Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1910 — JOHNSON DEFEATS JAMES J. JEFFRIES [ARTICLE]

JOHNSON DEFEATS JAMES J. JEFFRIES

End Comes Near Close of the Fifteenth Round. BATTLE IS HARD FOUGHT ONE Colored Champion Wins Approval of Large Crowd Present at the Battle of the Century—Jeff’s Seconds Stop Fight. BY JACK JOHNSON. “I fought a good fight, and I fought a different fight than I ever did before. Wasn’t it right for me to go in and take Jeffries’ style of fighting away from him? Instead of making him come to me I went after him. There was no stage of the contest when I was tri danger. Maybe I could have ended it quicker, but I preferred to take it slowly but surely, i think the pictures will show that I did most of, if not all the fighting.” BY JAMES J. EFFRIES. “The best man won. I did-net realize my Umitaticr.E until after the first few rounds. I then discovered what we all discover sooner or later, I thought I was right, tut the contest and my own feelings showed me that I was, mistaken. New I will be allowed to rest and live quietly, as I have sought to do. I will never fight anybody again.” Reno, Nev., July 5 —Jack Johnson, the negro heavyweight champion, turned over the sporting world. He knocked out James J. Jeffries in the fifteenth round. It was sudden, this defeating of a hitherto unbeaten man. It came swiftly like the dropping of some bolt that wrecks a 10,000 horsepower dynamo. Hardly had the bell sound when the lightning movement of the negro’s right arm in an uppercut ended in a thud. The tremendous head of the white fighting man swung back as the glove landed on his jaw just to the right of the mid-chin. His torso relaxed, his knees trembled, then crooked. Down he went. Sixteen thousand people leaped to their feet, and the great dish of the arena was so still that those sitting next to the ring could hear the click of the black champion’s teeth as he snapped his jaws shut and stood waiting over the fallen fighter. The time keeper had counted nine. Jeffries, his head swinging from side to side on his thick neck, struggled to his knees, to his feet. Hardly had he straightened when two terrific blows shot over his feebly rising guard. A right and left uppercut to the chin followed. Down the white man tumbled. This time his body was outside the ropes and his legs were crooked over the white strands. The spell was broken, the arena roared. Rickard, the referee, was rattled. He stood by the side of the beaten pugilist, counting in a dazed sort of way. Nobcdy watched him. Everybody had his eyes on Jeff in the uproar Timekeeper Harding counted Jeff out. Nobody heard him. Abe Attel ran over from Jeff’s corner and lifted up the ropes while the fighter clambered blindly through. The man stood, half crouching, knowing nothing. Jim Corbet yelled some thing at him. The words were unheard. Then came the black man, not knowing that his antagonist had been counted out He came lightly, stepping swiftly like a cat stalking He jumped to the side of the bloodied,, half conscious man <nd with his arms jerking back and forth with the thrust of an engine’s piston, he pounded and pounded the drooping head of the former champion. Uppercuts, each one of them. First with the right, then with the left, Johnson swung back the iolling head. Again the tremendous bulk of the white man tottered.

Sam Berger, Jeff's manager, jumped into the ring and rushed to Jeff’s side. Rickard understood and he waved Johnson back to his corner. At the same time he held up his hand and motioned toward the black retreating. That was the end. The fight was won. A man unbeaten, and thought to be unbeatable, had been pounded into de* feat. The championship remained with the negro and $70,500, 60 per cent of the total purse of SIOI,OOO, had been won. It was what the followers of. pugilism call a clean knockout. The blow that the black man sent up from his waist to the point of Jeff's chin in that first quarter minute of the fifteenth round was the blow that finished the battle. Jeff was outclassed, outpointed. He did not lose because of a lucky blow. No such spectacle as the one inside the .graded tiers of humanity has“ever been seen. Probably in this country no such Spectacle will be seen again. It was the fight of the century. It was the surprise of the century also. The story of the fight by rounds fob lows: Round I.—Jeff feinted several times and Johnson landed a tight left to the face: long clinch. Jeff grinning. Johnson tried two lefts but Jeff blocked with shoulder and both aeain clinched. Close infighting collowe .' in which Jeff landed kidney punches. Jeff landed his right to the body and a left hook to the jaw. Jeff slipped Inside a left jab and they clinched. They walked slowly around the ring laughing and tried but could not push the w hite man back. In the next clinch Johnson