Johnny Murphy

vs.

Cyclone Johnny Thompson

14 March 1908

San Francisco

SHERIFF CHATHAM STOPS FIGHT IN EIGHTH ROUND

Too Lavish Display of Gore Causes Offiicals to Call a Halt

The fight between Cyclone Thompson and Johnny Murphy at the Mission Street Arena yesterday was stopped by Sheriff Bob Chatham of San Mateo county in the eighth round, and the decision was given to Thompson by Referee Roche.

It used to be said that the bloodier the exhibitions the better the crowd around the prizering liked it. If anything was ever true, the nature of the men who make glove contests possible must have changed, for yesterday the seatholders made for the door in throngs, while still two lightweights were scuffling around like a pair of bull pups locked in a death hold.

By the time the eighth round was reached the procession of patrons toward the point of exit was as large as it generally is when the contest is over. Murphy's lip was badly torn form a bump of the Cyclone's head and the pugilists were so blood-be-dabbled that the display was unlovely to look upon. Murphy was in the worse plight fo the two. He was tired and in the latter rounds he had been subjected to severe battering around the stomach and ribs. It seemed as though it was simply his pluck that kept him going and some of the spectators who left their seats were shouting to Referee Roche to stop the brutal affair.

Packey McFarland was one of the first to raise his voice in demand that the men be seperated. As early as the second round McFarland remarked: " I can't stand anything like this," and he left his seat near the ropes and went further back into the crowd.

Murphy is a mere novice, but he is probably as game a youngster as ever pulled on a boxing glove. With such men opposing one another the crowd looked for a "tough fight" and were not disappointed. The only thing is that they got more than their money 's worth.

The contest was like a struggle between a couple of canines in the opening round. Thompson, who fights along the Battling Nelson lines, wanted to lean his body against the other boy's and dig away with both hands. Murphy held and smothered Cyclone's onslaught, and in the very brief spells of outfighting that were seen knocked Thompson's head from side to side with and right hooks.

Thompson did not seek any breathing spells. He must have been in rare good fettle, judging from the way he busied himself. He was on top of Murphy, tearing away from gong to gong. But at that, his blows did not appear to be doing any damage.

Murphy's seconds complained that Thompson was hitting low, but it is doubtful if Cyclone was fighting foul in the direction named. He used his head in a suspicious manner, however, for as Murphy afterwards claimed, the lacerated lip from which so much blood came was caused by a bump from Thompson's head.

Murphy's lip got worse in the fourth round. He was gasping as though it was hard for him to breathe, and it was at this stage of the proceedings that Packey McFarland, with an exclamation of disgust, made himself scarce. Thompson's face, too, was bleeding from the clean punches delivered by Murphy. Murphy kept peppering his opponent with both gloves, but could not stop the Cyclone's rushes.

Murphy began to tire in the fifth round, and Thompson who his as though he was shoulder bound, kept letting go for both jaw and ribs with the evident purpose of scoring a knockout. In the sixth and seventh rounds Murphy seemed to invite face punches and many times when Murphy 's left took him between nose and mouth, he cracked the local lad solidly on the ribs with the right.

In the seventh round Thompson timed Murphy a few times with a right cross, but when all is said, it wasn't Thompson's punching so much as Thompson's tireless bustling way of fighting that left Murphy limp.

Toward the end of the seventh round Murphy did not smother Thompson's blows as well as he did earlier in the contest. Murphy was very tired, in fact. He was holding and twisting sideways and the Cyclone was poking away at ribs and chin as busily as ever. By this time the blood from the faces of the fighters had dabbled their shoulders.

Although Murphy might have lasted out the eighth round and for that matter many rounds after that, it looked to the writer sa though the Cyclone would have eventually worn him down. Murphy had tried his best punches, without fazing his durable opponent, and his strength seemd to be giving out while the Cyclone's fighting force was not perceptibly deminished.

-W.W. Naughton. San Francisco Examiner. March 15, 1908

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