BOXING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9664, 1 December 1909, Page 6

BOXING.

Tims the 'Frisco correspondent of the Sydney "Referee" "Gunboat" Smith, an able seaman. IL S. N, t punched bis way. from a pugilistic gunboat to a real Dreadnought of the rifig, when in the fourth round of his exhibition bout with Jack Johnson, the heavyweight champion of the world, he knocked that pugilistic phenomena, to the canvas at Johnson's training quarters at the Seal Rock house. And it whs no fluke knock down. Coming out of a clinch near the end of the last round, "Gunboat" swung a right overhand chop which took Johnson flush on the chin. The negro went down as prettily as any fighter ever hit the matted ring, and when he got up he was dazed so much that George Little, Johnson's manager and timekeeper, called time, cutting the round short fully a minute and seeing to it that the navai scrapper did no more spurring with the champion during the rest of the afternoon. Smith had shown in the first three rounds that he boxed that he could reach Johnson with a right overhand chop, and he landed this blow on Johnson frequently. Smith and Johnson slammed each other around good and hard, and the fans who visited the Seal Rock camp to witness the sparring exhibition felt beiore the end of the second round of the Smith-Johnson bout was over that they were seeing the real thing. From the moment he donned the gloves up to the last round Smith displayed little fear of Johnson's hitting ability and mixed punches wit h him at every opportunity. The man wh'i fought more ring battles (379) than anj other pugilist; the man who at one time held three titles, middle weight, light weight, and heavy weight champion; the man who won more money in the squared circle than any other fighter; the man who was 'flim-flammed' (as they have it in America) out of more of his earnings than any other gladiator of the ring—those are a few of the distinctions attached to Bob Fitzsimmons.

The following are the most important Australian fix lures for December:—7th, Joe Costa v. Jim Griffin, Gaiety; Bth, Bill Turner v. Pat O'Kecfc, Stadium ; 3 4th, Fitzjohn v. Dealer Wells, Gaiety; loth, Mark Iliggins v. Geo. Unholz, Stadium; 22nd, Arthur Douglas v. Geo. Johns, Stadium; 27th, Bob Fitzsimmons v. Bill Lang, Stadium, for purse of ,£2,500, GO per. cent, to the winner and 40 per cent to the loser. Fitzsimmonf.', the ex Timmivian, has.prospered exceedingly during hi a 20 years in America, which is not by any means always the case with champion pugilists. He told an interviewer in Sydney that since he started on his American career he had never looked back. He had won over £IOO,OOO in prizes in 13 years, and ownec] two homes.

When be met Mr Mcintosh in London he was playing, with his wife, "A Man's a Man for a' That," and was drawing ±'2so a week. There is some ball punching in the play, and Fitzsimmon3 is considered the best ball puncher in the world. He said he thought Jeffries would beat Johnson, the negro, but if he did mt there would be racial trouble.