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Dixon and Plimmer Review Their Recent Battle
18 September 1893
Great Fighters
Dixon and Plimmer Review Their Recent Battle
There are losers and winners. If a man is squarely beaten in an athletic contest of any kind he has no right to complain. If however he thinks an injustice has been done to him he has the privilege which Americans as well as Britons usually assume – To growl. I do not wish to be considered as entering the baby plea, but I think the action of Referee O'Donnell in awarding- the decision to Billy Plimmer, of England, over me, on the occasion of our recent four round contest at Madison Square garden, was not exactly in accordance with the strict rules of fair play.
It is not fair to take away the reputation a man has spent years In building up upon the result of a four round bout, unless one of the contestants is either completely knocked out or is worsted at every point in the encounter. This principle has ever obtained in this country, now the home of manly art. The same rule holds good in England and Australia, the two next best fighting countries on earth.
Had not that rule prevailed John L. Sullivan; Peter Jackson, Jack Dempsey and Jack McAuliffe would have had their reputations seriously endangered if not irretrievably lost on more than one occasion. When John L. Sullivan broke his arm on Patsey Cardiff's hard head some years ago, it was all he could do to stay the four rounds and Cardiff more than held his own. ,yet the referee called it a draw. so to with Peter Jackson , when ill prepared for a bruising contest, he went up against Joe Goddard in Australia for four rounds. Peter, so printed reports say, had the better of the battle for four rounds. In the next four big Joe, these same reports maintain, reversed the tables and had slightly the call on Peter.Yet the referee decided the affair a draw.
Jack Dempsey had twice or thrice the same experience in his career and not many weeks ago bold Jack McAnliffe had a shade the worst of it in a four round bout at Philadelphia with Horace Leeds, a comparative novice.yet the referee in Dempsey’s case and the referee in that of McAuliffe did not take away their reputations by deciding against them.
No finish fights alone should either make or mar a man. A champions reputation should only be won or lost in a battle to the end. Four,six,eight or ten round bouts should not count, many a champion has had far and away the worst of it in the first part of a battle and yet won handily at the termination of the engagement.
Witness the famous battles between John Morrissey and John C. Heenan, Tom Sayers and Bill Perry , the “Tipton Slasher”, and Tom King and jem Mace. In all of these contests Morrissey,Sayers and king had Away the worst of the encounter in the beginning, yet they won the good fight.
How unjust in these cases it would have been in the event of magisterial interference at the first part of the fray to have given the stakes and the title of champion to the man apparently having the better of it.
So with limited round contests it is unjust to take away a champions good name even though he should have a bit the worst of it. In these affairs the widest possible latitude should be permited and the greatest generosity exercised by the referee.
I am not only willing but anxious to fight Billy Plimmer to a finish.If I am as fortunate in my coming battle with Solly Smith, of California, for the featherweight Championship of the world as I was in my contests with the Champion of America, England and Australia I will lose no time in making overtures to the little Englishman. I am willing to meet him half way in any plan looking to a meeting.as a champion in my class I cannot be expected to make all the concessions , as Billy, or some indiscreet friend for him, says I must. It takes two to make a contract and he must make some concessions as well as I.
And here let me correct a false impression which prevails in some quarters many people believe that because Billy Plimmer got the decision over me at our recent contest that he is now the champion featherweight of the world. This is not so .I still retain that title and will for some time yet, unless Solly Smith lowers my colours on 25th September.
Here to, let me correct another impression which fortunately only a few people entertain, viz., that my contest with Plimmer was a fake and that I was laying low for favorable odds in my match with Smith and a finish battle with Plimmer. There is not the slightest ground for any such belief. I would not throw a fight for all the money there is in the national treasury. I have been on the level all my life, and will remain so whether I am victor or vanquished.
GEORGE E. DIXON
Sportsmen throughout the country appear to be astonished at the victory I recently achieved over George Dixon, The featherweight champion of the world.
I can honestly say that the result, Gratifying as it was did not astonish your humble servant a little bit. Not that I am in any way afflicted with that disease known as the swelled head or have an undue appreciation of my own powers, but I had made a study of Dixon and knew to a nicety just about what he could do. As the boys say I was on to all his curves and had a very fair idea how to meet them.
Indeed I have been studying Dixon ever since I came to this country two years ago, and had taken his measure Just as accurately as Jim Corbett had that of the great John L.. Sullivan before their memorable battle in New Orleans .
I had tried several times before my late meeting with Dixon to get on a match with him but he could never agree on the question of weight. He is a featherweight and I am a bantam. He usually fights at one hundred and eighteen pounds and I at one hundred and ten. To insure the recent contest: I was compelled to give away weight and agree to box the colored prodigy at one hundred and eighteen pounds.
