BOXING DOLDRUMS FAST WRESTLING

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 84, 9 April 1938, Page 22

BOXING DOLDRUMS

FAST WRESTLING

NEVER MORE THAN TEMPORARY

TIMELY ARRIVAL OF "THUMPING TONICS"

"Ahvays there comes to boxing a period in which the faithful throw up their hands and wail: 'There isn't a fighter on the horizon. Oh! That we had some of the old-timers with us again! Imagine, we will have to go home and commune with our old record books and the old English prints!'" Thus writes Hype Igoe, in "The Ring."

"They were crying it when John L. Sullivan began to fight the demon rum, as the only opponent worthy of his steel," he writes. "Then what happened? Dashing James J. Corbett dropped out of the California skies and created a brand-new era in boxing. Corbett became a king and they were wondering about ever finding a man equal in science, speed, and utter brilliance. The man came along. He did not have all the attributes' of the matchless Californian, but one good punch in the solar plexus made everything even, and another era was created. Science and speed were forgotten when they began to marvel at the breadth of Bob Fitzsimmons's shoulders, the depth of his chest, and the bulging of his biceps. He was a freak, they said, yet no man alive could stand up under his punches. "Jim Jeffries, shaggy of chest and dome, came meandering, took the best whacks Bob had in his working kit, scored a knock-out, and had to retire finally when there, were no more worlds to conquer. Foolishly, he listened to bad advice and came back after being out of the ring for six years, in an effort to head off Jack Johnson, who had won the title from little Tommy Burns in Australia. When Johnson beat Jeffries with ridiculous ease, the same old crowd of Job's comforters renewed the wail of 'The great ones are gone—boxing is a dead duck. It is the end of it!' DOES NOT DIE. "But thanks to an ever-growing army of young prospects, boxing does not die! Boxing goes on and on and on with the march of time! When Jess Willard finally downed fat Jack Johnson they considered Jess hardly more than a lucky 'white hope.' They were of the opinion that he 'caught Johnson on the way out,' which, after a fashion, was a very drab appreciation of the Pottawatomie mule-skinner's ability. NOT DREAMT OF. "Nobody even dreamed that Jack Dempsey was coming out of the distance. He was a half-grown young giant out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and was going through the early stages of boxing without the benefit of trom-

"The late Jack Curley, heeding the call of Jack Murray, of Buffalo, N.Y., brought Carl Morris up to that town to meet the youngster called Jack Dempsey. Old timers thought that it was sin to use the Nonpareil's name! Murray, the promoter, and Curley, had not even seen Dempsey. They had no idea what he weighed, how tall he was, whether he was clever or merely a puncher. The day that Kearns brought Dempsey into Buffalo, he sent for Murray, who, because of Morris's reputation, had a huge advance sale. When he saw Dempsey he said: 'Why, they'll arrest me if I attempt to put this kid in with big Carl Morris. Here is your car fare back to Chicago where you came from. Get but before I'm hanged in effigy.' Then Dempsey spoke up: 'Listen Mr. Murray. I can fight. Please don't send me away without getting a chance against Morris. I'll promise to hang him over the ropes for you. " Don't pay us a penny -if I don't.' "Murray was between the devil and the deep sea. Always a gambler with his attractions, he finally gave in, but made Kearns promise to keep Dempsey out of sight until the time came for the fight. That night was perhaps the most important in Dempsey's career. He did win. He did hang Morris over the ropes and when he did he looked into the Press row where the white-faced Murray was sitting and called: 'I told you I would hang him over the ropes, Mr. Murray. Here he is.' "'Jack Curley came back to New York and one of the first persons he met was the writer. 'I have just seen the next heavyweight champion of the world,' began Curley. 'Jack Dempsey, of Utah, is the best natural fighter I have ever seen.' "Personally, I thought that Curley was merely trying to save the face of Morris in boosting the man who had whipped him. Curley was sincere, as I later found out. He predicted that Dempsey would be a sure winner over Jess - Willard. Murray was so enthusiastic that he made a special trip to New York to sing the praises of the new wonder. 'He will stop Willard in three rounds,' declared Murray. 'There never has been anybody like him in my time, or for that matter. I should imagine, anybody's time. "This writer caught up with the new wonder at Toledo. He was captivating in his fury and his punching. I boldly picked him to win the title in fpur rounds, and I still say I hit it right on the nose. ; WHICH ROUND? "Because of the asinine rule which says a man loses in the round he just has finished if he retires between that and the round to come, they made Dempsey win in the third round, the one in which the capable Mr. Murray had said he would do it! That silly rule caused this writer to miss hitting the triumph of the new champion by one round. "Some day, and I suppose it is going to take campaigning to the end of my days, they are going to change the custom, not any rule, and write into the records that a man has lost only in the round to come. "It is presumed or was, by the oldtimers, that the good Marquess of meant that the one nun-

