took part in a boxing entertain
ment in England. donning the mitts for
a four-round bout with rustic heavy
weight.
Mace retired because he was too old
to fight, and Jeffries, II he stands by
his resolve, will retire because there Ia
no one for him to fight. 1t was ex-
pected by him and others that Hart
would prove in his recent battle with
Jack Johnson that he was made. Of
championship timber, but his showing
against the black man does not war
rant him being pitted against the cham
pion.
Three months ago, outside of john
son, Hart was the only big man in the
business to talk shop with Jeffries, but
as he failed in making good impress
sion in the Johnson bout and as there
is now no one to give the ex-founder
an argument his championship title,
from a pugilistic viewpoint, is worth
less Such being the case short sketch
of his f1stic career is appropriate.
Sketch of Career
Born at Carroll, o., on April Is, 1875,
he was brought to California when quite
young and started battling for money
in boiler shop in this city. But the
big man was never a boilermaker. He
was employed by the firm of Lacey
Co.. as stated before in The Herald, as
a helper i'll the brass foundry, where
his great strength attracted the atten-
ton of friend of the head of the firm,
who predicted that the young man
would make a fighter, although Nj.
Lacey maintained that the ability to
lift weights was not necessarily indi-
cative of ring ability. In 1896 Jeffries
went to San Francisco with something
of a local reputation as a rough and
ready mixer and came under the eye
of Alec Greggains, who was trying out
likely and Latent" talent. Jeff said he
H.
pitted against a Dan Long, whom he
put away in the second round. Billy
Delaney saw the Angeleno go through
his first stunt looked him over care
fully and concluded that he possessed
the makings of a champion. When the
F'itzsimmons-C -Corbett match was OH
Delaney induced Corbett to take jeff
into his camp and there no doubt he
learned a trick or two from the clever
Corbett.
The month following the Corbett-
Fitzsimmons match, Jeffries knocked
out Van Buren in two rounds and a
month later he stopped Henry Baker
in nine rounds. On July IL he held
Gus Rubin to a twenty round draw
and on November 30 he broke even
with Joe Choyinski over the same
route. On February 2S, 1898, he de-
feated Joe Goddard in four rounds. On
March % he beat Peter jackson in
three rounds and exactly month later
trimmed Pete Everett in three rounds
Tom Sharkey bumped against him on
May and was compelled to take the
losers end of the purse at the end
of the twentieth round.
Goes to New York
All of these battles occurred in this
state and Delaney, thinking him good
enough to beat all the second raters,
took him New York and matched him
to stop Bob Armstrong and Steve
C'Donnell in ten rounds each without
leaving the ring. Steve however, was
in no condition to fulfill his part of
the contract, and Jeff made a miser-
able failure of trying to knock out
Bob in the limit. Despite this the
referee awarded him the verdict
but Jeff's stock dropped below par.
This contest occurred August 5, and big
Jim hied himself back to the coast and
was practically forgotten until BILLY"
Brady matched him to fight Bob Fitz-
simmons for the highest honors of the
prize ring. When he entered the ring
at Coney Island on the night of June
.. 1899, he was a rank outsider in the
betting.
He beat old Bob in the eleventh
round and on November defeated Tom
Sharkey in fierce and hotly con-
tested twenty-five round battle. On
April 6. 1900 he knocked out Jack
Finnigan at Detroit in the first round
and stopped Jim Corbett at Coney
Island in the twenty-third round.
He returned to California after that
battle and "a September II, 1901 he
beat Hank Griffin in four rounds in
Los Angeles. and week later he
knocked out his present sparring pard-