Of course I did not reduce myself to my regular fighting weight for this engagement. I wished to come as close to Dixon's as I could and yet be neither fat nor slow I simply hardened my flesh by exercise judiciously taken and cultivated quick action both as to hands and feet by punching a rubber bag jumping the rope. The reason for this is obvious. The bout was limited to four rounds and fast fighting was sure to come the moment we crossed arms. naturally, other things being equal, strength, quickness, cleverness, height and reach, the heavier man is sure to get the better of the rushes, and that always counts with the referee.
Dixon had every advantage over me except those of skill, strength and quickness. he was taller, longer in the reach and a bit heavier. Knowing that Dixon' would come at me 1 had studied out a plan of action. It was not to retreat but simply duck, parry and step out of harm's way when he shot out his "wonderful left" and followed it with one of his circular right hand swings. That method of procedure I only intended to follow the first round so as to size up my adversary's reach and ability to “get there."
After that I meant to meet him every time and I think the public will admit I succeeded in doing so. When Dixon would lead with that long- left of his instead of stepping-back I would step forward quickly and counter him. The colored boy is a round-handed hitter, the same as John L. Sullivan and disciples of his school. I on the contrary hit out as straight as it is possible for a man to do, and the result was that my blow would reach its destination first. That stands to reason, as it is a simple geometric proposition that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points and to describe a curve certainly takes longer than it does to draw a straight line.
Some smart people affect to believe that Dixon did not try his best to do me. These doubting- Thomases say: "Oh-it was a game of O'Rourke's to affect the betting in Dixon’s. coming match with Solly Smith, of California, and to draw Plimmer into a finish contest. If this were so, O'Rourke, Dixon and myself would be better actors than Booth, Forrest and Irving. O'Rourke became as pale as a corpse when he saw me besting his boy, and Dixon and your humble servant hit,countered and cross countered with an earnestness, force and precision that no “Fakirs” no matter how much they boxed together ever were known to do, and Dixon and myself best know we never met each other before in the squared circle.
No, the idea is absurd.Dixon was always on the level, and Tom O’Rourke would not Have his boy whipped for $20,000. defeat to Dixon meant a disarrangement of their plans for the future and a tremendous falling off in their yearly revenues. The public Has no use for a loser John L Sullivan is the only beaten champion who retains A warm spot in the popular heart, and that is due wholly to his many good qualities as a man.
BILLY PLIMMER
18 September 1893
Great Fighters
Dixon and Plimmer Review Their Recent Battle
There are losers and winners. If a man is squarely beaten in an athletic contest of any kind he has no right to complain. If however he thinks an injustice has been done to him he has the privilege which Americans as well as Britons usually assume – To growl. I do not wish to be considered as entering the baby plea, but I think the action of Referee O'Donnell in awarding- the decision to Billy Plimmer, of England, over me, on the occasion of our recent four round contest at Madison Square garden, was not exactly in accordance with the strict rules of fair play.
It is not fair to take away the reputation a man has spent years In building up upon the result of a four round bout, unless one of the contestants is either completely knocked out or is worsted at every point in the encounter. This principle has ever obtained in this country, now the home of manly art. The same rule holds good in England and Australia, the two next best fighting countries on earth.
Had not that rule prevailed John L. Sullivan; Peter Jackson, Jack Dempsey and Jack McAuliffe would have had their reputations seriously endangered if not irretrievably lost on more than one occasion. When John L. Sullivan broke his arm on Patsey Cardiff's hard head some years ago, it was all he could do to stay the four rounds and Cardiff more than held his own. ,yet the referee called it a draw. so to with Peter Jackson , when ill prepared for a bruising contest, he went up against Joe Goddard in Australia for four rounds. Peter, so printed reports say, had the better of the battle for four rounds. In the next four big Joe, these same reports maintain, reversed the tables and had slightly the call on Peter.Yet the referee decided the affair a draw.
Jack Dempsey had twice or thrice the same experience in his career and not many weeks ago bold Jack McAnliffe had a shade the worst of it in a four round bout at Philadelphia with Horace Leeds, a comparative novice.yet the referee in Dempsey’s case and the referee in that of McAuliffe did not take away their reputations by deciding against them.
No finish fights alone should either make or mar a man. A champions reputation should only be won or lost in a battle to the end. Four,six,eight or ten round bouts should not count, many a champion has had far and away the worst of it in the first part of a battle and yet won handily at the termination of the engagement.
Witness the famous battles between John Morrissey and John C. Heenan, Tom Sayers and Bill Perry , the “Tipton Slasher”, and Tom King and jem Mace. In all of these contests Morrissey,Sayers and king had Away the worst of the encounter in the beginning, yet they won the good fight.
