Photo: Cottrell-Ashley Studio |
"In two rounds other than the deciding one the crowd was lifted to its feet by knockdowns. In the sixteenth Ketchel landed a right and left swing to the body and the jaw that stretched Thomas flat on his back, near the center of the ring and it looked as though everything was over. But the Californian was on his feet at the count of 'four,' and succeeded in keeping away until the gong gave him a vital respite. He came up groggy for the seventeenth, and had the Butte boy pressed his advantage, instead of pecking away and clinching, the fight might have ended then and there. In the twenty-seventh a right cross to the jaw as they came out of a clinch took Ketchel off his feet and sat him down with a bump. Here he displayed his wonderful coolness. With thousands of people splitting their throats for Thomas, Ketchel deliberately drew his knees up to his chin, clasped his hands around his shins and looked the referee squarely in the eye, while that official, Timekeeper Harting being unable to make himself heard, stooped over him and went through the pantomime of counting. At the count of 'nine' he was up and backing away from a rush. He was doing his dizzy best to cover up at the ropes when the gong saved him."
- San Diego Union, Stanley Ketchel vs. Joe Thomas II, 1907