"Now are you going to get him?" Stubener queried anxiously.
"Inside ten seconds," was Pat's confident assertion. "Watch me."
There was no trick about it. When the gong struck and Pat bounded
to his feet, he advertised it unmistakably that for the first
time in the fight he was starting after his man. Not one onlooker
misunderstood. The Flying Dutchman read the advertisement, too, and for
the first time in his career, as they met in the center of the ring,
visibly hesitated. For the fraction of a second they faced each other
in position. Then the Flying Dutchman leaped forward upon his man,
and Pat, with a timed right-cross, dropped him cold as he leaped.
It was after this battle that Pat Glendon started on his upward rush
to fame. The sports and the sporting writers took him up. For the first
time the Flying Dutchman had been knocked out. His conqueror had proved
a wizard of defense. His previous victories had not been flukes. He had
a kick in both his hands. Giant that he was, he would go far. The time
was already past, the writers asserted, for him to waste himself on the
third-raters and chopping blocks. Where were Ben Menzies, Rege Rede,
Bill Tarwater, and Ernest Lawson? It was time for them to meet this
young cub that had suddenly shown himself a fighter of quality. Where
was his manager anyway, that he was not issuing the challenges?
And then fame came in a day; for Stubener divulged the secret that
his man was none other than the son of Pat Glendon, Old Pat, the
old-time ring hero. "Young" Pat Glendon, he was promptly christened,
and sports and writers flocked about him to admire him, and back him,
and write him up.
Beginning with Ben Menzies and finishing with Bill Tarwater, he
challenged, fought, and knocked out the four second-raters. To do this,
he was compelled to travel, the battles taking place in Goldfield,
Denver, Texas, and New York. To accomplish it required months, for
the bigger fights were not easily arranged, and the men themselves
demanded more time for training.
The second year saw him running to cover and disposing of the
half-dozen big fighters that clustered just beneath the top of
the heavyweight ladder. On this top, firmly planted, stood "Big"
Jim Hanford, the undefeated world champion. Here, on the top rungs,
progress was slower, though Stubener was indefatigable in issuing
challenges and in promoting sporting opinion to force the man to
fight. Will King was disposed of in England, and Glendon pursued
Tom Harrison half way around the world to defeat him on Boxing Day
in Australia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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