Cap's New and Improved Alternate Universe

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Excerpt from the Detroit Tribune November 1900....The big show between world champion Jack Johnson and British Empire champion Sam Langford is just weeks away as their respective training camps begin to enter the final stages with ticket sales going well and three film companies vying for the rights to record the event...Johnson is heavily favoured to retain his title despite looking like his best years are behind him...Johnson has held the title since February 1897 and defended it eight times...Al Kubiak of this city was surely robbed of the decision in his battle with Jim Stewart of Brooklyn in Brooklyn last week...Top ranked contenders Sid Russell and Johnny Jackson met in the latter's hometown before a large crowd and fought a hard fast ten rounds, the referee's verdict going to the burly Australian...Many at ringside were of the opinion Jackson deserved no worse than a draw...Denver Ed Martin begins to show the wear of his many battles as he is stopped by Philadelphia's Morris Harris in nine rounds in Denver; Martin was down five times...Montreal's Art Beaudoin got the benefit of a fast count in his win over Fireman Jim Flynn at Chicago...Both men were nearly spent and terribly battered by the middle of the tenth and final round when Beaudoin landed a 'Hail Mary' punch that dropped Flynn on his face, at which point Referee Walt Kelly, himself spattered with blood, administered an unusually brief count to end the fight...At the Bronx Armory Canada's George McRay scored a technical knockout over Frank Moran when a serious gash on the latter's forehead forced a stoppage in the eighth round on orders of the police at ringside...At Brooklyn's Pelican Arena James 'Sailor' Burke the Halifax pugilist, jumped on Fighting Dick Gilbert at the bell and stopped him with seconds remaining in the first round, his corner throwing in the towel...Across town at the Olympia A.C., Al Kaufman needed less than three rounds to settle the hash of one Phil Schlossberg of Boston, one-time US Navy champion...

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From the pages of the weekly British Boxing News comes the year-end rankings of challengers for the Empire title...Despite the best efforts of UK authorities in pressuring the IBU and the British Empire Boxing Counsel, no British heavies were able to crack the top ten this time round...Sam Langford will have to defend his claim to the championship early in the new year following the result of his challenge for the world heavyweight title...Should he somehow defy the odds and emerge victorious over Jack Johnson, he will have to abdicate the Empire title immediately, prompting a tournament to find a new champion, no doubt influenced by UK promotional interests....

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Ripped from the sporting section of The Halifax Chronicle December 11, 1900....Article circulates the next day in newspapers around the world....A poll of 50 US sportswriters has Jack Johnson a heavy favourite to retain his hold on the world championship belt, with only three picking Sam Langford to win...Most Canadian boxing writers back Langford, while those in Europe are evenly split....notorious gamblers Benny the Brain Rosenstein, Boston Blackie, Coaltown's Aloysius 'Babe' Halloran, and Slippery Steve Mnuchin have all laid large bets on Johnson and it is estimated by police that over five million bucks will be wagered on the fight....To avoid any notions of funny business the identity of the referee will be withheld until the morning of the fight but most of the wise-guy crowd figure it will be Ed Graney...

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Banner headline on the morning edition of The Halifax Chronicle (repeated on the front pages of the Sydney Union, Glace Bay Guardian, and most other papers in Atlantic Canada)...Several hundred people gathered around the newspaper's office to hear the fight result received by telegram from California, USA.....

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Even as news of Sam Langford's victory over Jack Johnson spreads around the globe, controversy erupts amogst boxing fans and commentators. Was it a single explosive left hook or a head butt, both in the opening minute, that eventually led to the world heavyweight championship changing hands the other day? Debate rages in the international sporting press and in pool rooms and on street corners everywhere.

Johnson claims it was Langford's head that started the swelling of his right eye and led to the stopping of the fight. He is demanding a rematch and is adamant that referee George Siler, whom he selected, is partly to blame, pointing to six or seven interventions by him to examine the swelling optic and consulting, at one point, with a doctor seated ringside under the watchful eye of a police sergeant. Johnson says now he was perfectly all right and just warming up when the police ordered the fight stopped despite his protests.

