The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-31
54 HARRY l1RAYSON.
BAER PROPOSAL TO FIGHT PAIR ON SAME NIGHT
 NOT EXACTLY NEW

MAX 6aeE proposal 10 meet Steve Hamas and Ar Lasky is new only in the sense that if such multiple match was made pos- sible the. Butterfly Butcher Boy would be the first champion in any division to engaged two ranking challengers on the same night.
 Fighters of the past have tackled as many as half dozen in an evening, but not while ruling the resined roost.
 The closes thing to what Baer suggests was left uncompleted when Jim Jeffries fractured a bone in his right hand on the hard head of Bob Armstrong, clever and shifty negro, in 1898.
 Seeking to give Jeffries a smashing introe.,lction in New. York, Billy Brady signed the boilermaker ito box Armstrong and Steve -D,Donnell, who held an Australian title when it meant vastly more than one does today, 10 rounds each at the old Broad way Athletic club.
 Jeffries looked so bad in eking out a decision over Armstrong, that there was no demand for him to attempt the second engagement even had he been able to. Boiler maker Jim was laughed off Broad way.
 The broken hand turned out to be break for Jeffries, for among those guffawing was Bob Fitzsim- mons.
 Fitz figured that the cumber- some Jeffries who barely outpoint- ed Armstrong; would have no chance against him, and readily accepted when Brady himself pro- noted the proc lction at Coney Island only 19 months later. Ruby Robert realized his mistake with the opening burst of fire, however, California Bear his famous crouch and worked wonders with him. Numbers Meant
 Nothing to Fitz
 , Fitzsimmons went out in the eleventh round in the initial defense of the heavyweight lead ership he had taken form Jim Corbett a little more than two years before, and the hairy Jef- ferries established a record that still stands, by becoming cham pion in his eleventh start.
 Fitzsimmons made his bow as a beak buster by taking on not two men. but five in one night. Ruby Robert al inn Herbert Slade, the Maori heavy America to square off with John L. Sullivan.
 Fitz performed this remarkable feat in 1881 in tournament con- ducted by Jem Mace at Timura, New Zealand, in the same ring in which he beat four rivals on one bill to acquire the amateur cham pionship of that country.
 Tim McGrath, veteran manager and wit of San Francisco, who handled Tom Sharkey and many others, digs up the accounts of early chroniclers to show that one American heavyweight champion forfeited his crown as the result of being too pugnacious.
 He was Yankee Sullivan, a 160- pounder who inherited the throne with the retirement of Tom Hyer. Sulliva n lost the title to Hyer in terrific bare-knuckle engagement at Rock Point, Md, in 1S49.
 Sullivan march front and cen ter with John Morrissey at Long Po:lt, Canada, in 1853. Sullivan, so ring reporteds of the period re- late, had Morrissey beaten in 37 rounds, when row started out side the inclosure. r
 Sullivan, born Irish, but raised in the streets of London's East End, rushed from his corner to help his friends Poscketed in the crowd, ewas unable to get back to the ring to toe the scratch at the call of time. The title went to Morrissey. That was one way of winning one in the good old days.