Cap's New and Improved Alternate Universe

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I believe they were Canadian amateur athletes of the period. No idea now where I found them. Johnny Jackson was a real fighter but I couldn't find a picture of him.

Cap

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Clipping from The Barnsley Earwigger late July issue....Headline story across Europe is the knockout of the Parisian heart-throb EBU champ Raymond Berenger [13st 4lb] by ex-tar P.O. Matty Curran [14st 2lb] of Lisdee, county Claire, at the Palais Grande in Paris...Ladies present at the battle sent up a loud wailing as Berenger was sent crashing to the canvas by the pudgy Irishman; one heart-broken "adoratrice" had to be dragged from the ring as she attempted to throw herself upon the prostrate form of her hero...Curran was seen to grin and shake his head in wonder as his seconds pulled off his mitts and attempted to shield him from hurled programmes and debris...At the Inverness Workingmen's Club Laurie Cameron "The Pride of the Glasgow Dockside" gave veteran ring-man George Gardiner such a terrible hiding that when it was over Gardiner climbed through the ropes and exited the arena never to fight again....In a crossroads fight at Berlin's Waldbuhne arena Scotland's Sandy MacNab knocked out Deutschland's pugilistic star Ludwig Schuhmann in a minute thirty-five seconds of round two, only the fourth time the German had been stopped in 32 fights...Seeking to revive his shaky career James 'Gunner' Moir took on mediocre mitt-artist Alain Bouin at the Plage du Prado in Caen and managed to knock him out, reversing a loss two years before....On the same card up-and-comer Marc Gaucher took a convincing points decision over perennial contender Francois Marchand forcing the latter to give serious thought to hanging up the gloves....As for Gaucher, the darkly handsome son of Armentières appears likely to supplant Berenger in the fluttering hearts of France's females....[Days after the paper's publication the IBU releases the names of the top five contenders for the EBU title belt now held by P.O. Curran: 1- Raymond Berenger (Fra.); 2- Bjarni Thorsen (Nor.); 3- John L Gardner (Eng); 4- Joe Beckett (Eng); 5- Frederik "Battling Johnsson" (Den.).]

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Excerpt from The Australian Star July 1900....The Australasian heavyweight title belt changes hands again between Armidale's Billy McColl and Broken Bay's Des Quinlan but with a few good prospects on the horizon...After beating Pat McIntyre, Victoria state champion Bill Lang has thrown down the gauntlet to both Quinlan and McColl and backs himself with a healthy side wager....Jim Barry disposes of one of the country's top mitt artists in knocking out Melbourne's Bill Costello though the latter did not appear to be in true fighting nick at the time....On the Gaiety Athletic Hall's preliminary programme Colin Bell dubbed the 'Moree Mountain' looked impressive in taking his four rounder with Soldier O'Grady late of the Royal Artillery, and Jack Howard of Potts Point knocked out veteran Con Riordan in such savage fashion it was fully ten minutes before the latter was revived....As Mike Williams collected the loser's end of the purse, fellow South Afrikan Dave Bell did the same at Nathan's losing the referee's nod to Soldier Ed Thompkins....Both men have agreed to continue their tour of Australian rings...North Sydney's Jack Whittaker showed marked improvement in his ring-craft since he started training at the nearby Griffo Gym and many followers of the sport expect him to challenge for the Australasian title very soon....Off the foreign wire: Ron Anderson [13-1-1] has captured the South Afrikan heavyweight title with a convincing decision in 12 rounds over Jimmy Carr [13-3-1] at Wanderers Hall in Johannesburg and has decided to go on tour in Europe, despite what many consider a lucrative offer to meet Carr again...In the six-round semi windup new boy George 'Boer' Rodel outpointed Bill Winslow....At Durban's Sporting Club Japie Smit KO'd former New South Wales' champion Owen Sullivan at 1:27 of the tenth round...At Quebec City Canada Ned Ryan of Braiwood, NSW lost by knockout in six rounds to 'Kid Williams' of Moncton New Brunswick...