Langford's camp says the clash of heads was minor and a hard left delivered over Johnson's right glove caused the damage to his opponent's eye. As the fight wore on, Langford continued to land blows to Johnson's face, resulting in a hideous bulge around Johnson's right eye, closing it shut and forcing the referee to call the contest in Langford's favour.

One ringside reporter wrote, "...Langford's inside work was devastatingly effective...his speed of foot enabling him to avoid Johnson's grasp and clumsy offence...Sam was landing three punches to every one by Johnson and his were harder, delivered with his full weight behind them, and deadly accurate..." An examination of Referee Siler's scorecards shows he scored two of the first five rounds for Johnson and three for Langford, and the sixth was definitely going to Langford when the police stepped in.

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From the January 1901 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...Sam Langford is universally recognized as the new world heavyweight champ despite claims from Jack Johnson's camp that the fix was in to strip Johnson of the title from the moment he signed to fight Langford...Following his unexpected loss to unheralded Morris Harris, Denver Ed Martin disappears from the top twenty rankings for the first time in years...Joe Jeannette regained his American title last month with a one-sided beating of Jack Dillon at Detroit...At Chicago's Tattersall's Arena Toronto slugger Ross Delaney upset hometown boy John Willie's second comeback plans with a brutal knockout in round two...Last month Joe Dundee(MA) 11-4-1 decisioned Thad Spencer(WA) 11-5-0; Morgan Williams(CO) 13-9-0 won over Sam Berger(CA) 10-4-1; Jim Savage(NJ) 10-3-3 out-pointed Terry Kellar(UT) 8-5-2; Bob Jones(CA) 29-8-6 decisioned Sam Grant(IL) 22-16-2;and Oakland Al Brown(CA) 32-8-2 out-pointed Joe Willis(CA) 14-3-3...More than a dozen US amateur prospects are expected to swell the pro ranks this year...The newly created UBAL(Union de Boxeo de America Latina) Latin American title has been won by Chile's Heriberto Rojas with a twelve round decision over Argentine Eduardo Herrera at Colon, Panama....At Johannesburg recently deposed national champion Jimmy Carr took the referee's verdict over Japie Smit after 10 closely contested rounds....At Cape Town previously unbeaten Harry Smith lost a ten round decision to Pretoria's Gawie de Klerk....Jim Jeffries the old Boilermaker continues to upset the odds, knocking out young Jeff Clarke in just two rounds at Hazard's Pavilion...."Porky" Flynn is looking to get a match with Bill Lang as the second of the three bouts in his contract with Hugh McIntosh....

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From The Glasgow Herald evening edition January 1901...The British Empire Boxing Council requests permission from the IBU to expeditiously fill the vacant Empire championship but acts before a response is delivered, matching John L Gardner and Joe Beckett at the NSC...Taken by surprise, the IBU Championship Committee is reluctant to trigger turmoil by blocking the contest, so instead levies a large fine on the heads of the BEBC for failing to approach the leading contenders...The English press, though applauding the choice of contestants, later criticizes the actual boxing for plodding action and excessive clinches...The Scottish press question the selection process used by the BEBC, asking why no Scots heavyweight was considered...Laurie Cameron, the Glasgow-based fighter, thrilled his supporters with a career-best showing against the touring American Battling Jim Johnson, knocking him out in the eighth round at Firhill Park...Some ringsiders who had wagered on a win by the American were loud in their accusations that Johnson had quit but both fighters and Referee James Reid refuted any notion of foul-play...On the continent Norway's Bjarni Thorsen avenged his previous loss to France's Raymond Berenger in March of last year forcing a stoppage on cuts after leading from the opening bell...At Dublin's Croke Park P.O. Matty Curran defended his EBU title with a technical knockout of Veteran challenger Francois Marchand in the tenth round...It is Marchand's fifth attempt to win the championship...William Iron Hague surged to the Number 3 rung on the EBU contenders ladder with a 5th round TKO of Denmark's Frederik "Battling Johnsson" at the Palais des Sports in Cannes, France...Some seventeen amateurs join the ranks of professional pugilists in Europe...Chief among the prospects are England's Tom Cowler and Lovel Graham; Eire's Packey Mahoney; and France's Georges Neret, Emile Masson, and Alphonse Dumoulin...

