The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-18
Gadsden Man Wins State Shoot
Corbett's Daily Letter
 On Great Sport Topics
By JAMES J. coRBETr.

Grudge battles arc something of rarity in the ring game. Few of the fights of the past or the present have been inspired by hatred of one man for arother. There have been contests where money and glory have been the lure; where the lust for revenge seldom has figured.
 Eut that Kid Mccoy-Tommy Ryan con test back in 1896, which ever will live lcng in ring memory, was a battle in which the yearning for revenge was the paramount aim of Kid Mccoy; one in which his hatred for Ryan, inspired by Ryans early contempt for him, caused Mccoy to trick Ryan into taking a ter nble beating.
 The Kid, who started his career in 1891, when he was only IS years old, had made fair success through the first two or three years of fighting. But in those days the purses for comparative UT knowns were not large, and when the offer came to Mccoy to act as spatring partner for Tommy Ryan, then ranked as one of the greatest fighters of his time, the Kid accepted.
 For some reason or other, Ryan took a dislike to Mccoy personally and rarely failed to show it openly. But he kept the Kid in his camp because he found in him a remarkable sparring partner, one who was amazingly fast and with natural cleverness that forced Ryan to stel his liveliest-which was just what Tommy wanted from a boxing mate. But the attitude of Ryan toward the Kid continued to be one which Mccoy con strued as contempt Tommy did and said many things in those days that hurt the proud sensitive Mccoy and the Kid treasured up every grievance, imaginary or otherwise, until the day should come when he could avenge each and every one of them.
 And all the while the Kid was study ing Ryan, watching his every trick of defense and attack. until Ryan, as q boxer, was to him like an open book
 Sometime later Ryan and Mccoy part. ed company. A year or two passed, dur ing which Ryan became looked upon by many as the middleweight champion be- cause Bob Fitzsimmons, the rightful owner of the title, had graduated into the heavyweight ranks.
 And then Ryan got a letter from Me- Coy-a letter that asked him for a match; letter in which Mccoy declared that he needed money just then and surely could use ''the losers end" hay ba that McCoy's reference to losers end' meant that the Kid would Hay down whenever Ryan passed the word. And then, again, it is possible that Ryan had no such thought in mind, but fig- ured that Mccoy was nothing more than a clever novice and that he would prove
 easy pickins.
 At any rate, Ryan fell into the trap by agreeing to give the Kid a fight, and the two men were matched to meet in Maspeth, l.. l., on March 2, 1896
 Whether it was because Ryan figured that Mccoy really was going to Hay down" to him, or whether he held the Kid in so much contempt that he felt he could beat him. no matter what his
 Ryan's) condition, l do not know. But l do know that Tommy Ryan didn't do any real training for that bout. He con. tlnued to live an easy life, and I doubt whether he spent more than two or three days conditioning himself for the fight that was to add thrilling chapter to the book of ring history.
 All the while Ryan supposed that the Kid was not doing any training, either McCoy's friends gave to Ryan the i'm precision that the Kid was living d gay. carefree life. But the point is that Me- Coy. in private, trained for that bout Sas he never trained for any other ,in his life. He went to every known extreme to whip himself into absolutely perfect ccIdition for the night he was to meet the man whom he hated above all other men.
 It was not until Tommy Ryan, sadly out of condition. climbed through the ropes that night in Maspeth and saw be- fore him the superbly conditioned Mccoy. and looked into the sneering face of his orce-time humble sparring partner, that he came to know that he had been tricked to his downfall; that the hour for McCoy's vengeance had come Mccoy, with mercless precision, pro- ceeded to cut Ryan to pieces, but Tommy. with the wonderful gameness that was his through all the years, fought back