"When I began to fight," he said, "they called me 'One-Punch
Glendon.' You saw that punch a moment ago. I always had that punch. I
went after my men and got them on the jump, though I was careful not
to hit with all my might. Then I was educated. My manager told me it
wasn't fair to the crowd. He advised me to make long fights so that
the crowd could get a run for its money. I was a fool, a mutt. I was
a green lad from the mountains. So help me God, I swallowed it as
the truth. My manager used to talk over with me what round I would
put my man out in. Then he tipped it off to the betting syndicate,
and the betting syndicate went to it. Of course you paid. But I am
glad for one thing. I never touched a cent of the money. They didn't
dare offer it to me, because they knew it would give the game away.
"You remember my fight with Nat Powers. I never knocked him out. I had
got suspicious. So the gang framed it up with him. I didn't know. I
intended to let him go a couple of rounds over the sixteenth. That last
punch in the sixteenth didn't shake him. But he faked the knock-out
just the same and fooled all of you."
"How about to-night?" a voice called out. "Is it a frame-up?"
"It is," was Glendon's answer. "How's the syndicate betting? That
Cannam will last to the fourteenth."
Howls and hoots went up. For the last time Glendon held up his hand
for silence.
"I'm almost done now. But I want to tell you one thing. The syndicate
gets landed to-night. This is to be a square fight. Tom Cannam won't
last till the fourteenth round. He won't last the first round."
Cannam sprang to his feet in his corner and cried out in a fury:
"You can't do it. The man don't live who can get me in one round!"
Glendon ignored him and went on.
"Once now in my life I have struck with all my strength. You saw that
a moment ago when I caught Hanford. To-night, for the second time,
I am going to hit with all my strength--that is, if Cannam doesn't
jump through the ropes right now and get away. And now I'm ready."
He went to his corner and held out his hands for his gloves. In the
opposite corner Cannam raged while his seconds tried vainly to calm
him. At last Billy Morgan managed to make the final announcement.
"This will be a forty-five round contest," he shouted. "Marquis of
Queensbury Rules! And may the best man win! Let her go!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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