BOXING

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 846, 18 June 1910, Page 12

BOXING

(Br JIEBCtTtIT.i

JEFFRIES AS A "TAIHOA" BOXEK. . THE LATEST RUMOUR,

Juno Amateur chanipiouships (Town Hall). July 4.—AVorld's championship (Johnson and Jcltries), San Francisco. July G.—Wairarapa B.A. tourney (Town Hall, Masterton). July 27, 28, 29.—New Zealand championships (I'alinerston North). September B.—Burns v. Langford. -The Flat-Footedness of Johnson. Ex-chainpion Jim Corbett' is absolutely convinced that Johnson will- be soundly beaten on July 1, if for no other reason than .that ho is a flat-footed fighter. The flat-looters, according to Gentleman Jim, are all failures, excepting when they have the luck to meet rushers; for the simple reason that they cannot get about quickly enough to deal, with a really expert lighter. Then Gentleman Jim goes carefully aud critically into the formation'of Johnson's feet, and.also of the legs above- thorn; and comes to the conclusion that ho is top-heavy, and will therefore soon tire, which weariness, lidded.to his physical defect of ilat-footecl-ness, will assuredly prove fatal. "Mind you," ho. concluded, "I am not underestimating Johnson. Ho is a clever and forceful fighter, a hard hitter, a splendid man in defence; but he is flat-footed, and he cannot escape the disabilities which Providence has laid on him." I The fact that Corbett hai joined Jeffries' training stuff may havo something to do witli the tono of the foregoing remarks. It is stated, by tho way, that the ex-"l?ompauour" and tho challenger aro to have an out-and-out, all-in, a outrauce combat by way of a dress rehearsal for tho big performance, with no audienco except the regulation seconds and referee, who will, of course, be members of the Jeffries party. It is hard, however, to see just whero the benefit of this encounter is to be—except, of course, as a certain measure of confidence. Even in this respect it docs not appeur to bis of much use, as Jeffries must, perforce, be far fitter than Corbett, if only by virtue of his longer preparation', while, as a test of the big man's speed and aggressiveness—well, the fact that Corbett has been absent from the ring even longer than Jeffries, and is also some years older, is amplo testimony to its uselessness. Jeffries's Alleged Plan of Battle: Taitoa. Whilo on tho subject of Corbett, it is published that he has stated that Jeffries 'intends to play a waiting Ramp on the convincing day. He holds Jeffries up as ii model of palienco in tho ring—a man who. is content to let his chance come to him, aDd who will wait, wait, and wait for that chance. If this is so, tho opening stages of the battle will be slow indeed. If ever a boxer has proved his ability to carry out a "taihoa" policy in tho ring it is Johnson—he has always lived up to his proud boast that he "can make any man como to him." And now Jeffries is going to follow suit. With both moil adopting waitin;; tactics patience will indeed cease to be a virtue. Obviously it would appear wise on the part of intending spectators to take along a book to beguile the waiting hours of the preliminary rounds, or else, to drop in just as tho loss patient of the combatants is beginning to got to work—say in about tho twenty-fifth or thirtieth round. ; Russell's Recent Triumph. With the closing of tho Sydney Stadium Brisbane appears to bo taking the lead as the deciding ground for Australia's best contests. In addition to the "Billy" Elliott v. Russell bout, won by the exWellingtonian under the peculiar circumstances set out below, matches between Arthur Douglas and Frank Horno and Dick Cullen ami K. Unholz have been arranged. In reference to the RussellElliott event the referee says:—"The contest at tho Brisbane Stadium on Saturday night between 'Billy' Elliott, Australasian feather-weight champion, and 'Joe Russell,' Ihe Queensland champion, as anticipated, drew a record crowd. Tho articles were originally drawn up to have the continent's championship title involved, but Elliott wanted tho weights to bo taken at ringside, whilst Russell desired to weigh at noon on tho day of the contest. Neither party would give in, so they boxed at catch-weights. Russell was weighed just prior to the contest, and ho tipped the beam at Sat. 13J1b., so he would have been safe in agreeing to EUiott.'s condition. "After some good boxing all through, the fifth round proved the best round of the contest. At tho opening Elliott' scored with a left hook with power behind it, and Russell clinched. Working to mid-ring, they stood too to toe and banged at each other with both hands, and the crowd howled with excitement. At long range Russell missed with a right uppercut, and both scored with left hooks, and the round concluded '. with cheering for both principals. The sixtli I'mmd was quiet, and in the uintli Kussell was applauded for his clever ducking from ii'ight swings, which.may havo been dangerous had they contacted. Russell, vho throughout the contest had crouched low, so low, in fact, that Elliott on several occasions, chopped him on the back of the neck,' came in to a left-hand hook with plenty of force in it, and the Quecnslander rising slightly just as the blow was delivered, seemed to havo been struck very low. Russell went to the boards, but 'Refcrco Cullen, evidently thinking ii foul had been committed, did uot count. Ordering Elliott to his corner tho referee, before giyinar (i. verdict, desired Russell to bo examined by_u uiedM man. Dr. Hopkins happen-

