The Sweet Science

James J. Corbett lifted boxing out of the barroom slough, the evil influences of its habitués, and started it towards its moral revolution. Prior to his rise to pugilistic heights, his predecessors for the most part were men who scorned the conventionalities of decent social life. Corbett changed that. He won the support of a better class of patrons for the sport.

At the zenith of his career there wasn't a man in the ring who could be compared favorably with him in cleverness and quick thinking. He was not of the slugging type as was Sullivan, but he was by no means a weak hitter, as Bob Fitzsimmons, who wrested the title from him, testified when interviewed on Gentleman Jim's punching powers.

Corbett was born in San Francisco, California, September 1, 1866, of Irish parents. He was one of twelve children. After leaving school, Corbett entered a mercantile establishment where he became a clerk with a reputation for quick figuring. He quit that job for one as a teller in a bank and retained the latter position until he turned to professional boxing for a living.

His real boxing education began when he became a member of the famous Olympic Club, where Professor Watson tutored him.

After he started his professional career, his greatest rival was Joe Chovnski, a clever, fast, hard hitting battier. On May 30, 1889, they engaged in their first mill at Fairfax, California, with two-ounce gloves, but the police interfered and the bout was halted in the fourth round. Hostilities were resumed on June 5 to settle the matter of supremacy, this time on a barge anchored near Benicia.

After twenty-seven furious rounds in which Choynski bled profusely from the mouth and nose, Joe quit. A third bout was arranged and this one went only four rounds, with Corbett the winner.

Corbett's defeat of Jake Kilrain in New Orleans on February 18, 1.890, brought the young Californian into national prominence.

On May 21 of the following year, Gentleman Jim astonished the boxing world by holding the great Peter Jackson to a sixty-one rounds draw before the California Athletic Club. This bout stamped him as ready for a crack at Sullivan's crown, a bout already discussed.

Following the defeat of the "Boston Strong Boy," Corbett made his very successful stage debut. He appeared in a melodrama, Gentleman Jack, and thereafter did considerable theatrical work, his vocation after his retirement. After winning the heavyweight title, Corbett retired for more than a year from ring affairs, but persistent abuse from the Britisher, Charley Mitchell, finally got Corbett back into harness. He handed Mitchell a shellacking in their bout at Jacksonville, Florida, on January 25, 1894, stopping him in the third round.

With that bout, the champion decided to quit and announced that he had turned over his crown to Peter Maher, the Irish heavyweight. It was a good gesture on his part, but futile, since the public didn't take it seriously. Nor did Bob Fitzsimmons, who was eager for a shot at the title. Fitzsimmons took on Maher and knocked him out in one round, thus forcing the hand of Corbett.

At Carson City, on March 17, 1897, in the first open-air arena built especially for boxing, Corbett was knocked out by Fitzsimmons in the fourteenth round. In that fatal round, "Freckled Bob" shot several lefts to the face, then feinted with a right for the jaw.

As Corbett raised his arm to protect himself, Fitzsimmons executed his famous shift, bringing his right foot forward. Then, like a bolt from the sky, he shot a right to the heart and a left that landed with paralyzing force into the pit of Corbett's stomach for the knockout. A new champion had been crowned and with that knockout was born the "Solar Plexus" blow.

On May 11, 1900, Corbett put up his greatest battle when he almost succeeded in regaining the crown from James J. Jeffries at the Seaside A.C. of Coney Island, New York. For twenty-two rounds Corbett had far the better of the fighting with his spectacular footwork and two-handed attack, but in the next frame Jeffries cut loose with the winning wallops.

A right to the jaw then put Corbett on the canvas, his head resting on the lower rope. In this position he was counted out by Referee Charley White. It was one of the finest exhibitions of science versus brute strength that the ring had known.

The following August, Corbett and Kid McCoy fought in Madison Square Garden of New York in an unsatisfactory bout that ended in the fifth round and created considerable talk. An investigation was held and the unsavory taste left by the bout resulted in the repeal of the Horton Law, under which boxing was permitted in New York, and put a temporary end to public bouts. Corbett had won on a questionable knockout.

For three years Corbett eschewed the temptations of the roped square. Then on August 14, 1903, he again attempted a comeback, this time against Jeffries in San Francisco, and the "Grizzly Bear" of the West put Corbett away in the tenth round. With that bout Corbett quit. Henceforth his entire attention was devoted to the stage.

Corbett appeared in The Naval Cadet and Byron Cashel's Profession.

He died from cancer in his Bayside, Long Island, New York, home on February 18, 1933, in his sixty-seventh year. His name shines as the Master Scientist of the Squared Circle.