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Clipped from the morning edition of The Melbourne Age...Principal discussion in boxing circles concerns the coming Australasian championship match this month between titleholder Billy McColl of Armidale and number one challenger, Victoria state champ Bill Lang...The Melbourne lad has won four in a row since losing to McColl last April, including victories over Owen Sullivan, Pat McIntyre, American Jack Lester and former regional champion Des Quinlan in November and looks to have improved his ring science greatly...McColl has not defended the title since regaining it from Des Quinlan last July and has not had the gloves on since his knockout loss to Dan 'Porky' Flynn, a match he points out, was taken on short notice...Billy did box a four round exhibition against Albert Cripps at Kalgoorlie last month but most are of the opinion it did little to remove the ring rust of almost five months away...McColl's supporters are quick to remind he has a knockout win over Lang and has only the one loss to Flynn in his last eight fights...Bill Turner "The Taz Tiger" showed his fans he has been working daily on his ringcraft when he took every one of six rounds from a dangerous puncher in Sydney veteran Tim Nolan at Hobart A.C. last weekend...Turner seemed to let up when he had Nolan almost out in the last round...At Ballarat Athletic Hall Pat McIntyre got off the floor to stop Bill "Wallsend Smith" in the sixth round, referee Cullen stepping in to save Smith from serious damage...At Adelaide, back from America, Ned Ryan needed less than two minutes to settle things with Bill Squires, a right to the back of the head putting poor Bill down and out...Fred Preston outpointed Les O'Donnell over ten at Perth's Theatre Royal, the headline of a benefit for Joe Goddard...The Australia & New Zealand Boxing Federation released their latest rankings yesterday...Leaving aside Sid Russell who remains in North America, the top five are Lang, Quinlan, Jerry Jerome, George Stirling, and Soldier Ed Thompkins....Boxers entering the pro ranks this year include three standouts: Archie Greaves of the Melbourne A.C.; Ern Waddy of the Adelaide Boxing Club; and Perth's Bill Walsh...

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From The Toronto Telegram January 24, 1901...Fighting for the North American boxing championship at the nation's capital, Sam McVea absorbs Johnny Jackson's best shots early while working on his opponent's body...Jackson begins to tire in round eight, lowering his guard, and taking hard blows to the shoulder and neck...In the ninth round he throws a desperation hook at McVea's head but is beaten to the punch by a short left to the jaw that sends him sprawling in a neutral corner where he is counted out...McVea weighed 204 to Jackson's 191...At Toronto's Mutual Street Arena Canadian champ Bob Day (226lbs) faces off with Sid Russell (190lbs) of Australia in a ten round match...The much taller Day finds Russell an elusive target and takes punishment to the ribs and kidneys right from the opening gong...It becomes obvious Day is in no fit condition as he quickly appears exhausted in his corner and has difficulty breathing in the smoke-filled room...In the fifth he can barely lift his arms to fend off the incoming blows and is taking unanswered punches to the head on the ropes when his corner throws in the sponge...This win by Russell appears to set up a fight with the "Oxnard Cyclone" Sam McVea in Toronto or Montreal...Seated ringside in Toronto is former Empire champion Tommy Burns, fresh off a one round blow-out of California's Al Kaufman in Quebec's La Ville des Saints...As for Kaufman, he cancels a match at Coaltown's King Street Arena and catches the first train to New York...At Brown's Arena in Brooklyn, Fireman Jim Flynn puts an end to his winless streak with a sixth round stoppage of Calgary's George McRay, narrowly escaping a loss on a foul....At Denver, Joe Jeannette retains his American title belt with a sloppy technical knockout of Denver Ed Martin...the bout is marred by excessive clinches, claims of fouls by Martin's corner, and a nasty clash of heads late in the tenth round....At Detroit's Light Guard Armory Jim Stewart takes a shellacking from Charlie Horn, losing every round except the eighth, in which he turns the table on a tiring Horn with a desperate effort, putting him down twice...Stewart continues on the attack with his last ounce of strength and has Horn in such a bad way, Referee Hurst jumps between and stops the fight, awarding the win to the Brooklyn lad...Newspapermen at ringside are stunned by the turn of events, having already written-off Stewart midway through the bout as Horn seemed certain to apply a kayo...At Flatbush Al Kubiak upset local bookies by administering an unexpected knockout to Philadelphia's Morris Harris... Coaltown, NS, Dave Mills of Oakland, California was knocked out by Art Beaudoin, Montreal heavyweight, in the fourth round here yesterday...The first round was even, Beaudoin won a shade in the second and third, and then delivered a haymaker in the fourth...Mills corner complained of a fast count by Referee MacNeil...Mills appeared to stun the French-Canadian seconds before the knockout...

