Cap's New and Improved Alternate Universe

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(See previous page) Excerpt from January 1894 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...The fight is just days away....

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Cover of the latest issue....

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Articles from the Los Angeles Herald and Toronto Telegram - February 1894....Headlines squeezed out the stunning victory of Denver Ed Martin over Bob Fitzsimmons on the semi-windup....The gangly Australian attacked in round one and two keeping Martin on the backfoot, but Martin used his longer reach and height to avoid serious damage before a cracking right hand opened an ugly gash on the bridge of Fitz's nose in round three drawing first blood...Martin targeted the wound in succeeding rounds and soon Fitzsimmons was covered in his own blood....In the ninth round Police Lieutenant O'Halloran ordered referee Ed Graney to stop the fight, at which point Graney awarded the win to Martin....The Jackson-Sanders fight was another bloody affair but the South Afrikan's corner was able somehow to staunch the flow of claret on their man's face well enough to allow him to finish....Sanders had his moments but they were few and far between....In the 11th round he staggered the champion with a short left-cross and had him groggy against the corner-post when the bell ended the round....

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Cap's comment....Peter Jackson was a master boxer but not a big puncher. In all his major wins he required landing an accumulation of blows to put away his man (According to James Corbett and others, Jackson's favourite punch was a right to the body)...In his fight with George Godfrey, a man he outweighed by almost thirty pounds and towered over by three inches, he needed 19 rounds and in the last three he tried everything he could to knock Godfrey down and failed...Joe McAuliffe took 24 rounds, Tom Lees thirty. Patsy Cardiff quit from exhaustion after 10 rounds. I would expect Sanders to still be there after 15 rounds. [I thought Sanders had the best chance of unseating Jackson of all his challengers so far. Jim Jeffries looms large.]

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Ripped from a page of this morning's Toronto Telegram...

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Results from some of the big North American contests....Sandy Ferguson was robbed of a decision according to the Chicago Daily News when referee Ollie Pecord gave Marvin Hart 8 of the 10 rounds with only one for Ferguson and one taken from Hart for a blatant foul, the paper said Ferguson used Hart as a punching bag....Sailor Tom Sharkey disposed of the Akron Giant Gus Ruhlin without breaking a sweat....An inexperienced referee chosen at the last moment when the appointed official was unavailable acted rashly when he saw what he termed "an awful gash" below the left eye of George Chuvalo following a clash of heads with Jim Jeffries which he alone did not witness....ringsiders, including an official with the IBU, pointed out to the novice ring official that the cut was not so serious as to halt proceedings, but he could not be moved to change his verdict in awarding the fight and the NABF title belt to the American...A protest will be lodged and, no doubt, promoter Flanagan will organize a rematch....

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Clipped from the Halifax Chronicle - March 2, 1894.....Aside from the Godfrey-Childs fight, the following are scheduled this month...James J Corbett will meet Chicago heavyweight Jack Johnson for 10 rounds with six ounce gloves at the Mechanic's Pavilion, San Francisco....In Oakland, Bob Armstrong and Mexican Pete Everett will headline a card at McNaughton's with a 10 round bout...Hank Griffin and Joe Kennedy will furnish the wind-up at Hazard's Pavilion under the auspices of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, while Jack McCabe will box an as yet unnamed opponent...

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Clipping from the Australian Star - March 1894....The Sydney Sportsman rated the top ten contenders for the national championship: Harry Laing (Wanganui, NZ), Billy Smith (Sydney), Steve O'Donnell (Melbourne), Bill Doherty (Melbourne), Peter Felix (Sydney), Frank Slavin (Sydney), Tut Ryan (Richmond), Jack Blackmore (Sydney), and Jim Fogarty (Sydney)....Top prospects are Billy McColl, Owen Sullivan, Jimmy Henry and Des Quinlan...

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Snipped from the inside pages of The Sydney Union Miner (Cape Breton, NS) April 1894...

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Copy of telegram to George Chuvalo from promoter Tom Flanagan and clippings from San Francisco Call and Los Angeles Herald....At Woodward's Pavilion Hank Griffin took the last two rounds of his fight with Joe Kennedy by wide margins but Kennedy had already built up too big a lead to overcome and was given the decision by Referee Jim McDonald....In the semi windup "Big Six" Jack McCabe put Jim Jeffords through the ropes in round six and Jeffords refused to climb back in and was counted out...Jim Jeffries' manager Bill Brady says he sees no financial reward for his protege in any rematch with Chuvalo and declares their intention to vacate the North American championship belt....Jeffries has yet to be heard from....

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Clippings from (clockwise) The Detroit Tribune, The Australian Star, and the London Daily Telegraph, April 1894.....In other news Jack Munroe, now returned home, has received an offer from fledgling boxing promoter Armand Bibaud to defend his Canadian championship belt in Montreal against a suitable challenger....Boxing savants have suggested Sandy Ferguson or Tommy Burns may be lying in wait....