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Poster starting to show up around Chicago....Harry Kline and Marty Muldoon promise Jack Johnson $10,000 plus $1,000 training expenses on top of the winner's end of 60% of the gate receipts, the total of which is expected to exceed $30,000....Joe Jeannette, eager to get Johnson in the ring, accepts a $1,500 guarantee and $500 training expenses....Both men post a $2,000 forfeit with the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune.....After some haggling, the two camps settle on George Siler as referee with the promotion paying him $200 for his efforts....Johnson sets up quarters in O'Boyle's Gym in Cicero while Jeannette opens his camp at a roadhouse on the shores of Lake Michigan....Supporters of both men raise a winner-take-all side wager of more than $50,000 but bookies favour Johnson at 10 to 6....Many international sports celebrities plan to attend, including California's Jim Jeffries and Australia's Sid Russell who are said to be matched to fight in September....The McMahon Brothers of New York wire Johnson's agent an offer of $15,000 to fight Sam Langford at the new Madison Square Garden....

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Page from the August 1900 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine which hit newsstands August 3rd....Vocal minority of fans side with Jeannette "The Jersey Adonis" but pools and books favour the champ to defend his title...Jeannette is a good boxer with an edge in power while Johnson is still a defensive master and carries a slight edge in the height and weight departments....Jeannette is often a slow starter but Johnson is slagged for his lack of aggression....Two preliminaries scheduled....Sam Berger Vs Lionel Butler for 6 rounds and Frank Moran Vs Jim Jeffords for eight....Ticket sales have been brisk and fight fans have been arriving from all points, filling local hotels, some of which are partly owned by Johnson...James J Corbett, John L Sullivan, Peter Jackson, George Chuvalo, Bob Armstrong, George Godfrey, and many other noted pugilists are spotted around town....

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Article snipped from the New York Evening World....

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Excerpt from the front page of The Newark Daily Herald August 1900...Jack Johnson (37-5-3[13]) retains his world title by referee's decision over New Jersey pugilist Joe Jeannette (18-1-1[10])...The fight starts off slowly with both men boxing cautiously then picks up in round three when Jeannette goes on the offensive....The challenger concentrates his assault on Johnson's midsection and Johnson counters with jolting uppercuts to the head...From the seventh round the fight becomes a mauling affair marred by a great deal of holding and heated banter and repeated separations by the referee...In the tenth round Johnson spies an opening and explodes with a flurry of lefts and rights that puts Jeannette on the canvas for an eight count...Jeannette rises only to be sent sprawling again, but he scrambles up just at the bell....The challenger takes the next round as Johnson reverts to his safety-first tactics and the fight becomes a long-range battle as both men resort to long jabs, clinching when at close quarters...At the end there are few dissenters when Siler raises Johnson's arm...In the prelims Sam Berger (8-4-1[2]) outpoints Lionel Butler (33-19-1[18]) in a boring six rounds and Frank Moran (13-0-0[11]) and Jim Jeffords (14-28-3[9]) exchange knockdowns before Moran delivers a kayo in round five...

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Page from the September 1900 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine....Champion Jack Johnson claims he suffered a broken bone in his arm in his fight with Joe Jeannette and will need to let it heal before he can consider his next title defence...Johnson contends only the injury prevented him from dispatching Jeannette inside the distance....At Stanford White's new sporting edifice in Manhattan's Madison Square, Sam McVea 202, knocks out Fireman Jim Flynn 193, in four brutal rounds (10) and is promised a match with American champion Joe Jeannette....former world champ Jim Jeffries and Australia's young Sid Russell are scheduled to meet at the 'Garden' this month with Jeff the prohibitive favourite with New York books....Denver Ed Martin 203, scores a points win in his rematch on the West Coast with Joe Willis 182 (10) and agrees to meet Al Kaufman to fulfill his three-bout contract.....At Brooklyn's Pelican Arena Jeff Clarke 'The Joplin Ghost' 184, comes within an ace of knocking out big Gus Ruhlin 198, in their ten rounder...Ruhlin later tells the press he had promised his wife he would retire if he lost....Away Down Under, Australasian title holder Billy McColl 191, agrees to meet visiting American Dan 'Porky' Flynn 188, at Sydney Stadium site of his recent victory over rival Des Quinlan....In a stunner Flynn forces the fighting and stops McColl in the seventh round when the latter's corner throws in the sponge...The International Boxing Union floats the idea of adjusting weight limits on the middleweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions to avoid creating new weight classes as pushed for by certain fighters and managers....New proposed limits are middleweight 77 kilos or 170 lbs; welterweight 70 kilos or 155 lbs; lightweight 64 kilos or 140 lbs....

