Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-07-05
JACK JOHNSON IS.
JEFF'S SUPERIOR.
NEGRO PueiLIsT ToYED WITH
WHITE MAN AND WON FIGHT
IN 18TH ROUND.
JEFFRlEs TOO OLD a MAN
colored Heavyweight Left Ring With
Hardly Scratch Blacksmith
Punishsd severeiy-Purse
Mas Immense.
JEFFRIES TOO OLD A MAN

Punished severely
Mas Immense.
Reno, New, July 5.--John Arthur
Johnson, Texas negro, the son OF an.
American slave. Is the first and I'M
disputed heavyweight champion OF the
world.
James J. Jeffries of California, win
ner of twenty-five championship fights,
the man who never was brought to his
knees before by blow, last night
passed into history as a broken IDOL.
He met utter defeat at the hands OF
the black champion.
While Jeffries was not actually
counted out, he was saved only from
this browning shame by his friends
pleading with Johnson not to hit the
fallen man again, and the towel was
brought into the ring from his corner.
AT the end Of the fifteenth round,
Referee Tex Richard raised the black
arm and the rat crowd filed out,
glum and silent.
Jeffries was dragged to his corner,
bleeding from nose and mouth, and q
dozen cuts on the face. He nad
black, closed eye and swollen features
and he held his head In his hands,
dazed and incoherent.
Johnson walked out of the ring with.
out mark on his body, except
slight cut on his lip, which was the
opening Of a wound received in train
ing.
Jeffries lie outclassed.
Ring experts agree that 1t was not
even q championship fight. Jeffries
had chance in the second round, per-
haps, but after the sixth it was plain
that he was weakened and outclassed
in every point, and after the eleventh
round it was hopeless.
1t was the greatest demonstration
the ring has ever seen of the failure
OF q fighter to come back" after
wears Of retirement. The youth and
science of the black man made Jei-
fries look like green man. The
great Jeffries was like log. The re-
viled johnson was like black panth-
er, beautiful in his alertness and DO
fensive tactics.
Jeffries fought by instinct, 1t seem
ed showing his gameness and his
great fighting heart In every round,
but he was only the shell OF his OLD
self. The old power to take a terrible
beating and bore in until he landed
the knockout blow was gone.
johnson Thinks It Joke.
After the third round Johnson treat
ed his opponent almost as joke. he
smiled and blocked playfully warding
off the bearlike rushes of Jeffries with
a marvellous science, now tucking a
blow under his arm, again plucklng IL
out of the air as a man stops base
ball
Out Of the sea of opinions and argyll
ments that bolstered up this fight ana
made it the talk of the world these
pinnacles OF fact have been cast up:
The fight was on the square. VI
that there was no doubt after the
first round.
There was no evidence or hint OF
the famous yellow streak" on the
part Of Johnson.
johnson proved himself so absolute
" Jeffries' master that experts such
as W. Corbett, the Australian sport
ing writer and ring expert, declared
that Tommy Burns had put up a bet
ter fight against Johnson, and that the
black man was only playing with the
other man.
End swift and Terrible.
The end was swift and terrible. 1t
looked as if Johnson had been holding
himself under cover all the rest of the
time, and now that he had measured
Jeffries in all his weakness he mad
- ~ 81 11in1
Jeffries had lost the power of de-
tense. A series of right and left up
percuts delivered at will sent him
staggering to the ropes. He turned
and fought back by instinct, as If ne
was dying hard.
With the exception Of few fast
rounds, the fight was tame. Jefries
did not have the power in his punch
to hurt Johnson after he had received
blow after blow on the Jaw, and his
vital power was ebbing. But even be-
fore this stage came Jeffries could not
reach the black. The blows, almost,I
all of them, landed with all the speel
taken out of them. 1t was like hitting
punching bag.
The Jeffries crouch was in evidence
at times, but during most CT the fight
Jeffries fought standing straight and
working with something of his old ag-
gressiveness.
johnson Cuts Loose.
The fifteenth round started with =
clinch after Jeffries had failed to land
en- the body Johnson then tore loose |
and before the spectators were pre-
pared for the finish he had sent JET
fries down with lightninglike left and
right blows to the jaw Jeffries reel
ed and fell half way through the ropes
on the west side OF the ring. Those
near him saw that he had lost sense OF
his surroundings and that the faces at
the ringside were blur to him. His
time had come. He was feeling what |