ABE YOURIST AND MOEN

ute's rest between rounds belonged te a round just completed. I take it that when the Marquess wrote,' The rounds to be of three minutes' duration, and one minute's time between rounds,' he meant that the rest period was a thing apart from any two given rounds. It is just so reasonable to suppose that the minute's rest, a preparation for the round to come, belongs to that coming round as it is to assume that it was a part of a round just finished. Once a round ends it is ring history and I protest, and always will, that you cannot go 'jimmying' back into a completed round in order to make a man lose in a round he might well have won. '■If it is discovered between rounds that a man winning a previous round has broken his hand arid retires, it does seem stupid to say that he lost in a round in which he was master. The whole business would be simplified if all boxing commissions and governing bodies simply ruled that, no matter what transpires in a corner between rounds, the bell must be rung denoting the start of the next round. Then, that endless and always pressing argument along the Press rows concerning 'In which round did he lose?* would come to a happy landing. "Often I am called upon to decide bets and I hate to rule away a loser's money when I know, as in the case of Dempsey and Willard, that Jack really won in the fourth and not the third as it is written in the record books. Willard walked to his corner, unassisted, at the end of the third round at Toledo and then 'retired' before the bell had rung in the fourth. How simple it would have been to have waited another thirty seconds, rung the bell, and declared Dempsey the winner when Willard, as his determination, refused to come out for the fourth. "This is mentioned because of its tendency to create argument. "Dempsey went along for seven long years, meeting everybody who stuck; out his neck. All save Harry Wills. Dempsey has been charged with avoiding Wills. Actually he signed to meet the 'Brown Panther,' but officials at Washington requested Tex Rickard not to put on the match. They werf

afraid that the race riots that followed Johnson's victory over Jeffries might be re-enacted should Wills win.

"Gene Tunney accomplished what he had concentrated on doing, by outpointing Dempsey in a ten-round bout in Philadelphia. Tunney took Tom Heeney on as an easy finale and retired. In rather quick succession came Schmeling, Sharkey, Camera, Baer, and Braddock. Meanwhile a young negro was setting Detroit afire with his hitting arid his fighting. When Tunney retired, Joe Louis was a personality undreamed of so far as a future champion was concerned, yet he came along to knock out Braddock for the title.

"All this goes to show that no matter how formidable a champion may be; there ever will be a younger man come along to upset ring history."

It's a funny old world, isn't it? The villains of the piece always seem to get "the breaks." But Abe Yourist, gentleman wrestler from Ohio (where they breed them) doesn't seem to worry about that. When Andy Moen was awarded the decision over him at the Auckland Town Hall on Monday (one fall each) on points in the ■ '-. last round, Abe just looked in mild surprise at the audience, reports the "Star." With a British eye for justice they'supplied the protest; but it was a League of Nations protest, and didn't get anywhere. The referee, Mr. J. McLean, had left the ring promptly.

Abe Yourist will be popular—and Andy will get the crowds, too. Andy, looking in body-build like a reproduction of King Kong Cox, goes part of the way with that jungle grappler and seems to thrive on the hoots, mon. But Abe, now—Abe is a gentleman; _ he just gets warned for doing the things that Andy has just been warned for doing. When he is strangled, or punched or otherwise, treated Nazi-ly he just smiles a little smile at the referee that says, ever so eloquently, "Just leave this little matter to.me"— Wham—"Oh, Mr. Referee, I didn't really do that." Abe has a nice way with him. Ask Andy!

All in all, it was one of, the fastestmoving bouts seen in this city. That was in spite of the fact that the referee was keeping a close eye on things (and one on the police, did somebody murmur?) and breaking them up with decision when things happened. They happened from the first gong, the eight-minute round helping' to speed things up generally.

Frank Hough, one of the biggest heavyweight draws in English boxing, is doing plenty of fighting at the moment, but he is not eliminating any rival contenders to the British title. His opponents for the New Year (either met or to be met) read like this: Lauriot (France), Precised (Italy), Staal (Holland), Olive (France), Brezin (France), Lebviz (France), and maybe Thil (France). "Surely he should have included some British title contenders in his programme?" asks Geoffrey Simpson, in the "Daily Mail."