Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/33

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ETHICS OF BOXING AND MANLY SPORT.

in this reduction not only had he sacrificed nervous force to muscular power, but he had lost the necessary fat to keep him from getting chilled in THE USUAL, AND WRONG, WAY TO STRIKE A ROUND BLOW. the slow fight ensured by the London Rules.

In America, Sullivan's example has done much to bring glove contests into professional practice; and when the man's faults are rehearsed, it is only fair that this should be remembered. In other respects it is beyond doubt that he is one of the most remarkable boxers in the whole history of the exercise, (see page 75 for analysis of his method of fighting, which of course is a study of the man when at his best.)

Sullivan's second achievement is, undoubtedly, the crystallization of the round blow. This is one of the greatest additions ever made to the pugilism of the ring. The round blow, safely delivered, is the most powerful and effective of all blows.

Sullivan did not invent the round blow. It is as old as boxing; indeed it is one of the natural movements of human attack. It was the leading blow of the Greeks with the brutal cestus, or armed glove. It is the very blow that a strong, awk-