BoxRec

Bettinson wrote an articke in 1912 entitled
' The Unconqurable Spirit which enables some boxers to win their contests'

This was written on the backdrop of 18 year old George Carpentier knocking out cold English and European Champion Jim Sulllivan in Monte Carlo.

Also in the same week Digger Stanley lost his title to another Frenchman Jean Posey in Dieppe(cant see this anywhere in the records).

This article im sure has been quoted in other books later in the 20's wondered if anyone else has come across similar writings.

do you have the full article, if so I would like a copy please.

The Bettinson article or the Stanley/Posey bout?

Stu

the bettinson please

The Most Important Asset of All


THE UNCONQUERABLE SPIRIT WHICH ALONE ENBLES SOME BOXERS
TO WIN THEIR CONTESTS.
By A.F BETTINSON

Recent happenings have strongly emphasised the advance of France, on which I commented a few weeks ago, and now. With the downfall of two of our champions before French rivals, we are left to wonder where it is all going to end. There were solid excuses, of coarse, to offer for Digger Stanley’s failure to beat Jean Posey. Digger was a much lighter man, and was faced by the very type of opponent best calculated to take full advantage of any physical superiority he might posses. Moreover, Stanley’s right hand was badly damaged in the 6th round, and this proved a serious handicap. I cannot say that I feel that he would have won in ant event, but it must be conceded that but for his unfortunate accident he would have been probably able to hold his own far better than he did during the closing scenes of the contest.

The Sullivan Shock
What can be said, however on behalf of Jim Sullivan? Our Middle weight champion had a slight advantage in weight, was older, and should have consequently been better set. He had also the pull in experience, or at least should have had a quite respectable pull in this respect. And yet, from all accounts he was made to look like a mere novice and was beaten with the greatest of ease, putting up an infinitely poor display than that given either by Sid Burns or Young Joseph.
I do not suggest that this was his real form, but the fact remains that our middle-weight champion was unable to show himself being in the same street with his French rival. And that isn’t at all a pleasant thing to realise. We must remember, too, that Cartpentier is not the only swallow which is making the present French summer. There are any number of good boxers rising up every day across the channel and the astonishing rapid progress they have made during the last few months points very distinctly to the day when they may sweep the boards of all the world champions, leaving England’s representatives to occupy second, if not third, places.

The Decay of English Boxing
How is one to account for it? It is clear that our boxers today are by no means to be compared with those of, say, twenty years ago. We were perhaps by no means at our best then, but I do fancy that we then possessed amateurs who could have handed out defeat to most, if not all, of our present day professionals , and who could have done it in the easiest possible fashion.
What is the matter with our men? As a rule, our present day boxers are, or should be, better educated men, and ought, therefore, to be somewhat more intelligent. They are earning more money, they are able to secure much more practice, or at all events have vastly greater opportunities for so doing, and yet only here and there can one come across a man who knows even the rudiments of the game. It is, it really is, almost inexplicable, save on the supposition that they have altogether lost the fighting spirit.

Have we lost our old grit?
We used to pride ourselves on the possession of an unconquerable spirit: we used to boast, and several of us still do so, that an Englishman never new when he was beaten, and would struggle along through the most painful experiences until he had wrestled victory from the jaws of defeat. Do we still retain that spirit?
I hope so, I trust so. But in the light of recent events I almost feel tempted to say that it has left us and gone across the Channel. Our boxers today don’t seem to care much whether they win or lose. They enter the ring in an apparently mechanical frame of mind and appear to be quite content to take anything that is coming . They would, of coarse, prefer the winning end of the purse( if there is one ), but they have come to pick up remuneration for their trouble, and have usually calculated beforehand whether the losing end will be sufficient in any case.

The cause of our decay
I have an idea that in my last sentence I have touched on the source of the whole trouble. It is, I fancy, that the introduction of the American win, lose or draw principle which has destroyed our boxers’ moral instincts.
I have always fought on strongly as I could, and have preached and written against the method as strongly as I could, while I have always set my face firmly against any introduction of it into any contest with which I have had anything to do. But very few other people seem to have realised what they were doing. Even if they did so they possibly didn’t care . They came into the came to make all they could out of it and without the possession of a single sporting instinct . They have just wanted a couple of men to box- two men whom they fancied would draw a satisfactory gate- and all they have wanted to know was the price these two boxers would take for their services.

Boxing Bouts or Paid Exhibitions
As a result, the boxers so engaged have gradually come to look upon themselves as paid exhibitors. They have of coarse retained a certain desire to win, but they have not felt that it mattered very much either way. Their promoters and managers apparently didn’t seem to care whether the best man won or whether the contest was a good or straight one. All that these gentry have appeared to care about has been that the “gate” would be a good one-sufficiently good, that is, to leave them a good margin, and that the contest itself would last long enough to make the moving pictures a profitable item.
These moving pictures have, I am convinced, have done the game more harm than good. I have heard, and firmly believe, even that in some cases it has been stipulated by the promoters that the contest shall last a certain number of rounds so that there will be enough interest in the films. Now that, I am sure you will agree, is altogether bad for the game in every way.