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Clipping from the evening edition of The Toronto Telegram Sept 1900...Canadian champion Bob Day, 210, catches hell from George "Cowboy McRay", 190, for four rounds before breaking him down in the next three and piling him into a corner where referee Joe Popp steps in to save McRay....It's Day's second defence of the title he won from Johnny Jackson in February...At New York's Madison Square Garden Sid Russell the Aussie newcomer whips California's former boilermaker Jim Jeffries in eight furious rounds of slugging....Contrary to reports from camp it is painfully obvious Jeff had not spent much time in the gym....When the two fighters remove their robes in the ring Russell is heavier than usual, but solid and in good trim, while Jeffries looks closer to 250 pounds, rather than the 225 he is announced....Fans near the big Californian's corner remark on the strip of plaster over his left eye, confirming reports of an injury sustained in a playful spar with one of his trainers....In the third round that cut is reopened by a looping left hook from Russell and it gushes from that point on....Referee George Siler allows Jeffries to continue until the eighth round when he is swallowing blood from a cut at his mouth and is unable to see punches coming in....In the semi windup Brooklyn's Jim Stewart, 203 1/2, earns a decision over CC Smith, 186, after 10 rounds...It is Smith's first loss in his last 11 bouts....At Winnipeg's Auditorium 3,000 fans see local terror Charlie Robinson, 187, destroy Calgary's Clonie McFadden, 189, in two minutes 15 seconds of round one...It is the "Black Cyclone's" sixth straight stoppage win this year, including July's technical knockout of top US prospect Dave Mills and marks him as a definite threat to the current Canadian champ....

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Telegram waiting for Sam Langford at his hotel in Halifax from his US manager Joe Woodman...Pressed by the IBU, Jack Johnson has agreed to accept the offer of matchmaker Joseph P McGinnis of the Twentieth Century Athletic Club in San Francisco to meet Langford at Mechanic's Pavilion for a $5,000 guarantee plus expenses and a share of 60% of the gate receipts which some sportswriters predict could be well over $40,000....Respected arbiter Jack Welsh is likely to be third man in the ring...

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Taken from the sporting section of The Glasgow Herald September 1900...At London's Holborn Stadium Wm Iron Hague (13.1) meets Bethnal Green's Jack Scales (13.8) in a highly anticipated encounter...The two sluggers go toe to toe from the opening gong dishing out terrific punishment until Scales succumbs in round 5 with his corner throwing in the towel...At Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, local favourite Laurie Cameron (13.2) takes on England's Jack Palmer (12.8) and brings the crowd to its feet with a knockout just over a minute in....After the clamour dies down, Palmer strenuously objects claiming a fast count by referee Eugene Corri but the decision is final and Palmer is hooted from the ring....Petty Officer Mathew Curran tries to erase the effects of his recent loss to Sam Langford by defending his EBU title in his hometown, but his opponent is deemed unworthy of a title challenge by the commission and the bout is shortened to 10 rounds...Newly minted South Afrikan champion Ron Anderson (13-1-1) on a tour of England is disappointing in his debut at Blackpool taking a decision over the tired veteran Alfie Greenfeld...

