BOXING.

Gisborne Times, 21 April 1928, Page 3

BOXING.

j GENTLEMAS GENE. j A GOOD, COOL. HEADY BOXER. “A RING MYSTERY.” The following very -interesting sketch ol Gene Tunney, whose next opponent lor the world’s cbnmnion--sliip will bo Tom Heeney, of New Zealand, is by. a well-known Ameri- - can authority, -Grantland Rice: As ' Dempsey-stood over Willard and Car- - pen tier and Eirpo, how many guessed that the man to bring Dempsey’s ber- ! serk rush to an abrupt halt would be J something of a bookish person, one given largely to literature, philosophy, j and the dinner coat m polite society. , a smaller man than Dempsey, without j any of the killer’s instincts? Yet it j was a man of Just that type who cut | Dempsey to ribbons in two ten-rouiiu j fights, winning at least seventeen of j the twenty rounds in Philadelphia ami Chicago, That man it was who took a heavy fusillade of Dempsey’s hardest punches to the jaw, hit the door in the seventh round of the second light, and after making a heady retreat tltrough the rest of the seventh, came back in the eighth, ninth and tenth rounds .to batter Dempsey to grogginess. Just how good is this somewhat bookish person, Janies Joseph (Gene) Tunney, conqueror of the old Manas:>a Mauler? Whore is his place in the heavy-weight parade which started with John L. Sullivan? James Joseph Tunney is one of the mysteries of the ring., I sa w him for the first time in a rather crude aftermath of the Dempsey-C arpeutier tight against a Soldier Johns (or Jones). 1 saw him in the first Greb fight, when the Pittsburgh Windmill almost killed j him ; when he was-cut- to pieces by the end of the third round, but took unlimited- punishment the remainder ol the route*—and still held his feet. All he showed was unquestioned gameuess. And then slowly, hut steadily, he began to improve. Always in the finest possible condition, his boxing began to develop, liis punch to take an added power. Down in Miami he worked lor weeks at a time on a heavy bag to master the correct method of getting power in a. left jab and a right cross. Ho went after form in liit-timr. which means the right use of shoulder, forearm and wrist in developing timingTuunev made a close, hard study c

boxing form and hitting form lor sev ou vears before lie had his big clmnco

And when lie trained and worked Ilf was working with a set pattern te follow".—not--■ut-ruudom. But he wat still hard to place in the |- ugdistil ng.

When Tunney stepped out against Jack Dempsey in Philadelphia, on j> rainy September night, no one could sav that his -six-year ring record had entitled hint to any great chance. Rut he jabbed Dempsey with hi.s lefts, crossed him with his fights and tied him up in the clinches. . Dempsey looked so bad that- almost every form of charge was made. • It was all a matter then of waitin', until the next meeting, whidr everyone saw was inevitable. If tliev couh draw 1,800,000 dollars when Tunney seemed to have only a slight chance it took no financier to see what tliev could draw in a return match. Tin answer was about SCO,COO do/lars more in Chicago. And it was in Chicago that Gene Tunney shewed lie. was a greatly underrated fighter. ’ ;it liars largely been Tunney 5 s pair, of battle to let. the other fellow c-omc to him. In Chicago "lie was content to outiah Dempsey icr the better pari of three rounds.' Something happened in the seventh which lifted Tunney well up the ladder. although the first hit put him or. his back. He took five or six o: Dempsey’s hardest wallops to the jaw. hit the floor, and then got_ up to dance out of danger until his head had cleared. Next Tunney proved Ythat undei pressure he was .something more than a good clever boxer, and a heady one. For in the last three rounds he sailed into Dempsey, knocked him down, anc almost put him away before the saying gong sounded in the tenth. J.t took one of Dempsey’s knockdowns—- , a pretty good test—to turn Tunney from a cool, clever boxer into a ring lighter. - T . How good is Gene Tuiuiey ? In lie last three Greb fights lie outpointed and outboxed one of the fastest, smartest boxers.* He outpointed and outboxed Tom Gibbons, another crafty workman. And then he battered Dempsey at Philadelphia and Chicago. The iiiaii who could wh'p such wide]v varying types as Harry Gvej). torn Gibbous and’Jack Dempsey must have somethin*. What has Tunney got? 'Continued training and a correct diet have made'him our best-condit-ioned fighter. And lie lias a ccol bead, the finest nerves of any heavyweight champion, and his full share ol ring generalship and. courage. In addition to this. Tunney has a fine left hand, that jabs and,.jars. an overhand right and a right uppercut that chrries more povVer than they show. J saw one left jab in the nigh' round 'tro.vol luirclly ti loot*, tiiin sp-.it. the flesh around Dempsey’s right eve into a diamond-shaped wound, d saw a right cross travel no further and knock Dempsey down. ' His punches are accurate ancCthey are well timed,, which means' that thev camouflage the real power at the' back of them. True .timing is tlie application of power without a show of effort. . You still hear ii- lot about t-lie “long count.” But tlie: filet remains that Tunney tied Dempsey up through eight of the ten rounds and jabbed him almost at will.