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Clipped from The Chicago Daily News Sports Section January 28, 1901...Sam McVea is in New York for negotiations to defend his NABF title belt against American Boxing Federation champion Joe Jeannette in March or April...The two men, who have never met in the ring, have received assurances the winner will get a world title fight with Sam Langford this coming summer...Former world champ Jack Johnson is in Chicago tending to his hotel and night club business while his latest manager, George Little, works on getting a rematch with Langford....Johnson would need at least two months to get back into any kind of fighting shape as it has been some weeks since he has seen the inside of a gym...For his part, Langford has been visiting family back in Nova Scotia, purchasing a home for his aging parents and a hardware business for his siblings...Manager Joe Woodman works the phones and telegraph lines fielding lucrative offers from Europe, Australia and South Afrika for Sam to defend his title against local pugilists...One enormous proposal comes from a South American syndicate to meet newly crowned UBAL titlist Heriberto Rojas for a purse of $40,000 with a guarantee of $5,000 plus all expenses...In local news Chicago fight promoters are searching high and low for a new headliner with the defeat of John Willie and retirement of Frank Childs and Klondyke Haynes...The logical choice would seem to be Jim Barry but he's presently down in kangaroo land raking in piles of mazoomah...Fireman Jim Flynn was matched to box Jack Dillon the Hoosier Wildcat in this city but the latter has decided to drop back down to the 158lb class and try for the disputed championship...Southside's Fred Cooley has signed for a rematch with Jim Savage the Orange, New Jersey pugilist with the winner promised a match with one of the IBU top twenty heavyweights in April...

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From The Barnsley Earwigger evening edition March 1901...In a thrilling slugging affair Iron Hague of Mexborough absolutely dismantled John L Gardner in the latter's first defence of the Empire title at London's prestigious National Sporting Club...After a slow first round, Hague tore into Gardner and broke him down with a relentless assault that had Gardner on the back foot for most of their match...Gardner went down once for a brief count in round eight but he arose groggy and was only saved by the gong...Hague jumped on him seconds into round nine and bowled him over with two stiff punches to the face and a loud smak to the ribs...Gardner took the full nine to clear his head but immediately caught a powerful left hook to the head and another dig to the belly that put him on his knees...Referee Eugene Corri saw Gardner was all through and wouldn't let him continue...At Blackpool, Jack Palmer was declared winner on a technical knockout over France's Raymond Berenger after the latter shattered his right hand on Palmer's skull in round two...In the previous round Berenger looked a certain winner as he easily out-boxed the Englishman and looked to be setting him up for a knockout...Berenger was in agony after striking Palmer's head and told Referee McCarren he could not go on...Promoter Ray Charrington has promised Berenger a rematch once the hand has healed...Joe Beckett and Jack Scales, two stalwarts of British rings, were beaten this week and may be giving thought to packing it in for good...Beckett lost to the newest phenomenon from France, Marc Gaucher, but Scales was clearly outpointed by part-time Nottingham publican George "Slasher" Fryer in a truly embarrassing performance...Laurie Cameron, the Glasgow heavyweight, has pulled himself to the top of Scotland's pugilistic ladder with a thorough thrashing of Sandy MacNab of Inverness in front of a packed hall in Rutherglen just outside Glasgow...Cameron has improved considerably in the last year and could be ready for an attempt at bigger things...Meanwhile, over in Brussels, Eire's PO Matty Curran has signed articles of Agreement to defend his EBU title against Norway's Bjarni Thorsen in five weeks time with the exact location still to be determined...French promoter Albert Nivelle appears to have the inside track with an offer of ₣20,000 (£795) to the winner and the use of La Palais Grande in Paris...At Berlin Ludwig Schuhmann was given an obvious home-pitch decision over American Battling Jim Johnson with most members of the international press at ringside scoring it in favour of Johnson...