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Excerpt from The Australian Star October 1900...Some 600 paying customers filled most of the galleries and a portion of the ringside boxes at Lithgow Hall to take in the ten round bash-up between George Stirling of Cobar (13.8) and the former national middleweight champion Dan Creedon (12.6). It quickly became evident the latter was well past his best days and was no match for the speed and agility of his young opponent. After a round of careful sparring the Cobar lad began landing heavy blows through Creedon's weak defences, striking the head, neck and torso. Just over a minute into round 3 Stirling crashed a right on Creedon's ear followed swiftly by a short left uppercut to the jaw, and Creedon flopped on the canvas. Parroted by the mob, referee Cullen delivered the full count. Stirling improved his record to 13-1-1 with 9 KOs and assumes No.4 in the regional rankings...Adelaide Arena was the stage for a crossroad clash between Fred Preston (13.12) and Ballarat's Pat McIntyre (13.10) as both come off three straight losses....They box cautiously, protecting their chins, and inciting the crowd to howl. Prodded by the referee, they open up in the fifth round and trade hard punches. In the 8th inning, McIntyre goes down from a short left to the head and takes a nine count before corners are called. Embarrassed more than injured, McIntyre launches an attack of his own and takes the last two rounds. It is close but the decision goes to Ballarat's son...The aptly named 'Tasmanian Giant' Bill Turner continues to thrill the mob with his punching prowess if not his mastery of ringcraft, sending Reg O'Kelly to dreamland in three wild rounds. From the first tap on his chin it is all O'Kelly can do to evade the big man's windmill assault before finally sinking to the floor. Turner weighed in at 14st and O'Kelly 13st 5...Jim Barry, one of the visiting Yanks, throws down the gauntlet to challenge either Bill Lang or Billy McColl at Sydney Stadium in two weeks time. Confronting him at ringside at the Golden Gate Club, Des Quinlan issues his own defi backed by £200 as a side wager...Fight at Wanganui Race Course billed for the championship of New Zealand between Jimmy Henry of Auckland and Jim Griffin of Invercargill ended in a disappointing draw after ten rounds of excellent boxing....

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Clipping from The Chicago Daily News October 7 1900....Jim Jeffries ignores a challenge from local pugilist Bob 'College Boy' Jones (29-6-6) to take up one from San Francisco hope Charlie Horn who has just one loss in his previous nine fights....Some 1,500 paying cranks show up at Hazard's Pavilion to see a six round preliminary end in a 3rd round kayo for motorman Charlie Miller over novice Jim Penfield and then howl the rafters down when the main event ends before some have taken their seats....Joe Jeannette blames his usual slow start and an injured hamstring for his poor showing against the 13-1-1 hoosier Jack Dillon...Jeannette's manager Dan McKettrick corners Dillon and his manager after the fight and gets a handshake agreement for a rematch....On the undercard of the Al Kubiak-Frank Moran fight at Brown's Arena, Brooklyn native Jim Smith stops tough Able Seaman Langley in nine and Soldier Kearns takes a six-round decision over Boston's Phil Schlossberg former navy champion...Matchmaker Joseph P McGinnis is swamped by requests for tickets to the upcoming Jack Johnson V Sam Langford fight so switches venues to the open-air Mission Street Arena in nearby Colma to accommodate the demand and prays for moderate weather....

