River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1906-04-26

punch. Every time I hit man ie
hurt. and hurt badly, too, and chat did
the business for awhile. You see, I'd
gone TO work on the principle that q
combination of the two men who stood
at the top-Sullivan and Corbett-
would do the trick II | could move
about as fast as Corbett, or nearly as
fast, and could hit like Sullivan. I'd
stand fair chance of winning out /
went TO work along those lines and
they worked out right
But there was another change COM
ing along and I didn't see that. I
don't think anyone will call me IL
say that | couldn't be expected to see
It. was working along easy, with
the oelief that l could trim any appli-
cant that showed up, but 1 thought the
giants had all been done with.
couldn't know that young bull was
going to come out of the west. who
moved pretty fast and who weighed
on pounds more than l did, and who
had been trained by the foxiest trainer
In the business. I didn't think that an
elephant-beg pardon, Jim could
move quick, but found it out at Coney
Island and in just II rounds the ele-
pnant-pardon again, Jim-had put me
away. | say now, just as l said then,
that JeIfries was and is an accident.
You don't look for many men of his
kind IN century. He's not the regu-
lar run OF men by whole lot. In fact.
l guess he's sort of made-to-order
boy Tor the particular job he had to do.
don't honestly think he's a regular
tighter, not the fighting machine at
least. He's the best however, Just
now, but II he sticks to the game some
fellow is going to get him in time.
You see, he's big and stronger than
the ordinary and he hits hard, and
then he's fast, too, on his feet and in
his movements. He carries out my
combination all right, and my dope is
right at that, but he's too big for the
ordinary man to take hack at.
Maybe some day in the future there
will be a new style of champion who
will make us of the present day look
like piece of debased money, but
doubt it. There will be mighty few
more OF the Jeffries type, and it's my
idea that the coming champion will
be man Of about $50 pounds, who
will combine extreme speed with a Lit
ting quality that will count for some-
thing, and who will be as shifty as
they make them. The combination, as
| have doped it out, ought to whip
anything that walks on two legs. bar
ring accidents of the Jeffries kind.
| claim to know Jim Jeffries about
as well as any man can know another.
and l don't believe there's man in
the business to-day that can whip him.
| worked with Jeffries lot after our
second fight in San Francisco. and T
can modestly claim to have taught him
something, too. You'll notice as a gem
eral rule that championship fights are
getting shorter, too. Corbett whipDed
Sullivan in 81 rounds. I beat Corbett
in IA and Jeffries put me away in II
the first time and in eight the second
time. OF course, if you carried this
much further. you'd have a man
whipped before he got into the ring
but what mean when point that out
is that the fight of the future is going
to be between speedy men, who will
fight fast and hard and who will only
go short distance. Something like
the racing of to-day. There used to be
horses that could travel ten miles at
fast clip, and hold it to the end. with
a saving burst of speed for a climax.
but to-day it's the horse with the fast
speed for the short distance that brings
home the money.
These things are all bound to reach
a certain limit, of course, but think
the combination l speak of for a short
distance fight IS going TO be the thing.
Not so much endurance, but more
speed and grit while the short bout is
on. Why, there have been Queensbury
fights that have run into 80 rounds, but
| never heard that any of the specta-
tors enjoyed them half as much as
they did the rip-roaring, speedy battle
that went along at racing clip for 10
or II rounds and ended with sharp
rally all over the ring.
Just the same, it's quite long step
from old Figg down to Jim Jeffries-
and, say, did you ever think how many
black eyes, cut lips and twisted noses
were wrapped up in those years?