The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-12-23

~ HS uoVSh II VIII pS lHS UlOSI SUI
prised man in the world. Johnson i
terrific hitter. l can youch for tina
myself He knocked me out in tw,
rounds in Philadelphia some time ag,
with right hand uppercut.
Zone punch, mind you and it was a.
hard as any that was. ever landed OF
me.
When you look at the fight vol
must figure it the way you do every
thing else. Johnson is cleverer and
has harder punch and that's the way
have it on my cards.
You know good big man will in
variably beat good little man. and
no matter how good the Canadian
may be, johnson is the winner, accord
ing to all sorts of figuring.
Il see" said Bob, that Squire fan
cies Burns; but l don't, as six-foot
two-inch man like Johnson. who
knows the game as good as any man
living, must be a tough nut to crack.
Do you know offered to stop Tommy
in twelve rounds but, although we
had two matches made, neither came
off. One was stopped by the governor
of the state, and Tommy got out of the
other somehow"
Parenthetically, Lanky Bob still
holds to the illusion that he has an
other fight in him, and to his British
interviewer he made this boast-one
that must sound pitiful to the admir-
ers of the former champion:
Il am still in the very best of form,
as you can see-never better in my
life; strong as a lion and inclined to
take on any man in the world for any
amount of money. AS you are aware,
| rank in the middleweight class of
boxers. Nevertheless, | bar none. ANY
heavyweight in the universe is invited
to step into the ring with me. and |
only hope will get a chance of meet
ing one of them in England before
return TO the states.'
Although Bob must be considered
a 'down-and-outer, so far as meeting
any reasonable good American fighter
is concerned, he would probably find it
easy to administer the Knockout drops
to any of the British ncar-champions.
Let the Britishers match Bob with any
of their fierce heayyweights. and wise |
Americans will back Bob TO cop.
The news that Burns and Johnson
will fight in a twenty-four foor ring |
has caused considerable comment on |
Broadway. Burns is practically in |
charge of the arrangements for the |
mill, and has everything his own way,
hence the conclusion that he is re- |
sponsible for the twenty-four foot |
ring plan. Tommy has been Dragging |
that he will chase Johnson all about |
the ring, and it is evident that he |
wants all the room possible for the |
If Tommy was so certain |
that he would be the aggressor. it |
seems likely that he would have want
ed the ring as small as possible. and |
this leads to some interesting conclu-
sions, unnecessary to set forth. The |
size of the ring may prove useful, in
case johnson should decide to do some
Of the chasing and Tommy should con-
slider discretion the better part of |
valor.
Canadian Tommy as rule, does lit
tie footwork when in the ring-at
least, he hasn't when fighting the in
'erior scrappers that he has been 60
ing up against during the last year. 1t
IS possible that he realizes that John
son is an entirely different sort of
Johnson is much like Joe
Cans in his style of fighting. While
he shifts from side to side, he needs
'ery little room, and could do his best
lighting in a ring half as big as the
me erected for the coming bout.
In recent years, twenty-four foot
ings have been decidedly out of
ashton, and very few important bouts
lave been fought in rings of such
lie. Twenty feet is the average of
he modern ring, and many clubs use
Eighteen foot enclosures for the fight
RS.
Still, it must be admitted that the
anger the ring, the better the chance
# getting away from ain aggressive
pponent. And Tony Burns always
vas canny lad, with both eyes peel
ng to let that title slip away from him
or lack of precautions
FINEST FRUIT IN THE CITY.