BOXING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 200, 7 August 1928, Page 8

BOXING

A NOBLER TYPE GENE AND “GENTLEMAN JIM.” SURPRISES OF THE RING. I A heavyweight champion lecturing on Shakespeare—what’s the world coming to,” asks Grant, land Rice in Collier’s Weekly (New York), whilst comparing Gene Tunnev with “Gentleman Jim” Oorbetl, the ring hero of nearly forty years ago. “Corbett,” says the writer, “started out as a bank clerk in San Francisco—Tunney as a clerk in Greenwich Village, New York. They may not be listed as the most interesting fighters in the ring, but they must, at least, stand as the two most unusual types in ring lore. They both came to the top through the development of boxing skill and competitive intelligence, rather than by the crushing power of the smashing fist.

“Corbett, stylishly dressed, well groomed, keenly intelligent, at home in any society, startled the world nearly forty years ago by stepping up to a throne where formerly only the mighty fisted burly battlers had sat. And so they called him ‘Gentleman Jim’ and hated him for a long time because he had yanked the sceptre of slug from old John L., ‘The noblest Roman of them all.’ “Only a few weeks ago from now (June 9, 1928) Scholar Gene Tunney handed the world at large an even greater surprise by addressing an English class at Yale University—amazing the pop-eyed students by discussing Shakespeare, Carlyle and Herbert Spencer with all the confidence and aplomb of a college president.

“It was a strange turn thirty-eight years ago, to see the man who had beaten the mighty Sullivan display wit, good manners and rare social charm. It was even more strange to hear the man who had twice beaten Jack Dempey, the old Manassa Mauler, discussing the philosophy of moral beauty and its effecte upon the arts. “TOTALLY UNLIKE.” “Yet, in many ways, Corbett and Tunney are totallv unlike. Corbett has the keener wit, the quicker, sharper mind, the more restless energy, the more vivid personality. Tunney has the greater repose, the more dogged determination to reach a certain goal, the capacity for greater patience. “Corbett likes crowds and entertainment, while Tunney doesn’t, except when he is with old friends. Corbett has always been a far better mixer and a far better showman than Tunney, who makes no pretence along these lines.

“It isn’t strange at all that a large section of the crowd resented the arrival of Corbett and Tunney, both of whom were ‘out of character’ with the slugging Sullivan class, they regarded as the correct type for a heavyweight king. “Jim Corbett to-day is one of the most popular figures in sport—tall, erect, athletic-looking—though past sixty, you could never guess within ten years of his actual age. Corbett, undoubtedly, was the better boxer in his prime. He had greater natural speed of hand and foot, quicker reflexes, a more baffling way of stepping in and out. Tunney is the slightly better puncher, because he hits from a better balance and Tunney is the harder to hurt, more rugged, more durable and somewhat more grimly determined to stick and win.

“Corbett could have been a far better puncher than he was if he had not sacrificed punching balance for speed, for the art of getting in and out as he jabbed and rapped. Tunney isn’t a smashing slugger, but there is much more behind those short jolts of his, backed up by a heavy shoulder, than the onlooker would imagine. There is less waste in Tunney’s boxing. Lacking Corbett’s dazzling speed and his uncanny agility, Tunney, through his eight or nine-year pursuit of the fundamentals, has mastered most of the mechanics that go with high-grade boxing. He has always been hard to hit in any vital spot. “Corbett created his sensation nearly forty years ago and the belief was then current that a new type had come into boxing, but this belief soon faded, as freckled old Fiz, the massive Jeffries. Jack Johnson, Willard the giant and the Manassa Mauler filed by in the long parade. MORE STARTLING CHANGE. “Gene Tunney, as he followed Jeffries, Johnson, Willard and Dempsey, proved to be even a more startling change than Corbett was for another generation. ‘Gentleman Jim’ with his quick wit, his smooth tongue, and his polished manners was one thing. A heavyweight champion who could go before the English class at Yale and talk intelligently on Shakespeare, Carlyle, Herbert Spencer, Ulysses, Ajax, Achilles and the philosophy of ‘moral beauty’ was something else—something quite undreamed of by the multitudes who have followed the various paladins of punch. “It has been asked more than once if Tunney was on the level with this swing at literature. He confesses that he has read ‘The Winter’s Tale’ ten times, in order to absorb a better understanding of its complete message. No one is going to read ‘The Winter’s Tale’ ten times for the purpose of making a synthetic gesture. No one is going to read the books that Tunney has actually read with care, in order to establish a highbrow pose. “It may be that those who pay out 30 or 40 dollars for. ringside (as they are called) seats prefer the sock to Shakespeare, the smash to Shelley, the knock-out to Keats, the punch to Plato, the crack to Carlyle and the wallop to Wordsworth, but that does not minimise the fact that a fellow good enough to be a heavyweight champion of the world is also deeply interested in the best literature the ages have set before the eyes of mankind. “James J. Corbett had the populace of another day guessing, but James J. Tunney has them gasping.”