The Washington times., 1905-07-09
HART HAS C[ AIM
ON CHAMP P|ONSH|P
Kentuckian Looks Best of
Any of the Heavies.
JOHNSON CAN NOT PUNCH
In Addition He Is Too Much of Safe
Fighrer-Ruhlin and McCer-
mick Next.
JOHNSON CAN NOT PUNCH
By CHIP.

in a pretty logical claim TO the worlds
pugihstie championship when he defeat
ed Jack Root at Reno last Monday.
Although the big Kentuckian, with
display of modesty truly refreshing in
prizefghter. himself admits that he has
no hard and fast claim TO the title, still
1t certainly does look as If he could
readily defend the honors from the
rather mediocre lot of heavyweighta
now in the ring.
Coming right down to cases, there are
not many big fellows, good or bad. at
present carrying the pugilistic banner
Jack Johnson and Jack Root, both re-
Gently defeated by Hart. Bob Fftzsim-
mons, who will shortly leave for Eu-
rope to be gone q couple Of years;
John Willie, rather light in weight and
otherwise, and that's about all And
none of that bunch will do against Hart.
barring. possibly -"Old Bob and his
European trip leaves him out of X for
the present and probably for all time.
81 far as the championship Is concerned,
for F'ltz viii be at least forty-f1ve years
old by the time he returns, and, no mat
ter how we'll preserved he may be, at
that age the man has never lived who
had a license to stack up against
iuSty young SOTIllt Ike
Rubin and Mccormick
Gus Rubin and Jim Mccormick, two
old-timers. are going to fight out on the
Coast a little later on, and Hart will
fight tho winner. Possibly to further
his championship aspirations. but more
likely for business reasons, for neither
Jack nor Gus would likely bother him
much more than did Root. Gus has been
out of the game a little too long, and at
his best was never topnotcher. Jim
Mccormick Is the Lao who has been
travelling xith John L. Sullivan as
SOARING partner. and is, to some extent,
an unknown quantity, though his ring
achievements so far have not been
startling enough to have given him any
worldwide notoriety
There has been more or less whisper
.ng among otherwise well-informed
sporting writers to the effect that Jack
Johnson would be the next world S
champion were it not for the fact that
he unfortunately was born with a black
skin, all of which is nonsense, pure and
simple. Johnson is pretty poxer,
nothing more. He showed in his hout
with Hart last spring. whereof some of
these self-same critics declare that the
poor black man was robbed, that he
could not hit the ex-plumber hard
enough to more than irritate him. He
again demonstrated that ne did not
possess the punch when he fought Jack
Munroe recently, hitting the miner when
and where he liked, but not once with
force enough to send him TO the floor,
or even TO his knees.
Also. the negro has shown, from the
beginning of his ring career. persist
ent desire to play safe at all times.
AID these safe players never win out
much in the long run-at prize-flghting
or anything else. No. Johnson can hard
1y be considered n championship posi-
bility, from any standpoint, and it IS
safe to say that had he been in Jack
Roots place Monday afternoon, he
would have Jared just as Root did He
might have prolonged the fight little
more, but the result would have been
the same.
Hart Won Easily.
There was nothing surprising In tho
outcome Of the Reno battle. Hart look
ed like a winner from the day the match
was made, and won, as predicted in
these columns. by wearing Root down.
The Chicagoan put up good, game
fight. but was outclassed. and the jab-
ping tactics with which he expected to
-
Gradually the fight became a slugging
proposition and the rest was easy for
Hart,
The funniest outcome of the fight Is
the fact that the men have been re-
matched. the battle TO take place at an
early date. just what excuse there Is
for this proceeding does not at the
present time seem clear. There is GER
tainly nothing in 1t for Hart. He has
beaten Root decisively, beyond question.
Root may perhaps figure that he still
has chance of Idtting one over on his
late conoueror. But the public in gen
eral will not take much interest in the
second encounter and there will be little
doing at the gate.
Mike Schreck finally knocked out Dave
Barry, ct Salt Lake City Monday night.
but Ii took him the full twenty rounds
TO turn the trick and the achievement