The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-09-27
FIGHTERS WHO HATED WORK
SURPRISING METHODS OF SOME
or THE BIG FELLOWS.

SDhh~ SEN EzFfOD UF SVM u
or THE BIG FELLOWS.
~ Shave and . Haircut VIII ne o Me,
John l.. Used to say--His Baekers
Cleaned Up Big Money When Corbett
Beat riim-Hali.FttE Fight Relied,
wait till I get q shave and a haircut
and then I'll be ready to Aght!' That
IL what John l.. Sullivan used to cay when
some new rival had been dug up and the
big fellow was requested 10 begin train
ing. Sullivan never cared much for
training and was not an exception to
the rule either. Many OF the greatest
lighters get into idle and lazy habits after
they have reached the top rung Of the
ladder. The overwhelming defeat Of
Stanley Ketchel in California recently
at the hands OF Bill Papke, the new mid
dleweight champion. is said TO have been
due to q lack Of training coupled with
the highest sort Of living. Even james
J.. Jefries. the greatest Of all pugilists.
liked to train.
Il don't mind the actual fighting. .
said Jeff recently. ~but the training Is
Internally hard work for q big fellow like
mo- You see I'm so heavy that it's q
very tough job to take the weight of. No
more of 1t for me. I'm through"
1t would probably take Big Jim at
least three months Of the hardest kind
Of work to get into proper condition to
defend the heavyweight title. Nobody
knows this better than Jefries and for
that reason he prefers retirement to
strenuous and gruelling training methods.
Tho famous boilermaker is naturally lazy
and like other champions before him he
has a fondness for the pleasures and nxu-
ries OF Easy street.
For that matter II would be tempting
fate for Jeffries to reenter the prizering
after 80 long an absence from the game.
There was at least one fight for which
Jenries really trained long and faith
fully and that was his first battle with
Fitzsimmons for the championship.
When JET began work for that mill he
weighed exactly 242 pounds, but after
six weeks Of terrific work he scaled at
200 In a shirt. trousers and socks. He
never fought at less than 40 after that
and'now weighs 40.
It wac lack Of condition which was
one Of the reasons for the downfall Of
Sullivan when Corbett beat him at New
Orleans in 1891. Corbett. young and
ambitious, was In magnificent condition.
He was trained to the minute-fast, ag-
g~ressive. clear headed and confident.
Sullivan, after a semblance OF training
at Canoe Place Inn down on Long Island.
entered the ring hog fat, slow and with q
brain befogged with wine.
Il only need a shave and a haircut for
this young dub, he said and then met his
Waterloo. In the twelve years that
Sullivan held the championship he never
did any real hard training except per-
haps when he frat % his title. The
last time he was really at was when he
tackled Herbert Slade, the Maori. in
Madison Square Garden In 1883. Old
Jem Mace brought Slade here from
New Zealand. saying that the Maori
was d wonderful fighter. Sullivan al
ways respected Mace's judgment and
worked with might and main TO be ready
for the supposed killer. But Slade was
nothing but a lemon and Sullivan stopped
him In three short rounds.
Z When Sullivan was supposed to be
training for the Kilrain fight, up at Will
lam Muldoon's place at Belfast, N. y,
he really INDUCED In all sorts Of lodges
to avoid much hard work. He used to
insist upon having a shave, haircut and
shampoo every day and never failed to
say to the country barber as he settled
back in the chair:
take your time now, Gull. Don't
hurry this job. I want a rest. See?'
OF course the barber knew his business.
and Sullivan would often kill a couple Of
hours In this way. while his real trainers.
Jack Barnett and the late Mike Cleary, sat
anxiousfy waiting to get a crack at him.
These men were the only ones who could
Sullivan to do any work at all.
Muldoon and Sullivan, on the other hand.
were almost always at swords points and
times nearly came to blows.
When Sullivan went out on the road for
long walks he always insisted that his
trainers, Barnett and Cleary. should' g
ahead OF him. Then after covering a few
miles Sdiiivan's wonderful thirst would
begin to get In its work. and the champion
WOulu NUM- up u opthS u a. Vooid
g,lp down perhaps half a gallon Of cool
1t was often the case that when
he returned to Muldoon's farm he showed
increase IN weight Of four or five
pounds, to the CONSERVATION Of his hand
Iers. The water did It. Of course, but
Barnett.and Cleary did not know IL.
Another favorite loafing place Of ohm L.
was the cheese factory at Belfast. He
used to spend hours there watching the
process Of cheese making or sleeping
in some dark corner OF the factory. IL
was no wonder then that Sullivan was as
es a brewery wagon driver when he
faced Kilrain at hichburg. Miss. II
Kilrain had been In anything like good
trim himself that day he might have
carried of the championship. As it
was any first class m~iddleweight could
have beaten either Sullivan or Kilrain.
They were both stale, slow and out OF
form in spite Of the fact that they went
seventy five rounds with bare knucRles.
rules, some Of the rounds being
only half q minute long. -.
Sullivan's alleged training for his mill
with Corbett at Canoe Place Inn wal an
other farce. He did practically no work.
drank all the ale he, could get and slept
under the shade trees when he was sup
posed to be doing hard road work. Some
his back era discovered S~ullivan's true
conditi ON about two weeks before the mill
and Immediately sent q barrel Of money
o,,t through the country to be placed