LIKE A VICTOR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 272, 15 October 1927, Page 9

LIKE A VICTOR.

WIFE GREETS DEMPSEY. FIGHT AFTERMATH. NEW YORK, Sept. 28. Dempsey has seen the futility of protesting further regarding that long count which lie contends cost him the title last Thursday night. He lias, therefore, declined to further Loo. Flynn’s (his manager’s) formal appeal which will be dropped. “I intend to keep fighting because I am looking forward to another chance for the championship,” said Dempsey, who admitted that when he returned to liis appartment liis wife greeted him as a victor, she having left the radio when the incorrect announcement was made after Tunney had been counted out. “I don’t remember ever being told by the referee that he couldn’t start to count until tho boxer scoring the knock down reached a neutral corner,” said Dempsey. “Such a rule is foolish on the face of it. Under that rule the referee could delay the starting of the count for half an hour on one pretext or another,” argued Dempsey. Tunney lias announced he will be ready next year to defend the championship again, and if Dempsey is liis opponent, lie says, tho result will be the same. TUNNEY’S PLAN. REMARKABLE INTERVIEW. NEW YORK, Sept. 29. Gene Tunney, in a remarkable interview, describing the Thursday niglit reactions, mental and physical, said: “Ever since I entered the professional ring in 1919 I have known that sooner or later I must be knocked down.

“I also knew I must get up and come on and win despite that handicap. “I worked out two lines of action, first to get up and camouflage my real condition by letting go a right-hand punch with everything behind it, including prayer. The second was to get up and dive into a clinch and hold on desperately, no matter how the referee tried to break us, and if necessary go down for another count of nine, and even a third time, to allow my senses time to clear.

‘‘After Thursday’s knockdown, when I was up on my feet again, Dempsey beckoned me to come on and fight, thus admitting his own inability to control the situation.

“It was gratifying to know that I was again master after being on the floor a few seconds before.

“The cinema startles mo, because it shows that Dempsey landed six times on my chin before the crash in the seventh round. I felt only the first three punches, and my next connected thought was ‘Gosh, how uncomfortable, this floor is.’

“This fight has taught me that it is useless to try to outslam the master slammer at his own game.” Most sport writers regard a third match between Dempsey and Tunney as inevitable next year.