Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-01
F." JEFF" SIZES up "PUGS"
SAYS BURNS DOES NOT CLASS
WITH oLD-TIMERS.
Jim Corbett the Cleverest Big Man
Ever in the Squared
Circle.

In long signed article he has just IS
sued on the subject of boxing and boxers
Jim Jeffries the retired champion. does
not hesitate to declare that the latter-day
heavyweights are far inferior to the
men of ten years back. Jeff evidently
does not think great deal of the PROV
ess of Tommy Burns, for, speaking of
Jim Corbett, he says:
"Corbett had the misfortune to be in
his fighting prime at a time When the
heavyweight division was crowded with
high-claSS men. Do YOU think that Tom
my Burns would ever have been able
to go around the world calling himself
champion, meeting fourth and fifth rate
dubs, and never have taken A chance
with fair opponent, had he lived in the
day of Corbett, Sharkey. Sullivan. Fitz-
simmons or even old Peter Maher? New
er in a lifetime.
ITO be a champion or even a contender
for the heavyweight title in those days
meant something besides buying a few
hundred sheets of paper with press
agent letterhead or of three-sheeting the
vaudeville circuit.
WHY, had Jim Corbett F'itZsimmons
or any of the men OF that sterling caliber
had the field to themselves as Tommy
Burns now has they would have been
overtaken Look at the heavyweight
class of a few Years ago, with its Cor
belts. Fitzsimmonses and its Sharkeys.
and then look at the situation in that di-
vision today. There can be no comparl-
son. l even have my doubts as to the,
present champions ability to have passed
any of the men mentioned
jeff continues: speaking of Fitzsim-
mons and Corbett brings to mind the
fact that the latter was in my opinion
at least. much better fighter than the
public ever gave him credit for being.
They called him Gentleman Jim, and said
he was great boxer. He was more than
that, he was great fighter. 1t has
been said that Jim Corbett couldn't
punch. but nobody that ever faced the
big fellow in the ring had this to say
of him after the battle was over. | con-
slider Corbett one of the greatest heavy
weights that the game has ever known.
He was the skilled boxer, the ring gen
eral and the fighter all in one.
Corbett Best Ever.
IF Corbett had one weak point it was
the unfortunate fact that he did not
possess the physical makeup to with
stand a bombardment of heavy punish
ment. Having been endowed by nature
with slender frame, comparatively
speaking. Corbett used his great brain
and made himself the cleverest big man
that the world has ever known On the
O6IenSlNe jim 1OTBell Idu no peers, anu
the fact that he was capable of meeting
the one weak point in his fighting armor
and of building it up to triple strength
makes Corbett, according to my way OF
thinking, one OF the greatest heavy
weights that ever held the title.
81 have often been asked whom L
considered the greatest middleweight In
the game. Jack Dempsey, without
doubt. Not that | would cast any retlec-
ton upon the Papkes, ketchels or Kel-
lys of today, but l could consume an
entire column alone in praise of the Non
pareil. and even then l would not be able
to say it all.
ct is hard for some of the present-day
fight followers, the younger generation
that has sprung up in recent years, to
understand why Dempsey was SO beloved
by all who knew him. The greatest
man the world ever knew, a man with
a heart of steel and one who would fight
until he had exhausted the last drop of
blood in his veins before he would sur
render, is but a faint description Of poor
Jack. Sufficient to say that it was looked
upon n--the sporting world as a ma
tional calamity when Bob Fitzsimmons
beat Dempsey physically and broke the
mans heart by knocking him out at New
Orleans in 1891. Fighters may come and
fighters may go, but we will never forget
Jack Dempsey