DID NOT WARM THEMSELVES --- Blackburn and Langford Put Up a Very Rank Bout If there ever were any doubts about Joe Gans' fistic decadence, they should have been resolved at the Washington Sporting Club last night, when Sam Langford, of Boston, met Jack Blackburn, of this city, in the wind-up. Each of these boys has secured a verdict over the technical light-weight champion, but last night neither was apparently able to box fast enough to keep himself warm. The bout became such a dreary farce that at the end of the third round the referee walked to the ropes and announced that unless they got together and gave the spectators a run for their money he would put on an extra bout and deduct the cost from the share of the principals. This deliverance had an enlivening effect upon Langford and Blackburn for a little while after the gong sounded for the beginning of the fourth round, but half the round was not spent before the pair, who evidently had a talk before going on, fell back to their former tactics. Langford did not deliver one punch with a closed hand, and all of his swings found lodgment somewhere in the immediate vicinity of Blackburn's back. The bout was nothing but one series of clinches, during which one half the time of the bout was consumed. On behalf of Blackburn it was claimed that he had been suffering from dysentery for some time, and that he was physically incapable of doing himself justice. Just why, then, he should have been sent on is not apparent. At the end of the fourth round the spectators began to depart from the building, and before the end of the sixth one half the producers had reached the outer air. While the wind-up was a disappointment, the preliminaries were all to the good.
whats the point of this? to downgrade the fighters? blackburn was fighting with dysentery a disease! vitali cancels a fight if he stubs his toe! blackburn is the most underated lightweight of all time. his resume is oustanding.
