THE BIG FIGHT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 73, 5 July 1910, Page 5

THE BIG FIGHT.

I JOHNSON AND JEFFRIES. Py Cable—Press Association—Copyright. ' New York, July 3. The promoters of the fight announce that 2000 'women are buying seats. Children under ten will not be admitted, and those between ten and fitteen only il accompanied by guardians. Jeffries' masseur states that Jeffries spends 2% hours daily on the massage table. He is the first pugilist _j train with the object of uiatead of hardening the muscles. Twelve million negroes await the result of the fight with interest. The Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, lias notified theatres thai, u uuiietiab of the. fight are read in them, whites and blacks must not be admitted to the . earne theatre. Betting at, Reno is 10 to 6 on Jeffries. Tihe Reno correspondent of the New York World announces that Johnson has promised to deposit a forfeit at • New York to fight Burns in Australia, America or London. BOW TO BEAT THE BLACK FELLOW. Reno, July 3. Jeffries has had a lengthy conference with Abe Attell, who seconded Jack O'Brien against Johnson, and suggested methods' of defeating Johnson;. A ' purse containing 101,000 dollars bm been handed to 'lim Sullivan, stake bolder. THE SEAT OF WAR. ; i ' TREMENDOUS CROWDS. iOOD AND BEDS AT A PREMIUM. . , THE ARENA DESCRIBED. < ; Received July 4, 10.10 p.m. Reno, July 4. Special trains are arriving naifhourly. Many people are sleeping in the open. Schwab and other millionaires are Wving in private railway cars. lie streets are thronged with hungry : .*owds seeking entrance to. the crowded restaurants. Exorbitant prices rire being charged for food and drink. Ofchers are visiting the camps , of ; Jeffries and Johnson. The safoons and gambling halls wert closed on Sunday. The boxers were idle on that day. Only intimates saw Jeffries. The nigger's camp resounded witt ' songs and niusic. Crowds of Californian enthusiasts, fa Wring Jeffries, are arriving. Manj insider that Johnson will not ias< twenty rbhnds. i • Corbett, Killran, "Battling" Nelson Etzsimmons, Sullivan, .Burns, Lang /Slavin, Sharkey, Langford and Ketchel have arrived. ' : The arena is a mile and a -half fron the city. It is three hundred ieel • square, and there is a twenty-seven iool platform in the centre. Below' the platform are telegraph! and telephones, supplying bulletin? ioi music halls ani other places where bul letin boards have been arranged. Each row of seats is five inchei higher, , and the seats are so arranget that spectators can see between th<

V beads of those in front. The ring therefore appears to be circled by slop- , ing walls of faces to a height of thirty feeti NEGROES ARE PRAYING. ITGHT BULLETINi~IN THE PULPIT. GAOLBIRDS WILL RECEIVE TELEGRAMS. ~ Received July 5, 12.10 a.m. Reno,' July 4. Some of the negro churches have invited their members to meet and pray and sing, until Johnson wins. The progress of the fight will he shown an screens above the pulpits. ■' . • Prisoners in the Chicago gaol, will be privileged to operate a special wire, giving them a bulletin of the fight. IS TTTE RESULT PREARRANGED? The Masterton correspondent of the Wellington Times telegraphs:—A cable message was received here on Saturday by a local re'sident who is particularly interested in the Johnson-Jeffries boxIng match, from a resident of Rerio, advising him not to take any wager on the contest. This the receiver of the cable translates as meaning that the result of the fight is pre-arranged; but an- accidental blow may upset calculations. It may be explained that, the local resident had arranged with the sender of the cable, who is a New Zealander, and recently went to . Reno, to forward the name of the boxer most likely to win, the cable referred to being the reply. - OORBETT <$N JEFFRIES. WORLD'S GREATEST PUGILIST. "Having been requested to pick the man.'Who, in my opinion, was the greatest pugilist this world has ever seei, and to give the reason for my selection, I reply without any hesitation to the first question—James J. Jeffries, o{ Los Angelos, California." Thus Jem Corbett ! upon the man who entered the ring yesterday to battle for a championship which he had laid aside, and to wh it back, { if possible, for his own color again. Corbett, who gives his reasons (tinged no doubt by some faint recollection of the battering he saw Bob Fitzsimmons, his own conquerer, take from James J. Jeffries when he lost the heavy-weight title), discourses at length upon big "Jeff" in the San Francisco Weekly Chronicle. He gives a .history of the art of boxing, from the old days when it was merely a display of brut® strength down to the presentday soientific methods. He speaks of Jem Mace with the reverence due to an 'old master who founded scientific pugilism, albeit it is with the conviction that Mace's methods are out of gate. '1 shall never," he says, "forget my first introduction to Jem Mace some sixteen years ago. He invited me .to come around and show him what I had that was new in boxing. It' was a meeting of the old and new champions, and I was as glad-of the opportunity to learn from him as to show my own skill. He Explained the straight leads and straight cross-counters that he had used so effectively in earlier days, and seemed greatly surprised when I kindly told him that'if he boxed like that now the dever men of the new school would tear the top of his head off." Then Corbett asked Mace to lead at him. Mace did, and "was simoly dumb with astonishment at my skill in avoiding his leads. For instance, I tried the ' double feint with both hands; and

