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If I could pick just one combat sports contest to travel back in time and witness live, it would be the side bet shoot- match between Tigerman John Pesek, the policeman- of the Sandow/Lewis camp and the Olympic hero Nat Pendleton which took place in Boston in 1923. These two grapplers represented two schools of early 19th century catch-as-catch-can wrestling. Pendleton practiced the highly competitive catch wrestling that emerged in the northeastern United States under such master grapplers as Hugh Leonard and George Bothner. The Tigerman sprang up from the mid-western rough and ready school, which was just a step or two removed from all-out frontier brawling. They also represented rival promotional groups that were vying to control the developing professional wrestling game.... keep reading

Later Olson offered some comments about jiu-jitsu. He told a reporter in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I have seen the Japanese system of wrestling, the widely heralded jiu-jitsu, tried out pretty thoroughly a good many times and my conclusion is that it is a false alarm. In my opinion jiu-jitsu got its vogue while the Japanese were in the limelight during the war with Russia and there is a great deal of superstition about it. I have seen the Japanese go up against some of the best catch as catch can wrestlers in America and in no instance have I seen the Jap make good or even make a creditable showing against the ordinary method of wrestling. As a means of getting the best of an ordinary man who is not a trained wrestler the famed jiu-jitsu may be all right; but try it out with a man who knows the game and the Japanese is quite out of the running.... keep reading

Goates went on to quote McCullough as stating, "Wrestling is the most scientific as well as the best self-defense sport known to mankind"... keep reading