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IBU World Rankings from the May 1894 issue of Mitt Slingers Magazine...Tom Sharkey will try to force a second meeting with world champion Peter Jackson by fighting and beating Corrie Sanders in more convincing fashion than Jackson did...Denver Ed Martin begins negotiations with Jackson's agent for a title fight possibly in July....Jim Jeffries takes time off after the Chuvalo fight to visit his parents in California and join friends on a hunting trip, after notifying the IBU he would not be defending the North American championship in a mandatory rematch with George Chuvalo ....Bob Fitzsimmons and Jimmy Bivins sign articles of agreement to meet at Coney Island, New York....Marvin Hart has asked his manager Jack Curley to arrange for him to meet the winner of the Fitzsimmons-Bivins contest...Toronto promoter Tom Flanagan is trying to bring Jack Johnson and Bob Armstrong together at that city's new Commonwealth Arena with the winner to fight George Chuvalo for the newly vacant North American Boxing Federation heavyweight championship...In Australia Harry Laing the new Australasian heavyweight champion may be denied his claim to the British Empire title belt despite his convincing win over Joe Goddard due to some confusion over whether their fight had been sanctioned by the IBU as a fight for that title...The British Empire Boxing Council in London is said to be pressuring the IBU to force Goddard to return to England to fight Joe Beckett for the title....

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From The Australian Star (Sydney, NSW) -June 1894....Joe Goddard has been promised a match with the winner of the Laing-Smith fight in New Zealand for the Empire Championship....The IBU agent in Australia has mandated that henceforth two major titles can not be contested at the same time....South Afrika's Kallie Knoetze has issued a defi to Patsy Cardiff for a ten round bout with a side wager of £100 in gold sovereigns....

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Clipped from the evening edition of The Chicago Daily News - June 1, 1894...Jim Jeffries, the American Boxing Association heavyweight champion, is in San Francisco with a view to signing articles for a battle next month....Billy Madden manager of Gus Ruhlin the Akron Giant, reports being offered a bout with Jeffries by the San Francisco Athletic Club to be held at their Folsom Street clubhouse....Denver Ed Martin has begun light training for his title match with Peter Jackson though no official location for the contest has yet been decided upon by the promoter....Marvin Hart has apparently signed to box ten rounds with Cincinnati's Mike Schreck at the Broadway A.C. in Philadelphia....

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Excerpt from The Coaltown Gazette - July 1894....The world title fight between champion Peter Jackson and challenger Denver Ed Martin has been put on hold temporarily due to a lack of funds on the part of the fight's promoter....William Lindsay of the Olympic A.C. in San Francisco has offered to step in with additional financing and most expect the contest to come off before the Fall....The Jim Jeffries-Gus Ruhlin fight for the American heavyweight title will be moved to Doyle's Arena in Vernon after promoter Jack Doyle offered both men substantially more than they were promised by the San Francisco A.C.....Jack Johnson and George Chuvalo will meet to decide the vacant North American championship sometime in October or November at an undisclosed site in the Toronto area....The two men will split a purse of $3,500 and 60% of the gate receipts....John Scholes the Toronto heavyweight will square off with George Godfrey over ten rounds at the Commonwealth Arena in Toronto....

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Clipping from The Cleveland Courier - August 1894....Jim Jeffries defended his American Boxing Association heavyweight title with a savage 4th round knockout of Gus Ruhlin at Doyle's Arena....Corrie Sanders of South Afrika defeated England's Battling Ed Corcoran via a convincing 10 round decision at Chicago then boarded a train for New York and a White Star line steamship for Cape Town....European heavyweight champion Roberto Damiani may defend his belt once more before year's end and is considering Joe Beckett as an opponent but insists any fight must take place in Italy....James Corbett is looking for a rematch with Tom Sharkey but is unlikely to get it according to the latter's manager as the ex-sailor pugilist has his sights firmly set on another run at world champion Peter Jackson....Jackson for his part is busy with final negotiations for his title defence against Denver Ed Martin now planned for late October or early November....

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Cut out from The Montreal Evening Star -September 1894....Ex EBU champion Jack Root nee Janos Ruthaly of Austria, lost a narrow decision at the gambling casino in Cannes France to hometown favourite Francois Marchand (9-2-1)....At Chicago's famed Marathon A.C. Klondike Haynes knocked out Charley Stevenson to raise his record to 19-13-1 and immediately called out old rival Frank Childs....Word on the wire is Joe Goddard has recaptured the British Empire heavyweight title from New Zealand's Harry Laing by a razor-thin decision in the latter's hometown .....Laing retains his claim to the Australasian championship....Denver Ed Martin is training for his upcoming battle with Peter Jackson under the watchful eye of veteran Joe Choynski with rumours of a "secret punch" being devised....

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Cutting from The Ballarat Independent - September 1894.....Also on the same card Wallsend Smith and Jimmy Henry boxed to a six round draw...Sid Russell knocked out Alf Morgan in four rounds and Victoria State amateur champion Fred Preston made his pro debut with a decision win over three rounds with Ted Fowley....Joe Goddard immediately signed to defend his Empire title belt against old rival Frank Slavin at Sydney Stadium....

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Excerpt from The New York Sun - October 2, 1894....Jack Johnson and George Chuvalo are in the final days of serious workouts for their upcoming battle for the North American Boxing Federation heavyweight championship....both men declare they are in top condition and will give the fight of their lives when they meet in Toronto....The only major sticking point now appears to be the selection of the third man in the ring as Johnson refuses to accept local man Joe Francis and Chuvalo has turned thumbs down on two of Johnson's choices....Rumours that Denver Ed Martin has injured himself in training and endangered his fight with world champion Peter Jackson have proven groundless....Martin avows he will have no excuse on that score and intends to wrest the title from Jackson when they meet next month....

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Poster for the Johnson-Chuvalo NABF championship fight....Scene on Mutual Street in Toronto depicting hundreds of boxing fans (including women) lining up as tickets for the fight go on sale....In a bid to assure both fighters of a neutral arbiter promoter Tom Flanagan invites visiting British sports writer J.P. Asquith to act as third man and is relieved when Asquith agrees....