The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-08-07
ALL EYES NOW ON
BLACK CHAMPION
Wide Range of Opinion as to
JOhnSOn'S Fighting
Ability.

san Francisco, Aug. 6.-They are
still talking about the heavyweight
fuss up in the Sagebrush country. and
from present appearances there viii
be nothing 10 supplant it as pugilistic
theme for some time to come.
With Jeffries engaged in piscatorial
pursuits and preserving a silence that
Is as absolutely golden as Jack John
sons WOrld-famOus gilded giggle, the
champion is the man that gossips have
to do with.
1t is Interesting to note the range of
the opinions expressed in regard to
JOhnson's fighting talent. Some of the
best Judges-Or al any rate men who
by experience in the ring and out of it
should be the best-equipped 10 Judge
such things-will have It that Jack is
an accident.
One past champion has said that
johnson doesn't know how TO lead, and
that he wouldn't have had as much
chance as a bubble in a stoke hole II
he had happened along during former
championship disputes.
Vain talk this. In this connection
the writer would say in reply TO the
question, would Johnson have beaten
so-and-sO when sO-and-sO was at his
best? That there is no means OF
telling. Ii is very foolish TO pursue
any line of argument that cannot be
settled by a bet. If a person were
required to hold the stakes until it
could be determined whether the pres
ent Jack Johnson could have licked
the John L. Sullivan of 1885. he might
in all safety regard the funds IN hand
as his own personal property.
You can't bridge the years IN that
way. You can't compare fighters of
different generations and arrive at
sane conclusion, and the best you can
say for Johnson or any other champion
is that he is the best of his era.
Another thing. The supremacy of the
races in the pugilistie line was not def
inttely determined at Reno. The re
suit was only temporary triumph
for the negro. If a black horse wins
the FutUrity this year, il doesn't mean
that black yearlings Will be the safest
investment Of the next big sale. A
bay or a gray may be the champion
three-year-Old OF the following season.
AS TO JOhnsOn's fighting He may
not be able TO lead as some Of the
savants claim, and he may not COM
pare. nOlnt TO point, with other world
heaters that have strutted for brief
time as champions; but he is a pugii-
istic wonder just the same. He is a
natural fighter. if there ever was one.
Just think of all the professors Of
nstlcu1Is who were coaching JeTff1eS
as how to dodge the famous right up
percut. Yet the right scarcely figured
in the result. 1t was a left uppercut
that Johnson worried and weakened
and wore Jeffries down with.
And how about the prophecy that if
Jeffries ever got close enough to the
tantalizing negro, there would be short
shrift for the hope OF the black race.
Why it was Johnson who conrted close
milling, and it was Johnson who scored
80 per cent of the credits while bat
Ting breast to breast.
VIII There BE AnOtherS
VIII there be another big match, and
if so. when?
That is a hard one.
There may be a Jack Johnson Tommy
Burns contest in England or Australia.
10 Lob - rTr.--I
fight at some point in this country
where the bars are still down.
Johnson, by the way, is In no hurry
for the test with LangfOrd. something
which is passing strange.
So far, LangfOrd has not shown any
thing which suggests that he has il
IN him TO tame JOhnsOn's stubborn
pride, yet 1t is as plain as the nose
on your face that Johnson is lodging
the other negro.
If il is not so, why is he ALWAYS will
ing 10 back some other fighter against
LangfOrd? Why does he keep insist
ing on high stakes, in the belief that
LangfOrd will not be able to command
the sinews Of war,
In every match that Johnson has en-
gagged in up to the present there was
no mlstaking his earnestness OF pur-
pose. He never threw a stumbling
block in the way of any contest he
was asked 10 become party to, but on
the contrary, made concessions so as
to lessen the troubles of the promoters.
In the case of Langford, however. I
cannot point to a single act on John
sons part which can be regarded as
evidence that he is willing to decide
which is the better man.
1t isn't exactly inexplicable at that
for there never was a fighter vet who
did not keep in view some one man
that ne reared and respected more than
all the others. Sam IanpfOrd SCENE
to be Jack Johnson's bugaboo.