FITZSIMMONS V. LANG.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2708, 12 January 1910, Page 7

FITZSIMMONS V. LANG.

HOW THE CONTEST WAS FOUGHT.

MAORILAND VETERAN MAKES A

GREAT SHOWING

("Sydney Bulletin.”

The event of the week was the battle at Sydney Stadium between Bill Lang of Australia and Robert Fitzsimmons of the Earth generally. Cornish by birth, Maorilancl by upbringing, ' Australian by adoption, Yankee by domicile, Fitzsimmons had wandered back to Australia after an absence of 20 years with 320 fights, mostly victories, to his credit. In his sparring matches, his ball work, and the rest or his training operations, ho showed himself to be a wonder. "~s old, old face, his strangely youth, lul body, his undoubted ringgeneralship, his skill as a boxer shown in a dozen friendly sparring matches, bewildered people generally, and puzzled experts who tried to estimate his chances. "Youth must tell!” said some. "Much science and some force is better than much force and less science,” argued others. Personally writer figured it out that if Lang managed to survive the ring craft of the veteran for eight rounds Youth would prove triumphant; Lang’s parlous period would be the first five or six rounds when his aged opponent would be fresh. After that tile old man’s strength would begin to ebb. There was a time when, as Fitz told a "Sun” interviewer, he used to announce with unerring accuracy in which round he would lay his man out. Asked to mention the number of Lang’s final round, he declined —things were changed, and he was getting old. And when th e writer had seen Fitzsimmons finally laid out in the glaring sun of Mclntosh’s Stadium, he had a faint recollection of having read' a description of that fight somewhere before. And it was the 12th Chapter of Ecclesiastes, the third verse: "In the days when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.” And that was the Lang-Fitzsimmons fight. As a boxer there was no comparison between Lang and Fitzsimmons; but as a fighter the aged pug had no hope against the youthful and somewhat ungenerous Australian. As Lang bored in and roughed, leaning his weight upon him in clinches, the old man’s legs trembled. When Lang showered blows, wild swipes, wrist and elbow bashes, and jabbed and wrenched l and played the wild animal generally, the old man bowed himself almost double to get out of the track of the blizzard, and when in the 12th round he was caught in the very vortex of the cyclone, lie was dazed, helpless, and unable to see sufficiently to even duck out of the way of the wild, aimless swipes. It- was apparent after the fourth round that Fitz’s strength had gone. He shook ominously wheu the younger man occasionally landed. Then there would be flushes of byegone "Freckled Freak,” and Lang would be slapped and bashed in a way that made him look a perfect novice. Clean through hi s guard the quick, sudden jabs stung him in the face, his head was banged from side to side, drives caught him in the stomach, and short-arm jolts on the jaw made him rock and hang for safety. Then he would back away, to come again with wild rushes which, in Fitz’s heydey, would have caused Lang’s head' to have been knocked into the middle of the fourth row of seats. But the flashes of ancient Fitz were shorblived. He would suddenly tire, and the venerable face would become drawn and wearied, and as the mass of youthful muscle walloped down on him his legs would totter pitifully. He had. shot his bolt, and although the shooting of it had been so pretty as to reduce the odds on Lang from five to one to five to four, there was little doubt wha,t the end would be. Still, if r he could weather it for 20 rounds, Fitz would win on points, and there was, of course, always the possibility of a sudden knock-out. Lang said he never doubted he would win, but he appeared anything but confident, and seemed afraid of the reputation of the man he was up against. Fitz, watching him grimly, with that once terrible right ready to swing to the jaw, was obviously looking for a knock-out. And when the ancient eye fixed on him Lang looked afraid. This fear was probably the cause of his unpopularity; it- caused' him to fight wild, probably quite without intention, he butted Fitz with his head and gave him some nasty blows on the elbow. The crowd howled demands for a foul. Also it hooted out and made insinuations, and finally worked itself up into such a state of excitement that it wildly applauded every blow Fitz got home and yelled when Lang smote back. Right up to the eleventh round Fitzsimmons seemed to hold his own on points. Truly, he had been knocked down twice, and once would have gone clean through the ropes, but that Lang caught him by the arm and pulled him back. But, somehow, his wonderful skill and the way he would make play over Lang for a few moments would make him level again on points. Lang’s offence was a sudden straight rush with the left thrown out and the right covering his jaw, and a heavy right swing after getting to close quarters. Again and again the right swing just missed the point by what seemed to be a hair’s breadth, or went inches wide round the old man’s neck. In the. in-fighting, Lang’s youthful strength gave him all the best of it, and he battered the old man badly. The veteran gave it all back, but Lang could stand it and Fitz couldn’t. When he started on the 12th round Fitz’s body was quivering, and Lang rushed him fiercely. Again Fitz was knocked through the ropes at the N.W. corner, but came up again, dazed and blinded. Lang was so excited that he didn’t know what to do, and’ automatically the tottering veteran evaded, and they skirled away round the ring' till, at the opposite' corner, Lang again got him on the ropes and bashed him with the' right and left. Fitz fell back against the ropes, and, as they tightened, tottered forward, and went down to be counted out. There is no doubt that Lang has improved enormously, but writer fails to sec any signs of a coming world-beat-er about him. Unusually strong, fresh from much practice with Johnson, better and stronger in every way, it took 12 rounds of frantic effort and much battering to knock out an old man about 52. For writer doesn’t believe the yarn re Fitz being only 46 or so. The man is over 50. As Lang said afterwards, .Fitz is a very hard man to hit, yet, with the tactics lie adopted, Lang, had there been in him any of the stuff of which real worldchampions are made, would have flattened out the ancient inside four rounds. But as the matter stands, Fitz as a boxer is still far ahead of him. It was sheer exhaustion on Fitz’s part that gave Lang the victory. Never before in Sydney Stadium has there been such a splendid exhibition of skill.

