The Morning examiner. [volume] (Ogden, Utah) 1904-1910, 1910-03-13
RYAN DEFENDS
JEFF'S CROUCH
(By Ed w. Smith)

tIDN Is0 w 0htiehf
Chicago, March .5.-That there is
a generally wrong impression regard
ing the crouch position as used by
James ]. Jeffries when he was fight
ing is made plain by recent state
ments of Tommy Ryan. former mid
dleweight championship undefeat'
ed. by the way-and the man who
handled Jeffries in his more import
ant engagements In the l1ng
Ryan read the statement made by
Joe Choynski and was moved TO dis
cuss the crouch still further with
out having any desire to get into
controversy OF argument OF any sort
with Choynski. who is a friend OF
his,
Tommy, however. does not agree
With Choynsk In the broad stateemnt
he makes that no boxer that crouches
can ever hope TO be clever. But
he says that is merely q matter of
opinion In which he differs from
Joseph BARLEY, that's all.
ITO back my statement that man
with a crouch can be clever | can
cite YOU several clever fellows who
used the position and used IL We'll
and TO their own great advantage.
Ryan told me the other night In dis
cusslng the coming big battle on the
Pacific coast There was Mccoy. for
instance, the only man that ever
knocked me out. He was my pupil.
too. He used the crouch, used It
that night In Syracuse, when he whip
ned me. l used 1t. and my modesty
is not too strong for me to say that
/ had considerable of reputation
for cleyerness, There were numer-
Gus others, too, that used it. but that
has nothing to do with the present
discussion.
The crouch as / used 1t, was used
only once by Jim Jeffries. and that
was the night that he fought Bob
FitZsimmons for the first time.
taught it to Jetfrles, because | knew
that Fitz was the style of fighter
who would go right at him and fight
him up close. F1tz had to do this
because OF the extreme size of jeff
ries. II he stood off he would have
very little chance of landing any OF
his punches on him, That ie why
ed it by the hour.
1T may not be pretty TO look at.
but this case alone Will suffice 10
show that 1t was effective. | cansld-
er that 1t won Jeff the champion
ship of the world
Here's little point that tho public
does not know about l used the
crouch In numerous fights, but usual
ly for different purpose In each
case. When | boxed man | never
looked him in the eve, j always
had my sight focused on his left
knee
mo boxer In the world can make
d move OF any sort without making
his purpose known by the action OF
his left knee. That was what pu2-
zled a lot Of them. They couldn't
understand how 1t was that | knew
just what they were going To do and
usually beat them to IT,
You saw Jeffrles fight Sharkey
and YOU remember well-the moving
pictures show II. too-that Joff did
not use the crouch against him. He
didn't have to. it being bettor In that
case TO stand up straight and slug
away with his man. Nor in the
Corbett fight did Jeff use the crouch
to any extent. Corbett never got
very close to Jeff and this rendered
the crouch Of little Importance.
Used Crouch Effectively.
Now, II a little fellow like | was.
for / never knew what It was to
weigh over l45 pounds during the
time I wns good could use the
crouch effectively the position must
be of some use In the ring. weigh
only 156 striDped now,
But l hope this doesn't start any
controversy. L am simply giving my
version of the cronch and an outline
of the results have seen It bring
10 important contests