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Excerpt from The Windsor Daily Record October 1900...Tommy Burns puts up a terrific fight but Sam McVea is too big and too strong...Tommy is dropped for a short count in round one...McVea works inside with constant pressure swinging a huge left hand....Burns moves in and out using his left jab to bust up McVea's attack then scoring with double jabs and short hooks...McVea is relentless and pounds away at the Canadian's body especially with that deadly left hook...Knowing he's behind Tommy launches an all-out assault in the seventh round and puts McVea down twice, but McVea comes back in round eight and drops Burns for a count of eight...Tommy puts everything he has into rounds nine and ten, landing hard punches that have McVea on the back foot...Seconds into round 11 McVea crashes a left hook to Burns' jaw and he goes down, but bounces up at '3' looking shaky....At the half way point of the round McVea lands to the body then a thunderous uppercut to the head....Burns drops his hands and takes a wicked right to the head...Burns is down again and referee Francis begins the count...At "nine!" Tommy lurches to his feet and McVea is all over him landing punch after punch as Burns tries to cover...At 1:53 of round eleven the referee jumps in between and stops the fight raising Sam's arm in victory....In the semi windup Edward 'Gunboat' Smith of California gets his revenge against Toronto's Laurie Mackenzie with a kayo inside two rounds, improving his record to 5-1-0 (4)....At Jersey City Oakland Al Brown takes a sloppy decision over Jeff Madden (10)...At the Bridgeport Athletic Club Tony Ross mauls his way to a points win over Midland's Tex O'Rourke...At Wood's Hall in New Jersey Al Kaufman (194) makes short work of Brooklyn's Kid Carter (170), knocking him out in round two...In a preliminary to the McVea-Burns fight, Windsor's Frank Laura (13.0) stops Frank Osborne (13.9) in the fourth of six....At Pretoria, South Afrika, Former champ Jimmy Carr (13.1) and top contender Japie Smit (14.2) box to a draw after ten rounds...At the Cincy Opera House Walter Schulken KO's Jack Stelzner in eight rounds (10)....

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Cartoon by famous New York sportswriter appears to contradict popular opinion among sports fans that Johnson is invincible....

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World rankings from November 1900 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine which hit the newsstands the first of the month....Most of the action last month in North American rings took place in small clubs with cards drawing fewer than 500 to 1,000 paying customers, the exception being the Sam McVea-Tommy Burns battle for the NABF title in Toronto which sold out Mutual Street Arena...This month fully a dozen attractive match-ups are scheduled and posted by Harry Corbett's betting parlours...We list them here with the odds-on favourite first: No.22 Wm. Iron Hague 14-1-1(11) V. No.39 John L Gardner 19-6-1(10); No.21 Bjarni Thorsen 25-4-0(15) V. No.23 Joe Beckett 34-14-0(24); No.17 Des Quinlan 24-4-3(13) V. No.16 Bill Lang 19-2-3(13); No.19 Petty Officer Matt Curran 16-2-0(9) V. No.37 Battling Johnsson 16-5-0(8) for the EBU title; No.30 Al Kubiak 15-2-1(13) V. No.25 Jim Stewart 15-1-1(7); No.27 Raymond Berenger 25-9-1(9) V. No.29 Ron Anderson 14-1-1(3); No.14 Fireman Jim Flynn 23-6-3(19) V. No.32 Art Beaudoin 14-4-4(7); No.34 George McRay 21-6-4(5) V. No.31 Frank Moran 14-1-0(12); No.7 Johnny Jackson 30-4-2(16) V. No.4 Sid Russell 27-1-0(20); No.36 George Stirling 13-1-1(9) V. No.41 Jim Griffin 14-4-2(7); No.42 Charlie Robinson 12-3-0(9) V. UR Fighting Dick Gilbert 10-2-1(8); No.38 John Willie 33-7-1(25) V. No.35 Ross Delaney 24-9-2(17); the latter two contests fixed for December along with a possible rematch between Jack Dillon and Joe Jeannette...

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Button handed out by Langford's US agent Joe Woodman and his hired street urchins in front of Los Angeles bars and taverns....International Boxing Union begins practice of requiring all referees to hand over their scorecard after each round to the ringside IBU representative to prevent possible tampering...IBU requires all member organisations to demand 3% of every boxing promotion worldwide to provide funds for the hiring of referees by representatives of the IBU for all boxing cards and an additional 1% to contribute to a trust fund for retiring fighters....The Dominion Boxing Foundation of Canada releases the names of the top of its 1901 graduation class out of a score of pugilists: Wilfrid Gagne of Montreal, Quebec; Roddie MacDonald of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia; Hector MacDougal of Calgary, Alberta and Arthur Pelkey of Chatham, Ontario....

