The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1909-08-17
SOME FAMOUS
KNOCK-OUIS
JACKSON's HEART PUNCH AMI
CORBErTS LEFT-HAND.
The Art Of Self-Defense Not Being
Greatly Different Now Than
Years Ago.
INVENTED
RYANs
BLOW

When one considers that prize
lighting has been the favorite sport
of red-blooded people ever since man
raised up on his hind legs, IL seems
strange that the games advance has
been so slow, its Improvements so
comparatively incidental.
As a matter of fact, "the manly
art Of self-defense" is not 30 vastly
different now from in those old days
when bull-necked sluggers picked
their hands and faces and splashed
British turf with their blood. In
fond contemplation of our Corbetts,
lRyans and McCovs. we imagine that
footwOrk and feintlng, for instance,
are purely modern discoveries, and
that cleverness was unknown when
Gully fought and the great Belcher
ruled. Read back a bit-Barrett
IO'Hara's remarkable articles, for in
stanoe-and il will be seen that Tom
Spring and Bendigo were lightning
fast, whipping huge antagonists by
sheer speed and cleverness, and that
Hen Pearce, the Game Chicken,
Used feet as well as hands and had
dazzling felnts.
But IL is with regard to the blow
itself that fighting has stood still and
refused to avail itself of the general
scientific advance. The punch, OF
course. is the whole thing In a fight,
land yet the proper way to deal a
blow, the best place to land il, has
never been made the subject of care
full, systematic study.
The Fatal Punch an Accident.
Footwork has been improved, sys-
tens of defense perfected. and ring
generalship studied. but the punch
itself-its where, when and how
has been left to accident for its de-
velopment. What new punches we
have now are the result of slow evo-
luton or sheer chance. No fighter.
+, for instance, has yet been astute
ienough TO study the human body and
figure out the weak spots. Some
times a chance blow in training has
opened up new spot for attack,
lagain whirlwind infighting has
drought a vulnerable point into view,
but never has there been minute,
microscopic examination Of the body
above the belt in search of breaks
in the armor.
When the gladiators fought in the
ancient amphitheaters. their huge
hands girded with the cestus, they
hit at the temple where the skull
was thinnest. Hundreds of years
later under the oaks of England,
we see the temple still the object of
attack, with new blows coming into
use as the result of some lucky
chance.
Hen Pearce knocked a man out by
terrible jolt on the throat; Gully
won championship by missing the
temple and landing heavily on the
burr of the ear, while Molineux, the
lgiant black, won fame and fortune
by his wallops to the mark" as
they called the abdomen. Bendigo
ohN ,pA ms anu Ddstib anu OilDD,
by reason of light weight, were
forced into footwork, and naturally
fell into use of the left jab for the
eyes and nose. The Topton Slasher.
missing the temple and the ear.
brought down his man by landing on
the Jaw, and Sayers perfected this
blow, being about the first to use a
hook.
i But not a single one OF these
punches was the result of study, nor
could any of the fighters give a rea-
son for its effectiveness. They only
knew that such and such a punch
had brought the money home ono.
and argued that the same thing cou.J
happen again.
Ryan Invented a Blow.
Tommy Ryan was, probably, the
first modern fighter to really invent
a blow, and to this day it remains
peculiarly his own. Always careful
of his hands, he fell into the habit
of dealing a hail-like blow with his
wrist, and in this manner discovered
that a blow on the neck, just back
of the ear. was wonderfully effective
Small wonder, for 1t thunders right
over the mastoid process, torturing
and paralyzing.
George Dixon, in breaking away
| from a clinch. CASUALLY, WaIloped his