of graceful glove work, of rapid evasion and quiet, confident ducking as that put up by Robert Fitzsimmons, the hero of 320 fights, who. had come hack to the scene of his first successes to bury his fame. Probably he would have lasted even longer but for the heat, which half roasted the writer in his placo at the ringside. It was like fighting in a Turkish bath, and' the- oldman dripped as lie moved about the ring. The fight was not nearly so- gory as the sparring match with Tommy Burns.' One old wound which opened up on Fitz’s face and a gashed nose on Lang constituted the whole list of visible damages. The crowd was most orderly, and* it was highly pleased with the display 7 made by its liero. Although lie was knocked out it felt that it had -got its .money’s worth, and went away satisfied. Two set s of cinematograph pictures were taken. They will he exhibited in Sydney and Melbourne simultaneously, and should bo well patronised by admirers of stousli; for if the pictures arc anything like as good as the fight, they will present as fine an exhibition of boxing as it is possible to see.

One could not help comparing the downfall of Fitzsimmons with that of Tahmmy Burns in the same ring exactly one year before. In the latest fight there was not one word spoken by the two men after the scrap started. They came out and fought in absolute silence. When Fitz was o\ited, Lang, immediately the result was declared, waved bis gloved fist in the air, shouted his triumph, and- then rushed over to see how it fared with his opponent. When lie found he was all right he went away quietly to his dressingroom, called on Fitz in his, and afterwards asked him to join in a glass of champagne. Which Fitz did. Apparently the onlv man in the Stadium who was not displeased with Lang was Fitz himself. He said afterwards for publication that Lang fought a most gentlemanly fight, and that the referee had nothing to do but count him out. Which was generous of Fitz, for the referee had a lot of mighty hard work to make Lang break properly. The knock-out was, according to one professional on the spot, "most artistic.” Just enough to placo the matter beyond all doubt, and yet do the victim no injury. Fitz described the sensations in his quiet way. "I wasn’t exactly unconscious. 1 could see them all, and hear Mr. Scott counting; but for the life of me I couldn’t get up. I tried to —no hope. Something seemed to shout to me that time was running out, and I would be outed, but I couldn’t get up. Then the mist cleared, I was helped up, and found' that I had been a beaten man for the best part of two minutes. It was wonderful.” Apparently it was the first time the old man had been really knocked out; and' he had found as a new experience what the average novice learns at the very beginning of the game.