[kenyan_cheena]

Awesome to see you are still working on this, Cap.

[Cap]

With all of the crap going on in the world, I use this to keep me sane and I'll keep it up until my brain no longer functions.

Cap

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Excerpt from The New York Evening World March 21, 1901...Chicago fight fans were furnished with twelve rounds of rattling fast, hard-hitting battling from start to finish by Sam McVea and Joe Jeannette last night...Although it was a draw decision McVea appeared to have a shade the best of it...Referee George Siler gave five rounds to each man with two even so the NABF title belt remains in McVea's possession...The result clouds the world title picture as Sam Langford had promised a shot to the winner...At the sold-out Mutual Street Arena in Toronto Tommy Burns and Sid Russell put on a terrific performance showcased by Tommy's speed and Russell's strength as they traded rounds with most of the action at ring centre...In the eighth canto after a fierce exchange they became tangled and Russell went through the ropes, falling heavily to the floor on his shoulder...The Australian climbed back into the ring in obvious pain, whereupon Referee Francis consulted with him and promptly waved the fight over with Burns a TKO winner...In the dressing room the house doctor found Russell's shoulder to be dislocated...Fighting on the same night in two different cities last week, Jim Jeffries and Jack Johnson scored easy wins over credible opposition cementing their positions in the IBU rankings...Fireman Jim Flynn overcame long odds to gain a points victory in Detroit over local son Al Kubiak who had been picked by sports prognosticators as the next big thing...At Toledo, Ohio Charlie Horn wiped the floor with Canadian George McRay, winning every round and forcing the ref to intervene to prevent a knockout, no objection coming from McRay's corner...In Montreal Art Beaudoin thrilled locals in a decisive win over former Canadian champion Johnny Jackson and put an end to talk of the latter's march to the national title...In the semi windup to the Burns-Russell fight, Brooklyn's Jim Stewart proved too much for Canadian heavyweight champion Bob Day, taking seven of ten rounds on the referee's card...The young New York giant clearly out-boxed the local chap, breezing through the last three rounds with a dominant left jab and crisp combinations to body and head...Day's best round was the third when he shook Stewart with a huge right hand to the head and had him briefly on the retreat..

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From the April 1901 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...Sam Langford is leaning towards a match with former world champ Jim Jeffries as the first defence of his title...Jeff, though well past his best, has won his last three fights by quick knockouts and still has a large and loyal fan base in Los Angeles, California...Initial exchanges of telegrams with West Coast promoters and athletic clubs produce three promising offers with Jim Coffroth and his Los Angeles Athletic Club leading the pack...With his recent victory over the IBU's #3 ranked Sid Russell, Tommy Burns finds himself the leading contender for the British Empire championship currently held by William Iron Hague of England...The National Sporting Club has put up a purse of £3,000 for Hague to defend against Burns and wired the particulars to Tommy along with passage on the next steamship to England...Burns reportedly agreed to the terms and posted a side wager of £1,000 which was quickly covered by Hague and his backers...In Australia, Billy McColl is set to defend his Australasian championship against Melbourne's Bill Lang at the spacious Sydney Stadium...Betting books have made McColl a slight favourite to retain the regional title belt...Speculation in New York boxing circles is Jim Stewart, the Brooklyn Giant, is only a win or two away from a spot in the IBU's top ten rankings...The PO Matty Curran-Bjarni Thorsen EBU title tilt in France has been rescheduled again thanks to promotional difficulties but both men are in their final weeks of preparation so the contest will proceed...Curran is still the favourite but Thorsen is gaining ground particularly amongst the Parisian bookies...[Editor's note: In our January issue there was an error in Bill Lang's record, that just came to our attention, for which our chief typesetter 'Gramps' Terwilliger has been severely reprimanded.]

