The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-28

champion of the world.
Got Decision Over Sharkey.
Five months later Jeffries met Tom
Sharkey again in 25-round fight at
Coney Island. jeff got a decision over
the sailor, but he declares that Shar-
key is the earnest man who ever enter
Led the ring.
Corbett, by this time, was eager to
get a match with his former sparring
partner. The fight was arranged. and
for twenty rounds Jeffries took a ter
rife amount of punishment. He ut
terly failed to reach Corbett with his
gloves, although Corbett battered him
around so freely that the big fellow
looked foolish. Jeff's seconds told him
that he was an ex-champion beyond
doubt unless he did something, and JEFF
went out to do In the next round. He
tore after Corbett. ninding the storm
of blows that met him no more than
he would mind so many raindrops. His
left reached Corbett's midsection In the
twenty-third round. and moment
later his right ended the fight with a
short-arm jolt to the jaw.
Jeff's next fight of any Importance
was with his old opponent Rubin.
After Ave rounds Rubin quit. jeff had
learned too much for Rubin between
their meetings.
Probably the greatest amount of
punishment jeff ever took-and he took
a lot of 1t first and last-was in his
SCCOaQ night ElIZS1IQInOuSs line
fight took place in 1902, and Fitz threw
all his cleverness and strength into the
first three rounds. Jeff's face was bad
ly cut by his blows, and while Fftz was
fresh, the champion looked like
novice beside him. But he could not
keep it up, and he could not seem to
worry jeff to any extent. In the eighth
Jeff's right caught the old champion in
the stomach, his left went to the jaw.
and Fitzsimmons was classed among
the has-beens for good.
Second Corbett Mill Important.
The second fight with Jim Corbett
was Jeff's last important fight. In that
fight JEFF showed that he had at last
learned the boxing game. He outfought
Corbett the admitted master of glove
work and foot work, at every point of
the game, and in the eleventh Corbett
went down for the count. This was
Corbett's last appearance in the ring.
Just prior to his retirement Jeff
fought a four-round draw with Jack
Munroe at Butte. 1t was stay-four-
rounds offer, and Munroe stayed by
clinging to JEFF all the time. Munroe.
after the fight, claimed he had knocked
Jeff down. AS a matter of fact the big
man slipped and fell; but Munroe
boosted of his alleged triumph until
Jeff's anger was aroused and another
fight arranged. They met in San Fran
cisco, and Munroe went down and out
in the second round.
In his preparation for his fight with
Johnson, Jeffries has done the hardest
training work ne ever was known to
undergo. His methods have been Pc
culiarly his own as rule. He went IN
for bear shooting, fishing, mountain
climbing and the like, and his trainers
had little to say about what he did.
In preparing for Johnson, the retired
champion has left no part of his train
ing 60 uncared for He would not
agree to the match until assured by
tryout work and the opinions of phys1-
clans that he physically was able to get
into good condition. Once assured of
that, he took up his quarters in the
Santa Cruz mountains, sixty miles
south of San Francisco, and drilled as
he never before drilled. In his camp
Jim Corbett, volunteer aid, reigned
supreme. jeff believed Jim was wise
man on matters connected with care OF
the body, and he needed the former
champions worlds Joe Choynsk was
there also. and Bob Armstrong All
three of them were victims OF Jen
handiwork in times past but they
worked hard to prepare him for his last
great battle. Among Choynsk's un-
recorded battles is the defeat via
knockout of Johnson. 1t was during
three-round fight at Galveston in 1892
Farmer Burns was another OF the
training squad. He is a wrestler Of
considerable repute, and not day OF
training passed but Jeffries engaged
him in a struggling, hauling, netting
match.
johnson Makes Boast.
Eight years ago, when Johnson be-
gan to loom on the pugilistic horizon,
he urged his managers to make every
effort to arrange for a fight with JEFF
fries. "Jeffries can't touch me-" was
his boast even in those days, and he
continually fretted over the fact that
until he acquired a reputation, his
prospects for championship battle
were but as gauzy as the tail of Hal
ley's comet He says he then believed
as confidently in his ability to achieve
the title as he did six years later, when
his opportunity to battle for the SUI
preme prize was realized.
TT was not my fights themselves,
but my fight to get those fights that
proved the hardest part of the strug-
gIe," johnson told the Associated Press
in recounting his difficulties in reach
ing the pinnacle of his ambition. TT
was my color. They told me to get a
rep; but how was 1 to get a rep.
without meeting fighters of class? But
made them fight me- 1 just kept
plugging along. swapping up what
chances to fight I, could grab, until by
and by the top-notchers saw that SOON
err or later they'd have to take me on.
AS soon as I had shown what 1 could
do, the nght publlc-mOSt OF the Idns,
anyway-took sides with me, and that
helped a whole lott
johnson asserts that he never has
been apprehensive of possible defeat in
any contest he has engaged in. None
of them, he declares, had any terrors
for him.
His four most important battles have
been fought within the last year and a
half, dating from his defeat of Tommy
Burns in Australia. December g. 1903
Having wrested the championship
from Burns, he determined to meet
and defend his title against all Corners.
His fights with Philadelphia Jack
O'Brien, Al Kaufman and Stanley
Ketchel followed in rapid succession.
On his fights two or three years be-
fore, that had brought him prominence
and helped him along greatly in his