River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-03-15
( From !
| Inside the
| PrizeRing
INTERESTING LETTERS OF AN
Ex-WORLD'S CHAMPION
HEAVYWEIGHT
By BOB FITZSIMMONS
Copyright, by Joseph B Bowles.)
MY FIGHT WITH
JACK DEMPSEY.

JACK DEMPSEY.
| Occasionally when some man who wants
to jab me in the feelings gets around
| to the proper point, he hands me a
jolt about the brutality / used in my
| fight with Jack Dempsey in 1891
| Now, want to say right here that
/ was never deliberately brutal in all
my life, and in the 365 times I've
stepped into the ring, I never yet hurt
man more than l could help. Any
| one who says | punished Jack Demp-
Sey deliberately or more than was
use a stronger word, if it was man
to man.
OF all the fights ever had I think
that one with Dempsey hurt me worse
than any other. I don't mean he
actually damaged me, but felt worse
over it. You see, was steered
wrong about Jack. 1t was mis-
take all through, and if l hadn't been
put in on the. wrong play, Jack
wouldn't have lasted two rounds. |
could have dropped him to the mat
for the count at any time l felt like
it, and it's one of the sore points I've
got against Jimmy Carroll, that the
fight went to Ii rounds.
I'd always heard that Jack was a
game man, and that he'd fight all the
time there was an ounce of fight III
him, and as long as he could see any
thing in front of him, and now !.
know that my first opinion was all
to the good. When / was training
Carroll came to me-we were equal
partners, you know, and whacked UP
everything on that basis-and told me
that there was disposition to make out
that the fight was not going to be a
long one, and that he had found our
that Dempsey had yellow streak in
him as broad as pine plank. He
said:
"You just tease him along, Fitz.
Sting him good in the face and on the
nose, and he'll quit you cold. II
you 20 after him off the reel, he'll
throw up his hands and leave you fiat,
and the fight won't last two rounds.
The gang will get sore, and there's
liable to be some trouble about the
purse, and we can't afford to take any
chances with that $4,000"
I'd always found Jimmy ON the
square, and after he had told me The
same story several times, believed 1t,
because I didn't think he'd try to steer
me crooked. l eased down on the
training, and made up my mind to fol-
low his advice. Jimmy went off ON
spree and for the last few days OF
the training he never came near me
at all, and that's no way to treat d
fighter, for when a mans getting down
towards the finishing end of his work,
he wants to have everything right with
him, and worry is the worst thing you
can put on him.
Well, as l say, Jimmy kept away
from me, and only heard of him once
in awhile. AS soon as we climbed
into the ring he drew the share of the
purse that he could lay his hands on,
because he believed there was some
thing wrong or would be something
wrong with me, and, as he said, ne
didn't want to take any chances.
Well. Jack and l faced each other.
and tapped him couple of times.
looked him in the eyes, and there
wasn't a sign of yellow there. He
was as straight and square that way
as any man could be. l staggered
him couple Of times in the first, and
put him down, but he came back like
a major. and there wasn't a sign OF
quit in him.
I leased him again in the second,
and cut him up little, but he was
there hitting at me every chance he
| got. and then took out a little fast
/ er after him. He was with me, and
while he hadn't a chance on earth, he
was a. sticker, and l commenced to
think Jimmy Carroll's dope had gone
TO his head, and he had hooked up
wrong somehow. After that knew
I could put Jack to sleep any time
felt like it, but l logged along with
him, closing an eye here and putting
a mouse on his lip there. Once
opened up the cut on his neck that
Parson Davies gave him, but he never
| WnimpGTGU. uLOppCu Alhl w LIZ
mat, but he was back at me in a min
ute. and looking for more. One
round, I forget which now, / dropped
him four times in succession. He came
back every time, though, and I asked
him why he didn't quit. / kept on
saying to him:
go ahead and quit, Jack. You've
got enough"
But he wouldn't. His face was a
eight by this time, and he hadn't
| enough strength to hit me anywhere
/ I went back at Carroll once when
went to my corner, and called him
about it. / told him he was liar,
and that Dempsey was the gamesl
| little man that ever stepped in ring
and wouldn't quit if he got cut to
pieces, but Carroll didn't say anything
| I got mad then, and told him I was
going to finish that butchery up. You
see all this time I'd been waiting for
/ Jack to lay down. | had been look
ing for that yellow streak, and every
now and then I'd drop the poor little
man and look over at the referee and
say:
cts my night, amt it,"
And he'd nod at me.
Jack was counted out several times
and each time I'G look over at the
| -oforao and coy II s.pain and he'd look