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From The Ballarat Independent May 1901...There was a tremendous crowd at Sydney Stadium yesterday afternoon to witness the glove contest for the heavyweight championship of Australia and New Zealand between Billy McColl the title-holder and Former rugby star Bill Lang...They fought for a £150 purse, put up by a syndicate, and 40% of the gate receipts which must have amounted to well over £1,000...Both men were in peak condition, having spent six weeks in their respective training camps but McColl has had many more hard gruels since turning professional some nine years ago, and Lang has youth on his side...In the tenth round of a brutal go, McColl was harshly treated, and becoming groggy failed to stop a terrific right-hand blow on the jaw, and dropped like a log...He was counted out, and carried from the ring...Our own Pat McIntyre defied long odds and earned a points decision over favoured Jack Whittaker at Sydney's Metropolitan Athletic Club last night...After a whirlwind start they settled into a slow slugging match which McIntyre seemed to dominate...Whittaker recovered in the last round to deliver hard blows to the Ballarat lad but it was too late and the nod went to McIntyre...The previous night South Afrika's Mike Williams stopped Jim Griffin of Invercargill in the third round of a fight that until then could have gone either way...At the Golden Gate Club two of the visiting Americans, Jim Barry and Larry Temple, fought over ten rounds with Temple getting the verdict on points...Some observers felt it should have been a draw as both appeared to be stalling...The semi-windup was a slashing affair as Jack Howard and Wallsend Smith traded pulverizing blows at ring center until Smith buckled near the end of round two and was saved by the referee...At Timaru in their fourth encounter, Jimmy Henry decisioned Jim Quigley (10), while Danny Ruenalf the Maori took all ten rounds from Les O'Donnell...At Melbourne's Crystal Palace on Saturday Jack Lester of America was awarded a technical knockout over Soldier Ed Thompkins in round eight (10)...Thompkins was ahead after five rounds but Lester's blows to the body broke him down until he was on shaky pins in round seven and visibly exhausted at the start of the eighth...Thompkins had taken the bout on short notice as a sub for Tim Murphy...Colin Bell, Kelly Mansfield, Ern Waddy and Archie Greaves, all products of the Griffo Pugilistic Schools, won their six round bouts at a tournament in Perth....

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Promotional advert appears in Monday, May 6, 1901 edition of L'Auto-Vélo (Paris)....Due to a frustrating number of scheduling conflicts the card was moved from its originally proposed site to Wonderland then Luna Parc then the Cirque de Paris...Promoter Nivelle cobbled together a syndicate to raise a purse of some 25,000 francs (£993) to be split 60% for the winner and 40% for the loser with 25% of the gate receipts to be split evenly between the combatants....PO Matty Curran was 13st 5lbs the day before the fight, while Bjarni Thorsen's camp claimed he would enter the ring at 13st 13lbs...Both had agreed to clean-break rules but few expected Curran to abide by them...They also agreed to soft hand bandages and mouth-guards...After some squabbling they selected Eugene Corri as a neutral arbiter acting inside the squared circle, with an eye towards preventing any 'rough stuff'...

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From Reuters News Service...Paris...Curran Defeats Thorsen...The principal event at the Cirque de Paris last night was the 12-round contest between Petty Officer Matthew Curran of Lisdeen, holder of the European heavyweight title, and Bjarni Thorsen the Norwegian...the men had passed the scale at well over 13st and seemed in fine condition...the boxing was of an exceptionally fast description with the larger man, Thorsen, landing the heavier blows...in the sixth round Curran came into his own, scoring with both hands to body, face and jaw...one blow in particular opened a serious wound inside Thorsen's left eye and he bled profusely, spattering those at ringside, including M. Lepine the Prefect of Police...When Thorsen's corner was unable to stop the flow of blood and he was taking much unnecessary punishment, Referee Corri was instructed to halt the contest, at which point he raised the arm of PO Curran...Directly afterwards it was learned Mr. Corri had given five rounds to Thorsen and only one to Curran...In the co-feature Georges Carpentier, Lievin, met Raymond Berenger of Caudry and knocked him out in the fifth round...At the Scottish National Athletic Club Laurie Cameron, Airdrie, won narrowly on points over Derek Beattie, Perth, in a 10-round contest for the Scots championship in the dreadnought class...Beattie felt he'd done enough to gain the verdict and refused to shake hands with Cameron...At the Royal Albert Hall Frenchman Marc Gaucher scored a one-sided technical knockout over former Empire and European champion John L Gardner in seven rounds, and James "Gunner" Moir knocked out the Dane Fredrik "Battling" Johnsson in six...At Tower Circus, Blackpool, Joe Beckett knocked out Jack Palmer in 4 rounds of hard brawling, not giving Palmer space to use his superior boxing skills...On the same card young Tom Cowler of Hansingham, Cumberland put away Geoff Thorne, Greenwich, in the final minute of their six-round contest...At Leith Hall, Sandy MacNab, Inverness, was given the nod over American Battling Jim Johnson in a very close fight that many thought should have been called a draw...The IBU, through the European Boxing Union, is making a concerted push to promote boxing, both amateur and professional, in its member states and is finding particularly fertile ground in Magyarorszag (Hungary), Polska (Poland), Deutschland (Germany), Italia (Italy) and the Nordic countries...At a seaside hotel in Torquay Tommy Burns and Iron Hague meet to officially sign the articles of agreement for their upcoming fight...Both men already appear to be in fighting shape and will only need a week or two to finish their training...

