CORBETT HOLDS BOXING TODAY IS A WANING ART

"Boxing is a lost art, in fact, the whole world seems to me to be on the wane," James J. Corbett said late last night in an interview with a CRIMSON reporter just before going out for his comedy act "Gentleman Jim." "In spite of his pessimistic statement he seemed anything but depressed as he straightened his bright green tie and doned his white flannels. When his interviewer showed his ignorance of boxing in the '80's and '90's, Mr. Corbett reviewed his rise in the fistic world.

"It was in '92 that I took the title from Sullivan and I held it until '97 when Bob Fitzsimmons made the solar plexus famous with his blow that earned him the crown. It's queer but no one but doctors had ever heard of the solar plexus before that scrap, but ever since he floored me with that left of his it has become a catch word in boxing. In spite of the fact that I held the title five years after that I really had my greatest fight with Jefferies in 1901. Fitzsimmons wouldn't give me a return fight so I had to wait until Jefferies took it away from him in order to get another shot at the Championship. I was ten years older than Jefferies and hadn't been fighting for four years. It was a 25 round bout. Up to the twenty-third round I had the edge on him and it was in that round that he knocked me out. It was quite a feather in my cap to be able to come back and fight 28 rounds after a long lay off.

"The whole profession has changed a great deal since my days. When I took the crown from Sullivan the whole purse went to the winner, and as it was Sullivan didn't get a cent, not even for, his training expenses. In Dempsey's last fight he got $300,000 regardless of whether he won or not. Fight like that takes all the incentive away. It made very little difference to him whether he won or lost. Believe me when I got into the ring with Sullivan I fought like a fool because it either would make or break me and of course Sullivan was fighting the same way."