ing to be at the ringside immediately stepped into the ring and examined Kussell, and the doctor stated lie could not see any trace of injury. Culleii then awarded the match to Elliott. "Elliott stated afterwards that he would give Knssell a return match for the championship and ,£SO aside, weigh in ringside, and Donald, Bussell's trainer, announced they were prepared for a return contest in the same conditions as Saturday'sjjxture, and £25 aside." "The Style and Spirit of Boxing." Under the title "The Stylo and Spirit of Boxing" the English "l'icld" publishes an excellent article on the sport, in which, inter alia, the exact value of tlic knock-out" as the determining factor m a boxing contest is admirably dealt with, sonio excerpts from the article follow:— "The origin of boxing as a sport—as a very admirable sport-clearlv lies in :lie systematiscd practice of solf-defeuce by means ot a man's two hands, so that scnous and actual fighting by the most, approved method is the primary aim of all boxing. To what extent, however, this aim should bo lost sight of in sparring competitions at the nresent day it is at first sight a little difficult to see. If a competition is to bo conducted as a mere science show or gymnastic entertainment, when men posture and- attitudiniso the better to gain a purely conventional advantage, tho spirit of tinsport, is quite-.lost; and yet at least equally absurd is it if for tho purposes ot an alleged sport for two men to stand up and batter each other, having regard only to the amount of damage they can mtuct by howsoever ungainly mean's. It is at least no more proper that a comnejition should be a rough-and-tumble light .made ridiculous with gloves than that it should be emasculated. ' Now, boxing was brought into disrepute some years ago, owing to the fact" that its-physical aspect was uplifted to the detriment of its scientific method, lne great thing was to achieve a knockout, which settled the question of suproinacy—at least so it was thought—at once. If a man knew enough to bring oil a knock-out blow, and if his opponent did. not know enough to'guard it,-or wa= negligent or too fatigued, the former must be the better man. After a time it was realised that in the manifolc chances that attend this most' uncertain sport, the above conclusion was altogether inadequate and absurd. True. Hie majority of men knoeked-out by their opponents would be beaten by them in a street fight with bare fists, but it waa recognised suddenly, that boxing as a sport had come right away from fisticuffs as a means of defence and attack to almost as great an extent as foil fencing had departed from a dud to tho death!" ' After drawing an analogy between fencing and boxing, the writer points out that the former sport is the survival of a hfe-and-death encounter, and goes on to say:—"Boxing or. bare-fist fighting never of its essence involved the chances of life and death, so that the modern sport which has developed from it should'lose far less of its original motif than must necessarily, bo the case with fencing. In the evolution of 'a sport from-a deed of war the buttoned foil is an infinitely loss hurtful weapon than the Soz. glove." After a fair and interesting argument along these lines ho sums, up this much vexed question thusly:—• "Tho truth is that physical fighting cannot be divorced from style in boxing. and if a. man's soience is not sufficient to prevent'him from being knocked out it is not worth its name. If he grows careless because for two rounds he has had tho best of it, he deserves to lose: if some untoward accident occurs—is not the chance tho essence of sport? If wo J are going to cavil at chance we have no i right to be called sportsmen." (Which appears to be just the plain common ! sense of the matter.) 1 Kauffman and Langford. Sam Langford and Al Kauffman are to meet to-day in California. Langford should be well wound np for his September battle with Burns if, ho keeps up his present fighting clip. Since setting a newspaper decision over Ketchell in Philadelphia in. llay, which followed closely upon his victory from "Jim" , Barry, ho has beaten one "Young John- . son," and as stated above meets Kauffman to-day, and is looking for more. An average of over a contest per month • should keep the black in good "fix" if anything should. Kauffman, by the way, has joined tho Johnson training staff, and should prove a very useful punching bag for the champion, being young, strong, and vigorous, albeit slow and lacking ia "head"—in' fact, much tho same typo as Victoria's Bill Lang.Entries for the Wellington Amateur , Championships on June 28 and 29 close ■ next Friday.