The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-26
Are Modern Boxers As Good As The Old
 Time Battlers?

{ Old-t1neFS or twenty or lily OAea = hundred years ago?s
 Jimmy. Clabby started something when he asked that question. and aTf- swered 1t with an affirmative. The Hoosier midd1eweignt has doped 1t < outst that She wond derfu1 stories told by the old boys of. the great fighters who lived in their day are principal 1y hot air. Every sport writer be- tween St. Johns, Newfoundland. and Panama, has had Whack at the some say he's right and some de- clare he is utterly and entirely wrong.
 specific case. Jimmy cited Tha1n Langford, declaring that the Boston Tar Baby could have whipped John L. Sullivan on the best day that 5llustrious gladiator ever saw. And also FItzsi1nxnons. sOf course. this is mere opinion backed only by assertion but if the Nova Scotia. black had been. ring contemporary of lawn l.. or Freck1ed Bob, and had met either Of them in the squared circle, you could have bet your wad on one proposi- t5en-there would have been a. s f-f-Ez-Ei # 5s-ss s-a
 The people on earth sat any par tIeularz time are of assorted ages, as the observant reader may have noteds Roughly. speaking, you may divide them into two groups. The young sters are firmly convinced that their
 
 z advanced and brilliant Tn human his- Iory and that everything of huInan creation has vastly improved in their lifetfTne. The old people, on the com trary, are usually va1orous defenders of the past. To hear them tell 1t, girls were pretti er children more obedient, the weather more propifi ous the food that mother used to prepare < vastly better, and the world in. every way d vastly better place to live in fa r7ftl as prs1.t IA fe-9Sk kas ing menweI, to hear those old time sports talk you'd think that John L.. SHfliKan and Mike Donovan and Tom Allen and Jern Maze and Joe Goss and forty dozen others they will uames if you give 'em chances could have just naturally tied both hands behind their backs and shackIed their Ss feet and blew a modern boxer out! ]! From what they say. most of those old ffghters did have pretty strong
 Coming right down to the nude and naked facts. this much discussed ism capable of being rightly answer cd elther in tfie. ffirHqatiRes or the Iega tive. The weather, cooks s< and kids and lighters. run pretty, much the same by and large and up one side and down the other. as they a1- ways did. Some are very good and some are very rotten and some are
 4 lot of us are not willing to ac- cept Jimmy CIabbyss stat e1aent that Sam Langford could have bested John F. Sullivan or Bob F1tzsirlra oris. hose " ho have seen Sam at his best will agree that if the Bostonian or the Eorniahman had fought Sana. they would at least have known that they had been In a fight. Half Of the tirae as Jimmy has pointed out, Langford nsss1a ,t.real fly 3esxtended himself. be- cause he always fought at his best he couldn't fihdSa man under the blue canopy willing to meet him. Gum boat Smiths defeat's Of the black was Joke Probably the crafty Sam Ilgured that if he let the Gunboat haYe-a little the shade ahe might sze.tst a match over the long distance
 1A lot Of old-tirne fighters have ex- pressed views on this questiou--- which, by the way is an old one re- ylVed during every generation Kid Mccoy. the Hoosier ex-rnid dIeweIebt cnanpien, is inclined to believe tf1ali fka e pFssen t-da3s bat4Iers are dlliifs s a { good on an average, as those Of his sfightiI1g era or course, Mccoy hasn't a verye good opinion of sfr,e present crop Of white heavywei s.r, ts Nobody has But when 1t comes fn the lighter men, Mccoy dopes it o,,i that they are about as clever as box CTS evereWere As one Of the cleyerest Iaps generals the game has ever had the Hoosier is 3 good authority.
 Prof. Mike Donovan, who was mid dlegveight champion in bare knucIxle days and who was never defeateds af- ter he gained the title, hasn't observ. ed any deterioration in boxer,s ri, ,s,,.< were some mighty good men in his day says the professor, and fa1ere are soTne mighty good men now
 kl Id McPartlands a famous light. weight many years ago. thinks there are not as many good boxers now as In his time. but he admits that there are some who would have made tl,t the best of the old sl7ns stop. lock anf listen Mike Gibbons is the best. o1 The crop in the opInion of the Kid
 Jack McAunffe, the lEhtwats-t,, champion who retired iIndefeafef more than twenty years ago, holds 2 funny opinion on Ina Subject Moe { of the 'old-timers VIII taaI you that V. nave many clever boxers to-day, bu that real lighting Is lost art Mo Auliffe has often expressed a direetI, contrary opinion. He declares fta- ztle present boxers. ss a class. ar, strong rugged and game, but deff clenr in gray nlatter and Ignorant o the finer points Of She game Ha afi n1its that Packey H1eRAfFand an<5 , few other lads are as sesl 4vi4 ass, fI, ,o.s. -1 shas sighting geuexaf faD1i but sf5, 4I,. lump he says the boys of today ar. not as scientific as fhosef he used t,
 fask sslxelly, ~the oad-ti1ne fea ther gesgn- IS inclined to share Mo = .a,1'1..l As'1.ll 2 ss oplnion. gomhere alisn Sas.ss el.lhkss has Just AlbOat ruined .,s9sAss. .r z 7 oo1xhng- s sSf1e1Iy Believes Una = esH o7aeclslor game, as practieet tp go many of the leading p1rpflfsti z sceh1ers or America, 1s responsible fo the decline of the ring sSsssS-
 sullivan Corbett, Sharkey. Mahe ahn@oIner good heayyweights of tn pAse are lnclined 70 sheer at the per formances of the ring nfars of todav at least so far as the lHeavy weight are concerned-s hsseEE once in while one of these veterans lets ou q snort of disgust q nd promises to gl in and clean out the bunch. ,Jin Jeffries isn't quite so certain tha modern heavyvVeiwht are all st, th