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Article taken from The Barnsley Earwigger November 1900....The best glove contest in London in many months was engaged at The Royal Albert Hall tonight between Jack Palmer of Newcastle and Battling Jim Johnson of America. Johnson won the decision on points, but the crowd present, nearly 12,000 persons being in the building, did not all approve of Referee McCarren's decision....At the Salle Wagram in Paris PO Matty Curran retained his EBU title belt with a surprising seventh round knock out of the concrete-jawed Dane, Frederik "Battling Johnsson"....In what many are calling his best showing to date, Curran fended off Johnsson's assaults and put his man on the canvas three times in rounds five and six before administering the final out....Coming off two significant wins this year Joe Beckett (13.7) was expected to give the Norwegian heavyweight Bjarni Thorsen (13.11) a tough wrangle when they met at La Palais Grande in Paris but Thorsen took the play away from the Southampton man early on and punished him severely before putting him away in the seventh round of their ten round bout....At Cork Stadium a crowd of about 3,000 saw their local hero Jem Roche (14.5) take a bad pasting from France's Francois Marchand (13.12) over ten sluggish rounds....The Irishman seemed not in the best of shape when he first ducked through the ropes and later blamed his loss on a few jars too many the night before...The lads from Mexborough were in a rage when they heard the news of the defeat of Wm Iron Hague as they gathered outside London's National Sporting Club where a white tie crowd saw John L Gardner eke out a win on points.....Hague gave credit to Gardner for a good fight but insisted he had done enough to earn the verdict, pointing to his two knockdowns of Gardner, one for a count of eight in round six and another nine count in the tenth inning...Visiting South Afrikan champion Ron Anderson appeared to step out of his class when he took on France's Raymond Berenger in a ten round main event at one of the smaller clubs just outside Paris and suffered a knockout after winning two of the previous six rounds....

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Originally Posted by Cap

I believe they were Canadian amateur athletes of the period. No idea now where I found them. Johnny Jackson was a real fighter but I couldn't find a picture of him.

Cap

Can you tell me a little more about him. I could not find anything myself. could you also share his file?

[Cap]

Taken from The Kalgoorlie Sun November 1900...Billy McColl now fully recovered from his loss to the American Porky Flynn, is back in the gymnasium and planning the next defence of his Australasian title belt...Plenty of action in New South Wales and Victoria with local lads losing to outsiders like Jim Barry of America and South Afrika's Mike Williams and upset victories by our Jerry Jerome and Jack Howard...At Timaru Boxing Club in New Zealand, Maori pugilist Danny Ruenalf was stopped by Jack Lester, another foreigner, thanks to a bad cut over his eye in round four that bled so profusely Referee Cullen was forced to call a halt in round six and award the fight to the Yank...At Hobart AC in Tasmania, Bill Turner (13.8) chased Dick Kernick (13.3) around the ring for six rounds after stretching him out for a count in round one, the decision going in Bill's favour...Good card in Perth, Western Australia last week that saw Ned Ryan steal a verdict from Bill Costello in the main event and showcased young Dave Smith and Colin Bell in a pair of preliminaries...Smith knocked out veteran Tom Parks with seconds left in the last round and Bell earned a tough six round decision over Kelly Mansfield of Wingham...At Gisborne Opera House in New Zealand Colin Cameron the Auckland mitt-artist took a ten round nod over fellow Zealander Tim Murphy, a late sub for Jim Griffin...At Wanganui Race Course Jimmy Henry was lucky to get the verdict over Alf James a fellow he had beaten before...Perhaps biggest story amongst fight fans though was the result of the battle at Melbourne Boxing Club between Fred Preston (13.0) and old Boshter Bill Squires (12.5)...Squires was in superb trim and surprised Preston by taking the attack to him early on...During the scrap Squires put Preston down four times; once for 9 seconds in round 3, again for 4 seconds in round 5 and twice in round eight...Squires was down twice though one should have been ruled a slip and had two rounds taken away by Referee Scott for questionable fouls...When Scott raised Preston's arm, the mob erupted and rushed the stage where they were met by a cohort of large police constables and general chaos and mayhem ensued...[Ed. After this issue was put to bed news arrived from Adelaide that Bill Lang had stopped Des Quinlan in 8 rounds and George Stirling had copped the nod over Jim Griffin after ten innings....]