Dug this up, It's not in the archive, but it told me the pages to look up on the internet archive.
- On the day of the fight, I started in my car with my seconds and personal party to the Colma arena. I was driving a six-ninety Thompson Flier and traveling at a rate of speed that enabled me to pass Ketchel and his party who were going to the ring in a white Lozier, at that time considered Americaâs classiest cars. He was going 62 miles an hour he told me later. Despite the speed I was driving I was busily thinking how I could make the fight picturesque, and a plan occurred to me. This plan I did not divulge to any of my party though I told Bob Armstrong, one of my sparring partners, that if he should see me down in a certain round he need not get excited. We arrived at the arena 20 minutes before the fight and found that every ticket had been sold. We caught several men on the gate knocking down on us. We made them shake loose their cash and put it in the cash box, fired them off the gate and replaced them with others.
- Page 195
Once in the ring I looked about me and was surprised to find that every possible space that could hold a human body was filled. A few minutes afterward Ketchel entered the ring and I turned my attention from the crowd to him. I looked him over as he sat in his corner, and saw a man whom I recognized as a great fighter. I figured to myself that Ketchel was a good puncher and a game man, and that I must carry on the fight in a way that would make the pictures snappy and worth seeing. I decided that I would take him along for several rounds and let him make a good showing, so that the spectators would not tire of the fight. However, I did not propose to let him hurt me. I followed this plan throughout the fight and as it neared the end, I had Ketchel well in hand - Page 196
and could do with him as I wished. He sent over a punch which landed on my jaw. It did not hurt nor disconcert me. My brain had been working rapidlyâso rapidly that I recognized this to be a clean cut blow with apparently much force back of it. I said to myself, âNowâs your time! Nowâs your time! MHereâs your chance,â and so I hit the canvas. All the time I was watching Ketchel and the referee. I was watching the latter so that he would not count me out and I watched Ketchel so that he would be in the position I wished when I arose. In order to do this, it was necessary for me to get up at a certain angle. It would cause him to move into the position I desired. As I got to my feet, I pretended to be groggy, but in reality I was ready to deliver the knockout. Ketchel rushed me with determination to put me out. I met him with a murderous blow that put him out instead. It was a right uppercut and the fight was over. Stanley lost several teeth, and when I returned to the dressing room I found one of his teeth embedded in my glove. After the fight we became fast friends and continued so until the day of his death. He was a member of my boxing party when I fought Jeffries and was an able assistant. When he was shot to death by a cowardly assassin on the farm of Colonel ****inson in Missouri, there was no one who grieved more than I, because I admired him and counted him as one of my most valued friends.
Comment