Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1910-07-05
JOHNSON CHAMPION OF THE
WORLD,

the first and undisputed heavyweight
champion pugilist of the world.
James ]. JeffrieS, OF California
winner Of % championship fights
the man who never was brought tC
his knees before by blow, last night
passed into history, having met
utter defeat at the hands of the black
champion in the fifteenth round.
While Jeffries was not actually
counted out, he was saved only from
this crowning shame by his friends
pleading with Johnson not to hit the
fallen man again. At the end OF the
fifteenth round Referee Tex Rickard
raised the black arm, and the great
crowd filed out, glum and silent.
Jeffries was dragged to his corner,
bleeding from nose and mouth, and
dozen cuts on the face. He had a
black, closed eye and swollen features
and he held his head in his hands,
dazed.
Johnson walked out OF the ring
without a mark on his body, except
slight cut on his lip, which was the
opening of a wound suffered in train
ing.
Ring experts agree that it was not
even championship fight. Jeffries
had chance in the second round,
perhaps, but after the sixth, it was
plain that he was weakened and out
classed in every point. After the
eleventh round, it was hopeless,
The details of the entire fifteen
rounds are by no means thrilling
nor interesting reading 1t was a
lost battle for Jeffries from beginning
to end
In fact, it was perhaps the most one
sided fight on record for the worlds
championship.
1t was the greatest demonstration the
ring has ever seen of the failure of a
fighter to come back" after years Of
retirement The youth and science OF
the black man made Jeffries look like
q green man. The great Jeffries
was like a log. The reyiled Johnson
was like a black panther beautiful
in his altertness and defensive tactics
JeffrieS fought by instinct, it seemed,
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 terrible beating and
bore in until he landed the knockout
blow was gone.
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 plucking
it out of the air as a man stops base
ball.
Out of the sea of opinions and argu-
ments that bolstered up this fight and
made it the talk Of the world these pin
nacles of fact have been cast up.
The fight was on the square. OF
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 absolutely
JeffrieS' master that experts such as w.
Corbett, an Australian sporting writer
and the ring expert, declared that
Tommy Burns had put up better fight
against Johnson, and that the black
man was only playing with the other
man.
The end was swift and terrible. 1t
looked as though Johnson had been
holding himself under cover all the
rest of the time, and now that he had
measured Jeff in all his weakness, he
Undetermined TO stop it quickly.
In the closing round the black man
lightly and swiftly stepped like a cat
stalking He jumped to the side of
the bloodied, half-conscious man and
with his arms jerking back and forth
with the thrust of an engines piston,
he pounded and pounded the dropping
head OF the former champion. Upper
cuts, each one OF them. First with
the right, then with the left, Johnson
swung back the lolling head. Again
the tremendous bulk of the white man
tottered.
Sam Berger, Jeffries manager,
jumped into the ring and rushed to
Jeffries' side. Rickard understood and
he waved the tigerish Johnson back, to
his corner. At the same time he held
up his hand and motioned toward the
black, retreating. That was the end
The fight was won. A man unbeaten
and thought to be unbeatable had been
pounded into defeat. The champion
ship remains with the negro and
$50, 600-60 per cent. OF the purse OF
$101 ,000-had been won.
This was Jeffries's first defeat, he
never having been even knocked down
before yesterday. He had defeated
Tom Shakey, Bob Fitzsimmons, jim
COrbett, Gus Rubin and Jack Monroe
He had previously declined to meet
johnson on account of the latter's
color and had therefore resigned the
championship. Johnson had been
whippe,. twice--by Joe ChoyDski and
Morv;, uo~t ooI bad dafoo.ad ,,,a,,,,