Where is Tunneyis place iii the heavyweight brigade? He isn’t aggressive, but neither, were. Jim Jeffries and Jack Johnson. He isn’t as good a boxer aKJirh Corbett grid Peter Jackson were, but he is a better boxer than any of the others, hayring Bob Fitzsimmons. He can’t hit with - Jeffries, Fitzsimmons or Denirisoy. .but’ he can hit when he has to, and put something on it. and lie showed against Greb and Dempsey bow much he could take and come hack. Jack Johnson was harder to bit, Jeffries was harder to hurt: But Tunney was smart enough and . istrm-o enough to tie up Dempsey’s powerful arms, as powerful- as any in the game. ILo isn’t dramatic m ,: melodramatic, but- neither were Jeffries and Johnson. ! ■

To dute-yoii 'ea'n piifc him down as a cool, shrewd, heady, defensive boxer, .-.who can hit and hurt, take it and conic back. That’s something. /

* WORLD TITLE BOUT. “HEENEY ONLY MAN IN SIGH'IV’ “AN HONEST ’TRIER.” " MELBOURNE COMMENT: Seemingly Tom Heeney will get a chance at "the world’s heavy weight boxing title next July (states Frank P. Brown in the “Sporting Globe”), it is 20 years since a Briton won

a world’s heavyweight title. Tommy Burns, Canada. _ was the last Briton to bold that title. I am not yet satisfied that this match will go through as-, scheduled. There is many a slip that can occur before Heeney and Tunney step in the ring. On paper Hecnev is the most logical opponent, for Tunney,. but everything depends on the public.

There lias been a great deal of.publicity given to the. matter of choosing an opponent fur Tunney, and the reason for it is that. Tex Rickard Jifts been feeling the public pulse. D [ know anything about Tex. he is very good on public pulses. No doubt they respond very well to the H coney suggestion at present, and that is wliy Rickard has made the announcement. But "let thero he anything like a relapse, and you will find that Tex lias more twists than a corkscrew. He is concerned only with the gate—that means the man the fickle paving-public want. At tlie moment it appears to be Heeney.

IT. in the meantime, some new st-ai arises who appeals to the public innigination more than Heeney, the Non Zealander's star of fortune will fade. Yet the probability is that Hecuey will be the man. 'There is no one else in sight at the moment.. Delaney "has the color if lie had shown himself good enough to stop a man of the Heeney type, but lie was not- good enough. Sluirkey is another who would have been, acceptable, but .lie, too, failed in a test. Risko apparently is better than either, but the public deem him a club fighter. They are .tor used to him. Thus Risko goes intv the discard, although on his original showing against Tunney lie woulc make a dangerous opponent in world’s championship fight. Kurd Hanson has the size and style, -but apparently he lacks toughness. Baolino. whom George, took defeated looks hairy enough mid ugly enough to make a colorful contender, but In lias failed to show any other qunhtici than those embodied in a good tough punching bag. Heeney is probably ay; tough as Bnoliuo, as aggressive as Risko, and s fairly damaging puncher of the “wear ’em down” order. He has made gooc with tlie public and the press, anc although they may not consider bin real, champion ship calibre, they like him well enough te see him go against the champion. "What his chances are against I unney it is hard to say. Nearly eynip, contender who ever stepped in againsi a title holder Inis been more or less scorned, from tlie point of view o ability, bv the public. Only when In wins is ho given full credit, and no even then until some time has elapsed. Perhaps Heenev lias enough to win. At least he will he an honest contender.