How unjust in these cases it would have been in the event of magisterial interference at the first part of the fray to have given the stakes and the title of champion to the man apparently having the better of it.
So with limited round contests it is unjust to take away a champions good name even though he should have a bit the worst of it. In these affairs the widest possible latitude should be permited and the greatest generosity exercised by the referee.
I am not only willing but anxious to fight Billy Plimmer to a finish.If I am as fortunate in my coming battle with Solly Smith, of California, for the featherweight Championship of the world as I was in my contests with the Champion of America, England and Australia I will lose no time in making overtures to the little Englishman. I am willing to meet him half way in any plan looking to a meeting.as a champion in my class I cannot be expected to make all the concessions , as Billy, or some indiscreet friend for him, says I must. It takes two to make a contract and he must make some concessions as well as I.
And here let me correct a false impression which prevails in some quarters many people believe that because Billy Plimmer got the decision over me at our recent contest that he is now the champion featherweight of the world. This is not so .I still retain that title and will for some time yet, unless Solly Smith lowers my colours on 25th September.
Here to, let me correct another impression which fortunately only a few people entertain, viz., that my contest with Plimmer was a fake and that I was laying low for favorable odds in my match with Smith and a finish battle with Plimmer. There is not the slightest ground for any such belief. I would not throw a fight for all the money there is in the national treasury. I have been on the level all my life, and will remain so whether I am victor or vanquished.
GEORGE E. DIXON
Sportsmen throughout the country appear to be astonished at the victory I recently achieved over George Dixon, The featherweight champion of the world.
I can honestly say that the result, Gratifying as it was did not astonish your humble servant a little bit. Not that I am in any way afflicted with that disease known as the swelled head or have an undue appreciation of my own powers, but I had made a study of Dixon and knew to a nicety just about what he could do. As the boys say I was on to all his curves and had a very fair idea how to meet them.
Indeed I have been studying Dixon ever since I came to this country two years ago, and had taken his measure Just as accurately as Jim Corbett had that of the great John L.. Sullivan before their memorable battle in New Orleans .
I had tried several times before my late meeting with Dixon to get on a match with him but he could never agree on the question of weight. He is a featherweight and I am a bantam. He usually fights at one hundred and eighteen pounds and I at one hundred and ten. To insure the recent contest: I was compelled to give away weight and agree to box the colored prodigy at one hundred and eighteen pounds.
Of course I did not reduce myself to my regular fighting weight for this engagement. I wished to come as close to Dixon's as I could and yet be neither fat nor slow I simply hardened my flesh by exercise judiciously taken and cultivated quick action both as to hands and feet by punching a rubber bag jumping the rope. The reason for this is obvious. The bout was limited to four rounds and fast fighting was sure to come the moment we crossed arms. naturally, other things being equal, strength, quickness, cleverness, height and reach, the heavier man is sure to get the better of the rushes, and that always counts with the referee.
Dixon had every advantage over me except those of skill, strength and quickness. he was taller, longer in the reach and a bit heavier. Knowing that Dixon' would come at me 1 had studied out a plan of action. It was not to retreat but simply duck, parry and step out of harm's way when he shot out his "wonderful left" and followed it with one of his circular right hand swings. That method of procedure I only intended to follow the first round so as to size up my adversary's reach and ability to “get there."
After that I meant to meet him every time and I think the public will admit I succeeded in doing so. When Dixon would lead with that long- left of his instead of stepping-back I would step forward quickly and counter him. The colored boy is a round-handed hitter, the same as John L. Sullivan and disciples of his school. I on the contrary hit out as straight as it is possible for a man to do, and the result was that my blow would reach its destination first. That stands to reason, as it is a simple geometric proposition that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points and to describe a curve certainly takes longer than it does to draw a straight line.
Some smart people affect to believe that Dixon did not try his best to do me. These doubting- Thomases say: "Oh-it was a game of O'Rourke's to affect the betting in Dixon’s. coming match with Solly Smith, of California, and to draw Plimmer into a finish contest. If this were so, O'Rourke, Dixon and myself would be better actors than Booth, Forrest and Irving. O'Rourke became as pale as a corpse when he saw me besting his boy, and Dixon and your humble servant hit,countered and cross countered with an earnestness, force and precision that no “Fakirs” no matter how much they boxed together ever were known to do, and Dixon and myself best know we never met each other before in the squared circle.
No, the idea is absurd.Dixon was always on the level, and Tom O’Rourke would not Have his boy whipped for $20,000. defeat to Dixon meant a disarrangement of their plans for the future and a tremendous falling off in their yearly revenues. The public Has no use for a loser John L Sullivan is the only beaten champion who retains A warm spot in the popular heart, and that is due wholly to his many good qualities as a man.
BILLY PLIMMER
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