The whole modern system, which had its birth in America, and which has developed along the win, lose or draw lines of fixed remuneration into its contract system, whereby a boxer is signed up for a fixed number o contests, has naturally destroyed the fighting instinct . The boxer knows that the has only a certain sum coming to him in any event. He knows too, that he will be in demand elsewhere in almost any event and so he doesn’t care. He may very possibly suspect that he may not be allowed to win, for the simple reason that his opponent is a contract labourer , and therefore a man who the promoter wishes to see victorious, and so he gets out of the habit of exerting himself to his fullest capacity.
He is pretty sure that, if he does happen to win clearly and decisively, he will thereby only earn the promoters disapproval, and will consequently stand a poorish chance of getting another engagement.

How Enthusiasm Is Destroyed
His enthusiasm naturally weakens under all this, and he no longer feels as hie predecessors did-that they simply had to win for the sake of their own honour if nothing else. So it is only here and there nowadays that you see English boxers desperately anxious to continue even after they have been hopelessly beaten. And when you do come across such a man - well then, it is almost 10 to 1 that he is an old timer-a Jim Driscoll, a Digger Stanley, or a Spike Robson.
Look a Stanley, for example. He was a badly beaten man long before the finish of his 15 rounds with Posey, and yet he simply would not drop even for a rest. He never had been knocked out, and he wasn’t going to be if he could help it. The gypsy blood in his veins would never consent to such a disgrace, and so he was ready and willing to battle on in sheer desperation, and in the hope and conviction almost (although he was probably the only person present who possessed it) that a chance would come his way before long which would enable him to turn the tables on his adversary. He was maimed, he was nearly exhausted, he had been badly battered. He was up against a younger, stronger, more vigorous man than himself, and he had been within an ace of total defeat more than once. But he still hoped to be able to turn the tide, and I shall not be at all surprised to hear that he would have been quite willing to continue to a finish.
That is the real spirit a champion boxer should posses, and that is the spirit we shall have to cultivate afresh if we are ever again to own a heavy- weight champion of the world.

Our Only Hope for the Future
How are we going to do it? We shan’t do it on the contract system, the win, lose or draw method, or other similar styles, however fashionable they appear to be. Our men will simply have to wake up to the danger that threatens them, to the realisation, that unless they are very careful, the will find all the plums of the game annexed by Frenchmen, while they themselves will have to put up with far less consideration than has ever been accorded to British boxers anywhere.
None of us can allow such a state of things to come about without all put our shoulders to the wheel in a combined effort to lift our cart out of the rut into which it has sunk. The situation and the threatened future are to me questions of national importance . The national spirit finds one of its most distinct expressions in the boxing game, and if we find that our boxers are willing to consent tamely to defeat, we will have to entertain more than a shrewd suspicion that this laissez faire attitude will become characteristic of the whole nation.
Commentator on public affairs and the general feeling of the nation are apt to overlook the fact that even portions of the community may be safely as fair indicative of the universal trend of thought and of character. If enthusiasm be found to be lacking anywhere, it is more than probable that a certain absence of it will be found everywhere. And it cannot be denied that we are not feeling particularly enthused over our boxers just at present. Possibly, and I hope probably, because we haven’t such a vast amount of reason for feeling enthused over them.

The Secret of the French Success
It is quite otherwise in France. There they have taken to the game firstly for the pure love of it, resolved to persevere until a certain measure of success was attained in all events. The French boys went into the game young and enthusiastic, full of determination to succeed, which would readily minimise the depression of defeat should defeat prove their portion. They have trained consistently and resolutely ; they have readily accepted any contest which was offered ; and they have, with the quick wit which is the birthright of practically every Frenchman, readily and rapidly assimilated all the information they could gather from American and English instructors and rivals.
Fortunate in the discovering natural boxers as Carpentier, Gloria, Paul Til, and others at a very early stage, they were soon able to congratulate themselves on the possibility of soon arriving into possessing the distinction of a world championship. The successes which have fallen to the lot of the many of their representatives lately has undoubtedly fired them all. The French boxer of today is willing to face almost any odds. He doesn’t go around inquiring into records of possible opponents, but is willing to accept any contest which is offered, provided it affords him the chance of success. He feels that he has got to win, and means to do so right up to the final gong.
It is this spirit, this certainty of success, which is the whole explanation of recent French successes. What member of the club who saw the team contest between England and France at the N.S.C early in 1910 would have believed for a moment that within twenty-four months we should be calling upon the very best men we posses to defend our reputation against French representative champions, and in several cases calling upon them in vain.

An All-round Appeal
We can regain our superiority if we care to do so, but it is certain that we shall never do so unless we can all us evolve a similar enthusiasm to that which exists in France, among the boxers themselves, spectators, promoters and the public generaily. There must be an enthusiastic atmosphere if there is going to be any widespread and really enthusiastic fervour communicated to the boxers themselves. Here and there we may find a man who can , of his own accord, raise a spirit which will gladly face any odds but if the spirit is to be a general one (as it must be to succeed) then it will have to be in the air all around. The boxer must know that the public expect him to represent them worthily, and he can never succeed in doing that until the public on its own account clearly proves to him how well worth while it will be to respect himself and his profession.

A.F BETTINSON March 1912