Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1912 — FAILURES AS FIGHTERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FAILURES AS FIGHTERS

Sparring Partners of Ring Star* ■ : ™ Sefdom Make €tood. ■ 1 Iq.'' : Jim Jeffries If One of Two Notables Exception A-to Rule —Kid McCoy, Who Traveled With Tommy Ryan, is Another. It is an odd fact that the sparring partners of great ring stars, rarely ever amount to much as fighters. Jack Johnson had a couple of clever men to assist him In Marty Cutler and Walter Monahan* but neither one of them made good in the ring. Jack Stenzler and George Lawler traveled In a like capacity with Bob Fitzsimmons In the long ago. Both were fine-looking chaps physically and in a position to learn all there was to be learned from-one of-the best generals and most cunning boxers that ever donned a glove—but neither of them was worth two cents when turned loose in a ring to race a real opponent. Peter Jackson once picked up a big Welchman named St. John In England, who was a giant in size, and tried his best to mold him Into top-notch form. But St. John simply couldn’t be taught; his brain works wouldn’t stand the strain. Gameness and strength he had in plenty, but it was beyond him to grasp the meaning of science and generalship. He was afterwards slain in South Africa in a hand-to-hand fight In which ho killed five Boers with his clubbed rifle before succumbing to his wounds. Jim Corbett used' tp have a fine, husky middle-weight named Jim Daly, of Buffalo, as a sparring partner. 4 Daly was fairly clever and aspired to be champion of the 158-pounders. But Kid McCoy knocked him stiff, and his ring careeer ended when Joe Butler, the formidable Philadelphia trial horse, sent him to the cleaners with a wallop which came close to terminating Daly ? s earthly course. Then there was Yank Kenny, who was big enough to beat two ordinary men, and served Jim Jeffries as a punching bag when Jeff was on tour, in his palmy days. Kenny was an awful frost as a fighter, however, and got whipped by every taan of class he tackled. When John L. Sullivan was cbam» pion he set out on a wdrld tour with Jack Ashton as his mate. Reaching Australia, Sullivan was challenged by the Barrier champion, Joe Goddard, but John treated Goddard with contempt and offered to match Ashton against him. The fight came off and Goddard knocked Ashton out in Jig

time. John L. didn’t stay to exact vengeance for the downfall of his partner, but went straight home. When Sullivan was in his prime he put the quietus on Herbert Slade, the Maori, a pupil of old Jem Mace, who was touted by the veteran bare knuckle champion as a sure comer in the ring. There were two notable exceptions to the rule that sparring partners seldom make champions. One was none other than Jeffries, who absorbed the finer points of the game while engaged as sparring partner with Jim Corbett when the latter was training for his memorable battle with Fitzsimmons at Carson City. The other was Kid McCoy, who traveled for a while with Tommy Ryan, found out all the latter’s weak spots and licked him to a frazzle afterwards in fifteen rounds at Maspeth, L. I.

Jim Jeffries.