Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-04-23
BOXERS DEATH
REGRETTED BY
ENGLISH ;: ], FANS /
Charlie Mitchell Gave. ]. L.
!. Sullivan Hard Fight
= at One Time.

The. following is a story from, the
London Times, which shows, the
feeling of the people of England to-
ward Charlie. Mitchell, the English
heavyweight who has been classed as
the best exponent of the English style
of boxing. Mitchell put up a hard
fight when he met John L.. Sullivan
and the deaths Of the two great fight
ers will long be remembered as hav-
ing come within a few weeks of each
other.
THE death Of, Charles Cor, as he
was. universally. called. Charley
Mitchell, the famous pugilist, which
took. place at Hove on Tuesday, April
2, after a long illness, will be regretted
by those who remember him. as the
most. brilliant and courageous ..ex-
ponent Of the traditional English. style
during the eighties and early nineties.
HE was born at Birmingham. in
1851, and. in his teens became a well
known teacher of4fencng, his expert
ence in the fine art of .l'escrime .help-
ms him, no doubt, to acquire the easy
poise and wonderful Judgment of. dis
lance which ere'characteristic of his
methods in the ring. Like James
Mace. who onc described him as the
.cleverest living boxer after a. contest
in which the veteran failed to give
him the odds of so years, he was as
good with the naked fists as with the
gloves on; and in many of his fights
under the old rules he proved n the
truth of. the saying, Of the antique
Practitioners that a lest man, proc
syided heshasa strength and-pacef and
stamina, and the 'bottoms spirit so
often mentioned in the chronicles of
the p. r., is big enough to beat-the
h q x.fAnt ~ .#' - ,S,x~ .VXvl~-~
Fitzsimmons. weighing a little over
12st., won the heavyweight champion
shiplof the world in 1897, it was
shown that the time-honored saying
still holds good even in a boxing con-
test under modern conditions, which
certainly give more advantage to the
of mass and momentum than he
enjoyed under the London rules that
allowed his lighter antagonist to go
down to avoid punishment, and so
BRING the round to a summary con-
'c1usion.
After a number. of successful fights
with h raw 'uns,' Mitchell dis
.'tingushed himself in 1889, when he
was little more than lightweight, by
winning A competition open to- all
English heavyweishts. He had previ-
ously won a, similar competition for
middleweghts. He was then taken to
the United States to meet the famous
J. l.. Sullivan, having the worst of it
in a contest that was stopped by the
police at the close OF the third round.
Sullivan weighed list. BIB. to his OPP
ponent's lost. lob, but it seemed very
doubtful whether he would have
knocked out the Englishman, whose
staying power has never been r
passed, if the bout had been COM
pleted. In the second, round. Mitchell
actually knocked his gigantic antagon-
list clean off his feet. and his two
handed hitting throughout was so ac-
curate and sever that Sullivan, twho
won many Of his contests by taking
advantage of the referees complais-
and smashing his nan as he was
rising from Il falD declined Mitchell's
challenge to a contest under prize ring
rules in a "a It. arena. s
. I'm 1888. however, this contest &C
tually took place in France. and the
story of. the battle. which was given
up as a draw after 3h. 10 min. So sec.
OF fighting in the rain. is one of the
strangest chapters in the annals of
old -style pugilisms The rounds varied
sfn; duration from Z min. Z sec.4to 10
sec, Mitchell often going down. from