Norwich bulletin., 1912-12-27
BOXING GAME IS
 LOSING ITS SCIENCE.
James J. Jsffries Disguised With Style
 of Present Day Fighters.

James J. Jeffries, once worlds heavy weight champion. is disgusted with the fight game. He says so himself. Jeff's disgust is based on the loss of clean hitters and the predominance in the ring of clinchers and rough work art ists.
 There is too much holding, clinging and other rough work in the ring to- day." declared Jeff. T was not fight ing long before l came to the conclu sion that it was of as much import ance to me to thoroughly understand the rules as it was to know how to hit blow properly I studied them close ly and the knowledge I gained was an important factor in helping me win my fights.
 How? you may ask. In the first place, in all my contests I was never warned, cautioned or censured by any referee. There never was any reason for it. I knew the rules and obeyed them at all times.
 Why boxer should hold I never have been able to understand. and when see one doing so I cannot help but believe that he Is afraid of getting hit. How in the name of heaven can you hurt any one in the ring by hold ing his hands and arms? You have to hit him to do that.
 How often do you see a boxer counter these days? Few can tell what counter really Is. It is usually
 rusing in with head down and slam bang away, without the least effort to block, duck or jump away from a blow. They swing from all positions l and all angles. and 1t is getting to be quite a common thing to see a boxer
 stand with his right foot forward. Slam Bang Fighters. "It Is a wild rush and immediately a l cllnch and then lot of slam bang on | each others backs with the open | han The slapper is fast coming to | his own. When nowadays do you see a boxer hit and drop his man for the full count in one punch? These things were a common occurrence years ago. | and unless a boxer could do this when | he had good square crack at his
 man he was not considered good hit l ter.
 Tn my early fights I was constantly | hurting my hands and thumbs. I | used swings principally in those days
 and did not turn my hands properly | when hitting. When I learned to hold | them correctly I never received an in ] jury to them. but still stuck to the lOOllSl luGel OA lllN utiuS. T came to the conclusion that this was bad practice, as I figured that | l never wore them while training and | there should be no good reason for do- | ing so during contest, so I discarded l them and never had the least trouble | after.
 Good footwork is seldom seen these | days. Many seem to think that the more a boxer dances and jigs around
 the ring the cleverer ne is on his feet
 Did you ever watch Jim Corbett,
 Abe Attell or Joe Gants? Any of these l three great boxers could make you
 miss a blow by moving their feet an
 inch or two.
 "Feinting is also a joke, Jim Cor
 bett was the peer of all men at this | art, and it surely is an art in itself.
 "Corbett could, by feinting, make
 most any man hit any kind of blow
 he wanted him to strike, and know 1 ing that it was an easy matter to | counter.
 Referees are also somewhat to
 blame for the backward move in the 1 boxing game. While many thoroughly | understand the rules. they are power | less, to a certain extent, when il comes to enforcing them. But, if they
 were more determined and hesitated
 less about disqualifying boxers for