Omaha daily bee., 1909-03-14
STRAIGHT JABS VS.. SWINGS
Former Method Has Been Employed
SUCCESSFULLY by Britons.
SOME POINTS IN THE HOT GAME

American Boxers, as a RuIc, stiIl
Follow of John L.. sui
IIvan-Mace originator OF
Ring science
NEW YORK. March l3.-"lt has' sur
prised a lot Of fight fans, no doubt, to
see the clever way these little English
pugilists have jumped in and trimmed
our feather and lightweights off the reel
said the old New York sport as he dis
cussed recent ring events the other night
ut hasn't been much of a surprise TO me.
however. for consider that the Ameri-
can school of boxing in the last twenty
/ five years has greatly deteriorated In
stead of being advanced. Our old-time
boxers knew how to punch straight with
both hands and didn't go in with Wild
swings. wide open, like Terry Meow
/ ern I'm his bing-bsng style. 1t was John
l.. sullivan. never a really clever boxer,
who adopted this wild swinging, and since
then nearly every ~pugilist on his side Of
the Atlantic has been doing the same
thing, forgetting the old straight punches.
sullivan won because he was wonder
fully strong. Smashing i'm, he broke his
opponents guard down, walloped him on
AAAt jaw WIN MS AAElA eAA b1N $3.50" 49,
But when Sullivan met Corbett he was
up against a clever fellow and wasn't
able to hit nimble Jim one effective blow
in the twenty-one rounds they fought.
When McGovern met young Corbett the
first time at Hartford. the latter just
waited for one of Terry's MAJ rushes
and. mailing him on the Jaw. sent him
down and out. Many of McGovern's fol-
lowers thought that II was an accidental
blow. so the boys met again and young
Corbett repeated these tactics with the
same result.
what was sullivan able to do with
Charley Mitchell when he had him in the
ring at Chantilly. France, for more than
three hours? Nothing. Mitchell was too
clever for a wild swinger like Sullivan
and simply avoided the big fellow until
the latter was so tired that he was will
ing to agree to a draw.
DriscOH simply Jabs.
you didn't see Jem Driscoll do any
wild swinging when he met Attell, Cross,
Mario. Baldwin or any of the others,
did you? No, not much. The Welshman
simply jabbed them all sick with his
clever straight left He fought exactly
like the old American pugilists I saw a
generation ago-like Joe Coburn, Jim
Dunno, Mike Donovan. Bob Farrell, Billy
Madden and many others. Dunno, Dom
ovan. Farrell and Madden are alive to-
day. Ask them about the scientific boxers
Of old. Jack Dempsey and Jack Nc
Auliffe. of more recent date, knew how
to lead straight. l met McAuliffe at the
National Athletic club the other evening
watching a couple of young swingers
beating the air with their gloved fists.
They're a couple of willing boys. ell -
/ said to the former lightweight cham
pion.
Ives. very willing replied McAuliffe,
but rotten. It's a pity, old sport. that
somebody doesn't teach the young boxers
of today how to spar. Why, if either of
those boys came at me with wild swings,
wide open, I'm my day ia have knocked
his block off. There they go. round after
round, in the same ~ding-dong way. You
remember poor Dempsey, OF course? lie
was an artist. No man ever led to him
twice in the same manner without a &C.
turn, and he never fought one round like
fanother. Sometimes he was aggressive.
and then again he would play 'possum
on the defensive. Dempsey was a straight
puncher and his blow landed where he
aimed them
Surprise for George Dixon.
I'm 1891 the great little fighter. George
Dixon, was pitted against Billy Plimmer
for four rounds In Madison Square sar-
den. The bout was for scientific points.
Plimmer was only a bantam at the time.
while Dixon was the featherweigh cham.
pion, and consequently had about eight
or ten pounds the better of the weights.
But the way Plimmer caught Dixon on
the nose every time George rushed In
with swings surprised the big crowd. II
was simply another case of a straight
clear puncher against a Wild swinger
Charley Mitchell taught Mike Clear the
same lesson when they met at the Amer.
lean Institute building here in 1884
Cleary was a follower of Sullivan an0
belonged TO the same school of fighting
But Cleary could hardly put a glove or
Mitchell, for the latter got a wireless every
time Mike started one of his swings ant
Immediately sidestepped it. CIeary was
as much surprised at Mitchell's phantom
footwork and straight jsbs as Leach eros,
was when Driscoll made the East Sidel
look like a green amateur at the Fairmon.
club.
"Of course we've had a lot OF clever fel
lows like Jim Corbett, Mccoy, Ryan anC
Choynski, but they were not really out ant
out swingers. They all had clever special
ties Of their own. Corbett's left always die
the best straight work. McCoy's famouI
corkscrew punch was as straight as an ar
, row, with a slight twist just before 1
landed. Ryan and choynski had a mixtur,
{ Of jabs and swings, but they would hav,
been far better boxers il they had stuck t
straight left-handed blows.
I Jem Mace's Manner.
2 "Old Jem Mace was the real master IL
the art Of boxing. His style was slmpl.
perfect, and all those English lads VIII,
2 have been boxing here lately have adoptei
I his tactics. Along in the '7Os Mace went L
Australia and taught Larry Foley an,
{ other young fellows how to hit. stop an,
: get away. His teachings developed a 10
4 OF clever fellows who invaded Americi
twenty years ago and proceeded to walt
e through our fighters with ease. As soon u
| saw Young Critic box l immediatel
recognized Mace's style, although l don
believe Critic ever saw the veteran Eng
fish pugilist But it was Larry Foley VIII
taught Critic, and Foley got It all fror
Mace. There was lem Han, the ~cleveres
big man I've ever seen since Mace wa