The Washington times., 1929-03-05

The fancy and the scientific feat
ures of pugilism are not to its liking.
The youngster who is tuning up
for a ring career should keep the
fact in mind, If he ever expects to
have crowd appeal and send the GUS
toners home raving and tearing
their hair in a hysteria of fistic
enthusiasm, he must sock-and do
not mean the kind that usually goes
coupled with shoes.
As a scientific fight the Sharkey-
Stribling affair left little to desire.
Both men were at their best Wednes-
day night, fiddling and jabbing, and
blocking and stepping away. or try
ing up the other in dangerous
moments.
The boys were fighting with
their heads, trying to out
jockey, Outtrick and lure the
other into traps. If they had put
on their bout in England, it is
quite certain that it would have :
drawn much praise and enthus-
iasm from the English who Ger"
tainly like their boxing. But
it was staged in the L. 5. A. and
that was the rub"
The Battle of Miami started off
in way that made many feel 1t
would end with one man or the
other knocked out. The early
rounds were well fought, with each
man coaxing the other into mixing
it, Right about then l sat down
to enjoy what promised to to be
furious finish.
However, ! was little disap-
pointed after the fourth because the
bows used their defense more than
their offense.
The Stribling excuse is that he
hurt an ailing rib on his left side
in that fourth. And I believe him,
because he made little real use OF
his left after the fourth, although
up to that time he was poking 1t
consistently into Sharkey's face.
And Sharkey, who emerged
from the fight with undiluted
praise for StribIing'S right hand
punching power, came to respect
Strib's waIlOp in the fourth. 1t
was i'm that round that the
Georgian crossed a right that
Jared Sharkey from head to
heel, and made Jack admit to
himself that he was wrong in
his earlier conclusion that "Strib
can't break an egg"
The battle was one of those elimi-
nation things and it was supposed
that the loser would be tossed COM
pletely into the discard.
Yet the way view it, now that 1t
is all done, there is plenty of glory
for Stribling in defeat. wv. L" un-
doubtedIy will do comeback that
may vet land him on top.
Stribling's weakness was that he
never has met class" in heavy
weight circles before he faced Shar-
key. The Bostonian, calling to his
command the tricks that he had
learned from fighting topnOtchers,
just outsmarted Stribling after the
Young Southerner had hoped along
to an early lead and looked like the
potential winner.
The Georgian will he about
ripe for another crack at the
best man among the heavies
next winter or in the summer
Of 1880.
In the meantime, youngsters who
aspire to push the Sharkeys and
the Striblings and the others out
of the way, and gain fistiana chief
slorieis for themselves must keep
in mind always this vital some
thing:
Learn to punch with crushing
power and then, having done so,
climb into the ring and fight with
the purpose of knocking out the
other fellow, or being knocked out
in failure! Nobody ever will razz
you for that spirit. The crowds
will knock down the fences to see
you in actionr'
Copyright, 1929, King Features
syndicate Inc.)