Page:Fighting Back (1924).pdf/79

 Whilst I'm stallin' around New York linin' up a busy campaign through the Middle West and tryin' to keep the railroad leaps down so's we can show a profit at the end of the jaunt, Jim Oliver, stung by the way the sport writers is pannin' him daily on his showin' with Kid Roberts, takes on Battlin' Miller for fifteen frames at the Garden. Well, Battlin' Miller took a proper pastin' for ten rounds, but he was tougher than chilled steel and Mr. Champ fought himself out tryin' to stop him. From then on the Battler cuffed the arm-weary and wind-blown title holder all over the ring, floorin' him in the last round for a short count. The judges handed Oliver the decision, drivin' the crowd crazy, but most of the newspapers took the angle that Battlin' Miller's work in the last five innin's had offset the champion's early lead and they give the Battler a draw. That little incident boosted Miller's wages from about $2,500 a fight to about $2,500 a round.

The sport writers then call for a brawl between Kid Roberts and Battlin' Miller, the winner to get another shot at Jim Oliver's crown, as both the boys had shown in their fights with him that they had a right to think they could take him. "Honest John" Keller, at that time promoter of the Jersey City A. C., signs Miller and then Johnny takes a runnin' jump to New York and propositions me. He offers us $15,000 flat for twelve rounds with the Battler at his club. I counter with a offer to let Kid Roberts display his wares for a guarantee of fifteen grand with the privilege of takin' 33 1-3 per cent of the gross, knowin' that Roberts and Miller would draw like a poultice. Johnny snapped me