Been reading some next day accounts of this fracas. As I understand, Klondike Haynes was jabbing Maher's face off for the first few rounds. Maher started some rough stuff in Round 2, then landing to the body in the 3rd and then a big wallop to Klondike's jaw in the 4th, all the while Klondike's jab doing its work overtime and Peter ramping up the fouling. Klondike started answering the Irishman's fouling in the 4th and things just got crazy after that... Let's pick it up there... "Maher had forgotten all the science he ever had and was walloping left and right like an amateur on his first appearance. He was talking to Klondike in the choicest brogue and the colored man was replying in the raggedest rag time. Oh, but there were things doing. The men rushed together, walloped until they got tangled up in their own arms and legs an then they wrestled. Peter always threw Klondike and fell on top of him. Klondike's seconds claimed a foul, while Maher's handlers claimed that Klondike fell purposely and pulled Peter down with him. After three or four falls Klondike went down and managed to pull Peter with him an in some way or other he climbed on top of the Irishman and was about to drill it into him in the good old rough and tumble style, when Referee Crowhurst interfered..." Some accounts have Klondike executing a full tilt Ground and Pound on Maher. Would love to see this one.
Apparently, it's all a matter of perspective... "The much-heralded colored wonder, Klondike, lost to Peter Maher, the Irish champion, Monday night in a twenty-round bout at the Trenton Athletic Club. Maher forced matters from the outset and compelled Klondike to sprint around the ring to avoid punishment. In the third round Klondike mixed it up with Maher strongly, but from this round to the finish Maher had things to his liking. Klondike repeatedly fouled the Irishman, and in the fifth round he deliberately grabbed Maher around the waist and forced his knees into the stomach..." The Milwaukie Journal
Early in this report is pretty unreadable, which is why I'm skipping part way in, there's still a few very hard to read words. I stop when it goes back up to the top of the page and again becomes unreadable. Trenton Times - August 21, 1900 Klondike plainly had Maher guessing and it made Peter resort to tactics no fair minded crowd will stand for. Peter was a red hot favorite with the big crowd by there were times when he was hissed and geered for hitting after having been told to break. In the third round Maher began to land right handers in the colored man's stomach that cut ice and it looked then only a question of how many rounds before Peter would win. Klondike was over condifent after the first two rounds and he left opening that no boxer could afford to do against such a terrific hitter as Maher. In the fourth round Maher got to Klondike's jaw with that deadly right of his several times and it shook the colored man up from head to toes. Klondike kept coming however and it was a fierce fight right up to the bell. The fifth and last round lasted about two and a half minutes during which time Klondike took the count three times. It was the roughest kind of fighting and Klondike could not stand the pace with Peter. He was bleeding from the mouth and nose when in a clinch he and Maher went to the floor. Firsts and feet were doing stunts with Klondike on top of Maher trying to smash him. Referee Crowhurst gave it to Maher on a foul. Klondike was by far the cleverest but Peter was there with the punches and that's what gets the money. It was a better fight than nine out of ten expected, for Maher had to do all he knew to win, where the geeral opinion was that the Irishman would have a cinch. The first rounds was "Klondike's" and the second Maher's. The third and fourth were about even Stephen with Maher winning all the way in the fifth. There was a crowd of about one thousand present when the preliminary between Kid Edwards and Ray Wyckoff was put on. It was a one dollar crowd all of the cleacher seats being taken while a number of higher priced seats were vacant. However the crowd was fair and it is likely that the club got by without losing anything on the venture, but it could hardly be called a financial success. Wyckoff and Edwards put up a slashing sight until the Kid won in the third round. It was anybody's fight up to the time the punch was landed and for a beginner Wyckoff showed up well. He can hit and take his mess of beating without whimpering. He had Edward weak with stomach punches in the first round, but the "Kis" stuck gamely to his job and was rewarded by victory. Wyckoff was not. . . .
Two loose screws can make for a good fight. Maher is a fun guy to read. A flawed puncher who dishes out it much better than he could take it. The Tommy Morrison of his times if you will.
