Jackie "Kid" Berg

Whitechapel Whirlwind 

 

One of the international jokes in the world of sports is the caliber of the British boxer. Whenever an Englishman becomes a standout fighter, he comes to American shores to earn the Yankee dollar, and he finds that with the coin he picks up a bad beating from American fighters. British fistic annals of the past few decades reveals that the English righter, with his old-fashioned, wide-open stance is easy prey for the rougher American pugilist, who is brought up in a tough professional school and who, before he reaches the top, takes a lot of punishment.

British boxing reputations are low in America largely because wily Jimmy Johnston once brought to these shores a heavyweight named Phil Scott, who made a lot of money by fighting so badly that he won the cognomen of "Fainting Phil" Scott. This fellow seemed unable to stand upright in a ring when he met an American. He won reams of newspaper copy and made a lot of money. His manager used to say that Phil won more money lying down than most fighters make standing up. But the cause of British boxing did not hold up very well with men like Scott to "strengthen" it.

Of course in the days of Fitzsimmons and Sullivan and Corbett the British had some pretty fair heavyweights. And now and again a brilliant champion in the lighter classes