slipped into a side-step, at which he J?° „ Jl, ands and went out of position. Corbett left Mace gaping at his wonderful new tricks. "What shall I say 0 f Jim Corbett,'' continues the modest James J. Corbett. He had studied out a style in which something had been, adopted from Mace, and carried forward into a development showing individuality. Without dwelling further upon the subject, I wish modestly to say that there has been little improvement since." Then he considers Jeffries "a big, robust man, weighing 2301b., as hard as nails, and the quickest man of his weight I have ever seen in the ring. Above all, he has something that none of the others could ever show ■— a knock-out punch with the left hand. Unlike some of the other critics, I believe Jeff still the master of them all. . . . Jeffries takes punishment with the same due nonchalance as did Morffis9ey, is clever, like Mace, but with an improved style, and he is bigger 1 than O'Baldwin. He is better on his feet than Coburn, and he has all that anyone else ever had; in face, little more, including that famous knock-out punch with the left hand, and he doesi't need to send it along more than 7 in. to make it effective." Here, then, is a picture by a skilled critic of the human battering ram that meets Mr. Jack Johnson.

"JEFFRIES WILL WIN." " I know both these gentlemen, and I think Jeffries is going to ■tfin." Thus Rudie Unholz, the much-travelled exchampion light-weight of the world. He was in Johnson's corner when the black took the world's championship irom Burns, and he was in the same hotel with Jeffries for six months ut .Los Angelos. "Johnson is flash. That's why he is unpopular. He would be just as unpopular if he was white. Johnson has never done much in the big man; business. Of course, he is all Tight) among the little fellows. Burns was' only a big middle-weight when he met him. Johnson says he is a one hundred and ninety-two pounder. That's wrong. He never lets a man see him on tjie scales, but I know he went into the ring then weighing 2101b. That' 15st. Burns was a quarter of a pound! under 12st. If Burns had not done all the leading he would, have been on his legs at> the end of 20 rounds,' and might have got the decision. Worry got his weight'down, and tem-, per lost him the fight. He thought inside that he would get' teat. Johnston hasn't got a knock-out punch up Against big men. His record shows that he doesn't know how to figljt .big msii. His science will be no good ■to hun against Jeffries; Jeffries has not been out of the game so long, either. • ;]Je fought' Munro in ' 1904. Since then, lie has been in vaudeville 18. months, and that would, keep him in fair condition. •He was never a feiloW to go the pace.' /Die fight is for 45 rounds, and ..the nigger knows that before the end pf them he is going to get hit. He kn(#s inside that he'is going to get beat. Jeff has a punch that will knock you. cold', and the ,coon knows he's going; to get it. -The big feilow will keep him moving, and if Johnson trie^'to do what he did with Burns, Jeffries Will knock his block off. Johnson is going "to lead on points until he gets that punch, and then the ; white people will have got their own back again. Jeffries will go ba«pk to his farm pleased as the . big kid he is."