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Jeffries Real Condition Not Repealed in Stage BoutsBy B. F. Boil or.Ever since 1 started ou Jh* jtamI with James J. Jeffries and FMu* Goich I have seen stories In the papers regarding Jeffs condition, and 1 do not believe one of them have star-ed what the real condition of the h:g champion is- People see him on the | stage and judge from his appearance . what his condition is. They cannot. j tell. In Jewries stage bouts be onl gives a slight idea of whet he can do. His real conditiou can be judged iroin his work in private training.Some thick Jeffries is not training in private, but that is a mistake. AU the time I wag with the Gotch-Jef-fries show cheJjlK fellow was training every day. He boxed with me and tussled with Got eh on the mat. The three of us played handball, and despite the fact that Goich and I are in good shape, considering the traveling wo have done. Jeff «ired us both out at handball any day. I was never so astonished at a man's'condition when j went with the show as.I was-at Jeffries. I was one of the doubtful Thomases who did not think he could ever come back. Butnow I am thoroughly convinced that ha will come hack and will be about as good, if not fully a* good as he was wfeeu be retired about six years ago.As far as Jeffries' wind is concerned. he Is sure to get that hack. He will have a hard lime getting all ot n. of course but he will be-plenty good enough to whip the negro. Johnson does not take any too care ofhimself and Jeffries will be just as good as he is in every way. and probably In a better shape to take punish-meat. .Jim Jeffries' idea is to set m tna beat possible shape for his bout with the colored n»an snd he means to be able to take aud give wallops hard enough to pul good men on queer avenue. All Jeffries thinks of is whipping that negro. He talks of it in the day lime and dreams of it at night. His one aim i3 life now is to bring the title back to the white race, and he is going to do il. in my estimation. I do cot believe Johnson is fighter enough to whip this fellow when Jeffries ge^s into the ring next July. At the pres-; cat time Jeffries is about 15 pounds over his fighting weight, despite utlk that he is down io weight and he has seven months in which to take this : amount off. which will be an easy thing to do. All of tins time he will i be iaioroving his wind and. endurance,I expect Jeff'to step iut.o the ring far-: ored because of his condition. That is how well I think of his abilitr to . come back.Judge For Yourself.: Jeffries boxed every day with Berger. Jack McCormick and myself. He I takes Berger aud McCormick on in i public and myself in private. He fights ha«cl with. me.' He has (old me to give him all I have got, and I have handed j the big fellow some hard jolts since ‘ we were together on that trip. He also hit me some pretty bard jabs. It did both of us lots of good. I will try a few heavyweights myself in the next rew mouths as I learned a lot from Jeffries. Jeff tussles on the mat with Gotch, and when they get throughGotch is as tired and is puffing as hard as Jeffries, and we ail know what good condition Gotch is generally io Jeffries skips the rope for an hour and it does not affect his wind a bit. Thu operations he had on his nose in York have made his breathiug good and I think his wind will he in excellent coudition. A man v.ho can play handball as he does Is not in very bad shape right now.When the tour is finished in February in Los Angeles, Jeff will take bis corps ot traiuers and go to iha mountains. He will trin hard every day and will probably have Gotch there to work out with him.James J- Corbett says that there it going to be a lot of secrecy about the work at Jeff's training camp. Corbett is going to take Jeff iuio Q back room three different times before the fight with Johnson, and there he will make the big fellow extend himself to limit- No one will be allowed to know what happened. Here is the story in Corbett's own words:“Every year yon hear a lot about secret football practice ami how ih* coaches are trying to hide their best plays froiu their opponents. Now these college fellows may think that they know something about covering up Their plans, hut they are going to get higher education in this secret train-iiig idea when Jeff and 1 3ettle down .or the fiual forty days' before iba fight.*;You know that I have said that 1 am going to meet Jeff in three regular fights. Well when these goes are pulled off not a soul is going to sec them. We probably w!H get up about a O’clock in the morning aud go Into a room by ourselves, there to fight it out. We shall tell iust one of the training staff-about ibe fight, aud he will ee stationed in the next room so that bfc can give us the signal for beginning and ending of each round.*Tc would not do to let a single person see these fights, not that they won't be worth seeing, for they are going to be real scraps in ever*' sense ot the word. If one person got a glimpse of them, he surely would tell about them and then the world would know just what shape Jeff was in, aud what is more important Jack Johnson would learn entirely too much about his opponent's condition.“Supposing that Jeff was not us good 3 he should be aud were to giveout in one o! liis fights with me and Johnson were to learn of it. The colored fellow would know juai how to go about fighting Jeff and probably would plan a stalling battle eo as to sap the big fellow's strength. No Johnson nor on one else is going to -know what happens when f mix with Jeff.“I am going -to get some heavy padded gloves for my tights with the king o£. fighters, not that 1 am afraid of him, but because I merely want to test his endurance. Were I to let him wear 5-ounce gloves, he might hang a Knockout punch on my jaw, _ which would do me no particular good, and would not be any test whatsoever for Jeff. T am going to amke go to the limit all the lime and see Just bo* much of his old stamina he has left-
Newspaper Details
Waterloo Times Tribune
Waterloo, Iowa, US
Sun, Jan 16, 1910
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
John H.
IL, USA 21 Dec 2017
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