The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-23
CORBETT IS SURE
JEFF Will WIN

j. j. Corbett writes: When Jas.
Jeffries climbs out of a prize ring or
the evening of July next. in west.
ern city, 1t may be Salt Lake or Sar
Francisco, the world will cheer him as
the real champion of the country. Bet
tween the time he entered the squared
circle and the second that he left 1t he
will have disposed of all tho claims
of Jack Johnson TO the title OF world
champion. The scoffers who spent
months wondering whether JEFF had
lost his or whether he still had his
wind win wake up and try and dope
out why they ever lost their bearings.
In my day there may have been battles
in which the contestants have been
pretty evenly matched, but when Jim
Jeffries faces Jack Johnson in the ring,
the spectators will see in JEFF a man
who was cut out By nature to be a
fighter pure and simple, and in his OPP
ponent a duslSy marvel of the science
Of boxing
Jeffries Inside Limit.
In the set of articles that the two
men signed one paragraph called for
four rounds or more. That was un-
his colored rival long before half of
that time has elapsed. And when
1t is all over the Johnson adherents
r alize that their idol was up against
the marvel of the past decade. This
sounds like climbing into the sky, -
but there is one advantage that
have over millions of men. l fought
Jeffries twice and when it comes
down to talking from experience, it
certainly looks as If l had the inside
track.
While / am enthusiastic over JEFF
fries, don't want to say that John
son has no merit On the contrary,
Jack is good, clever. fast fighter
and entitled to all the praise he now
gets by being the worlds champion.
But there is one point that you must
must not overlook. In his career john
son has not defeated any good man
IF heavyweight calibre. He won his
title by beating Tommy Burns in
Australia and added that glory to
his claim, by knocking out Stanley
Ketchel They were pair of good
men-but good little men. What
chance do you think either Burns or
Ketchel would have with Jeff even
now? 1t would be simply case of
murder.
Johnson's cIeverness.
They all chant about the wonderful
cleverness of Johnson. Very few real
lie that he has only two good punches
with his right hand. His speciality is
a short uppercut, which he works to
lightning cross-counter, which always
causes damage. His left arm is of no
use to him except for blocking. Now
take away those two blows, and where
does Johnson stand? Not in the run
ming He may try and improve on
his present ability, but he has been
fighting in this grain so long that 1t
will be tough proposition to add to
his string OF wallops
i suppose you think it very funny
that / announce to the public Just what
Johnsons capabilities are. Well. It is
quite a story. When l was in my
prime there was one blow that prac-
ticed until had 1t down to perfection.
That wSs the right uppercut that
Johnson now has. During one of my
training stunts, Joe Cans visited my
training quarters and the game little
fighter marveled at the manner in
which / could get that right hand
working. l demonstrated the blow
to Cans, and he taught Johnson how to
use 1t. Kind of stealing my stuff,
but its all fair in fighting. That was
the blow John L. Sullivan lost the
championship by. Charley Mitchell
also remembers the wallop, for it
stopped him in three rounds fifteen
years ago. This is digging up an
cient history, but It is necessary to
show that Johnson has nothing alarm
ing in his little book,
Jeffries Greatest Fighter.
Now that we have discussed the
Johnson end pro and con, it is only
fair to say a little about the real
fighter. Jeff, as said, it was my for
tune, or misfortune. to face. / want