BOXING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2658, 13 November 1909, Page 6

BOXING.

LANG TO FIGHT KETCHEL

MELBOURNE, Oct. 30. Bill Lang has received a cable message from Sam Fitzpatrick in San Francisco, offering him £l2oo’ for a fight with Stanley Ketch-el, win or lose, and £IOO expenses. Lang has accepted the r ffer, and will leave Melbourne in January. The fight takes place in April.

JACK JOHNSON iAND JIM JETFRIES MATCHED.

The following cablegram was received in Sydney on October 30:— LONDON, Oct. 29. Jeffries and Johnson met in New York yesterday and agreed to fight before Tuesday, July 5, 45 rounds, or more before Jhe club offering the largest inducements by December 1. The winner is to get 75 per cent of. the gross takings.

Each of the contestants is to deposit 5000 dollars (£1000) forfeit, and also a side bet of the same amount. Throughout the discussion Jeffries ignored Johnson, who- sat among Ins friends drinking wine to his own success.

At last! The sporting world heaves a deep- sigh of relief. Little- less than twelve months ago- Jack Johnson won the heavy-weight championship from Tommy Burins, and ever since wo have had Jeffries and Johnson almost as regularly as our daily bread. Jeffries’ shrewd ’Frisco friends placed him firmly astride of opportunity directly oversea wires between Australia and America flashed across intervening waters the news of the negro’s success in Sydney last Boxing Day, and Jeffries kept liis seat well until the steed became exhausted ; then lie hied him away from the hurly-burly to partake of Carlsbad’s famous waters and to think. That the world’s retired champion did withdraw into a comparatively secluded corner of the earth to ponder over possibilities was demonstrated by the fact that when his manager, Sam Berger, got hold of Johnson and fixed up an agreement, which both signed, Jeffries repudiated the whole thing upon being informed of it at Plymouth, en route to Calsbad. “I am astonished," he said, “that such a statement shoiild appear. In my absence from America nobody has. any right or authority to fix the matter up.” Then Jim went on to say: “I am at present in very good fettle. On the voyage across I\ would not allow myself to get lazy, but took a lot of exercise in the well-ap-pointed gymnasium with which the ship is fitted" I have- been working regularly for the- last five months, and have got clown to 235 pounds (16st. 111 b). Of course I am not yet in thei pink condition, but expect to get weight off gradually . by steady, regular exercise, such as I have done for months past, apart from my sparring exhibitions.” After the world had been kept in keen suspense for ten months—until pretty well all interest in the question as to "whether the pair would ever meet had completely died out—it now comes as the unexpected that Jeffries and Johnson have not only agreed to face each other by-and-bye, but have fixea a limit to the extent of time which must elapse before that long-looked-for happening, and undertaken to post certain forfeits and side-bets as evidence of their kma-fkles; but why was the money not put up straight away? American ii.es by last week’s mail have few references to the two big fellows of pugilism, and the papers which gave them space at all do so to have a laugh at- the farce that had lasted so long, and say that there was plainly no possibility of a match, especially as Johnson had been offering 1060 to 2000 dollar bets that Jeffries would never toe the mark, and not a soul in gambling Americe could be coaxed to call the black down. Even now I would have little faith in the signing of the compact but for the fact that there is substantial money to be lost and won should either man fail to keep faith with the other.