The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-21
CORBETT'S WEEKLY
 BOXING REVIEW
JOE JEANNETTE HAS CONE
 BACK DURING PAST YEAR

By' James J. Corbett, Former Heavy
 Weight Champion of the WOrld)
 Special to the F'aPmer)
 New York, Sept 1.-The signs of the times in pugihem point to the close of the reign of the negro in pugilism AZ our wall street friends would put it. the white market has an upward tendency.
 Or perhaps 1t would better describe the situation to say that the blacks arc on the down gTs de.
 Recaatly Joe JeanetteL the man re- garded by many experts as best qual- f6ed to battle Jack Johnson for the with Tony Ross at a local club, and his s1oraz vas very poor. He fought like a. third rater.
 Only a short time before in Pitts aourg Jeanette had met- a light heavy we4gfk, also a. co4ofed man. by the 1aenae ofS Jen Clark, and reports from She eeeel city said Jeanette had fne worst oftthe quarrel
 LAtEie aeoention wes paid to the story at the time s,l7 ana fG unfn ,,ron ne ha as one of the ciassiest opponents of pu- xilis1sa. In that engagement Jeanette 6 Saninr off tn form was startling. The onIv fkinr that saved him a. licking was the fact that Ross was in 1niser- able eondftion and afraid to fight
 Jear1e%4e on that occasion the negro would have been a dead card in pugfl- ism today. That's my opinion rom O'Rourke has always contended ana the veteran IS a corking good judge that Jeanette is made to order Tor Palzer Tom pointing his charge in TAarettese direction when Al dec1- ded to kick oyer the traces ana go IL alone.
 Jeanette has not faced first class tighter since his bout with sam Lang ford last year. Not that H is his fault No one of his class has shown desire to mingIe it with him in the
 &1,- r17fx a CPOTd accused of running out of a twenty round match scheduled for California last fall. Many of Joe's. matches dur in the nature of workouts than ny thing ae'se. but when he ran across Jef CIark-it was another story. Clark is man 25 pounds lighter and of lit rfe reputation. and made. matters more than interesting for the ambitious
 If Toe showed his best the night of the Tony Ross match. and there IS no reason to think otherwise. he haS gone back Sure as you're born. 30. far hack indeed that he can no longer be recLoned a championship possibll- ity Ross was fat and in no shape TO Tn the sixth round Tony was ready to drop but from exha ustion and not from any punishment Jeanette 1nfl1c- ted upon him. When Joe met Lang ford last he had a hefty punch, par ticular1y a straight left that would jar the Boston negro every time It
 
 Ross but there was little force to it. And his hook and swings went wide of the mark when they were he,dime: not his own up to the time he collapsed from weakness, and Tony IS no DUH moose; When Hghteg esst hiIs the r,IIe Ie- and to judge from recent exh1bltlons Joe has a good start.
 Iangford and McVey. also members of the colored heavy-weight quartette that has long had the Indian sign on the pale face boxers, have been SO 5ourTiHfg so long in Australia that 1t ss difhcuft to get correct line on their standing in the ranks. The two Sarns have had the heavy-weight They have been holding sort of heavy weight tournament with them selves the only entries Up to date the '9ar baby bas a shade on McVey;
 From the published accounts Of their most recent meeting CAugust3), should say that Langford, although Tvinr1irxA the decision has started on the down grade After reading the story of the milling round by round. believe he has lost much of the fight ing spirit that featured his early career.
 The Langford that I recall was what might be termed 'selentltle slus5 ie1 good judgment in hitting, wasting lew blows. and a punch that hurts when was a freak his hitting ability was put of all proportion to his build.
 The Langford ! reod of in the Aus tradian papers was a different sort of individual. At no time during the mill did he show a flash of the form that made him the terror of the heavy weights in this country and England. At least so far 1 could judge from fhe account of the battle I perused- It was a very tame and very tired tar baby that pulled up victor after struggling through twenty rounds with McVey The latter was not par ticularly dangerous at any stage of shc milling. and the impression pre- vails among Australian critics that he is ''all in" as a fighter of the first ~ank But Langford was not equal 70 the occa sion when opportunity of
 Jack Johnson claims to have retired from the game for good and all suppose that means he is through with it as long as the Cafe de Cham pion'' is a paying proposition un- til that venture needs advertising. For the present will have to take his word that the retirement is on change his mind, it is proba ble he has seen his best days in the ring. Jack showed a big decline in fighting skin in the Fourth Of July bout with Jim Flynn. When the state police stop ped that affair Johnson, the cha mpion, was f4olding his smaller opponent and holiering for help. Jim was too rough. he claimed. In the previous meeting of the men Johnson toyed with Flynn until the latter attempted to Tough matters. Then he put the finishing punch over. At Las Vegas all John son could do to protect himself from Jfnn's aggressive methods was to gra b appealing to the referee for protec- lion He a tired cha T17DiO0 " hem