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From the weekly British Boxing News Monday May 20, 1901...Five who didn't make the top ten were: James "Gunner" Moir, Lambeth; John "Sandy" MacNab, Inverness; Fred Connolly, Inniscarra; George Fryer, Nottingham; and Jean Auberge, Saint-Malo...It would seem that Marc Gaucher, the latest French phenom, is most likely at the top of PO Matty Curran's list of potential opponents as he promises the most lucrative gate attraction with England's Iron Hague out of the picture as he prepares to defend his Empire title against Canada's Tommy Burns....Much of the rest of the EBU's premier ranks are comprised of veterans and battle-worn fighters with only one or two young prospects who show hope of amounting to something beyond their home base...

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Clipping from the afternoon edition of The Montreal Daily Star May 22, 1901...Art Beaudoin faces an out-of-shape Bob Day and administers a severe beating to the hapless hulk, breaking his nose, closing both eyes and breaking at least one rib, on the way to taking the Canadian championship belt with a knockout inside six rounds at Toronto's new coliseum...Day has not looked good in any of his last three or four bouts and seems unable to work himself into anything like his old form...Beaudoin's DBF manager wires Sam McVea with a challenge to defend his North American title in Montreal this summer...At New York's Madison Square Garden Jack Johnson (212 lbs.) ekes out a close decision over Joe Jeannette (192lbs.) (6 rounds to 5 with 1 even) to capture the latter's American title belt...Jeannette does not dispute the result but puts up $2500 to secure a rematch, winner takes all...Johnson ignores the proposal and cables Sam Langford's US agent with a demand he be given the next shot at the world title ahead of Jim Jeffries...At Brooklyn's Pelican Club architect turned prize fighter Jim Stewart continues his winning ways with a clear decision over young Laurie Mackenzie of Toronto, after knocking him down three times in the second half of their fight...Corktown's Johnny Jackson takes seven of ten rounds in his return go with Fireman Jim Flynn at the Detroit A.C. despite Flynn's flagrant use of his head and elbows...Incensed by the referee's verdict, one of Flynn's seconds rushes the ref only to be put on his backside by a large Detroit cop...Veteran CC Smith stuns the locals at Frisco when he puts away their Charlie Horn in :55 seconds of round one...Coming to on his stool, Horn is unwilling to believe the fight is over...Winnipeg's Danny Whitebear takes on import Salinas Jack Burns in front of a disappointedly sparse crowd and ends it quickly with a third round knockout...At Los Angeles a paunchy Oakland Al Brown finds himself on the losing end of a ten round decision to a virtual unknown in Walter Schulken but blames his own lack of preparation prior to the contest...Topping a rare Wednesday night card at Coaltown's King Street Arena, crowd favourite James "Sailor Burke" hammers Boston's Charlie Haghey into submission after five give-and-take rounds before an appreciative mob...The former New Waterford pug is now 15-1-1 with 7 KOs and unbeaten in his last 15 and is looking to square off with local rival Bill Mackinnon...Michigan's Al Kubiak leaves for a tour of the UK and Europe, turning down a proposed match with Canada's Johnny Jackson....