Norwich bulletin., 1914-12-28

Valiant efforts are being made y the promoters of the forthcoming bout between Jess, Willard and Jack Johnson. to be held at Juarez, on March 6, to surround the event with the glamour of regular old fashioned scrap for the worlds heavyweight Championship. Willard is being boosted to the skies by the press agents acclaimed as the Srea. est white fighters since Jim Jeffries and "officially', tipped as having a great chance to beat the negro cham pion. To suit the exigencies of the case Willard has suddenly developed heavyweight to the leader, of tie class. Nearly every bout staged oow- adaxs has at stake for the winner some future engagement with the lanSy cowboy boxer, says James x. Cowell.
 Just two things stand in the way of swing a true ring to the advance no tices that are being sent out. One is that Willard has never shown any marked class as fighter and would be the easiest kind of mark for. Johnson at his best, and the other IS that the boxing public is not yet ready to take anything that Johnson is con-. nected with seriously. Fhest laughabie 20-round bout in which he met FcaSsiS Moran in Paris some months ago s:i1 aDDCalS LOO SlTOH2iN SbGfN OuS ; sense of humor The chuckling caused by that affair will have to die down entirely before fight followers will be willing to believe that a real bout for the championship is i'll prospect. The boxing public is guillible, but it takes q little while to make it forget things. The Willard Johnson bout is coming too soon after the Moran Johnson fight"
 It has become fairly well settled in the minds of most persons that the affair in which the negro champion met Frank Moran figured in Paris vas replinish Johnson's fading bank a.- count Johnson had been notoriousIy out of condition for a long time prior to the contest. He ought to have been soft piclings for any opponent possessing the slightest skill or an atom of courage. Had it been Georges Carpenter who faced him in spite of the great advantage in weight and size the F'renchman would have been conceding him. Johnson would un- doubtedly have lost the title then and
 there. Moran by failing to make short shift of the champion after the lat ter's prolonged siege of dissipation opened the way to his being p.o- nounced the worst misfit as heavy weight produced since the art of de- veloping lemons" first became popu-
 lar
 At $3O,OOO man Johnson Is willing to, take on all corners as fast as they
 arrive. And there is no reason why
 he ought not to be when he under stands that his opponent is satisfied to seek nothing more than his end of the purse. to say nothing of the fact that
 he need fear none of the white heavy weights that may be sent against him if he trains properly for the bout I-s form it would be easy enough for *ise champion to- defeat any of the men available as oponentS. but victory is made a double barreled certainty when he is also the promoter of =he event as he was when Moran met him. Bouts with the white hopes are nothing more or less than a means of l helping him to obtain tidy sum If money, with others who have a finger | in the pie also getting their slice. Nothing Willard has ever done war rants the belief that he has the slight
 est chance Nagainst the real Jofli1s3n. His sole hope would be if the cham pion, depending upon Willard to show good faith, in any previous arrange ! ment, neglected to train for the bout. In that event the opportunity to do q |. little double crossing would be GpeE 10 the Westerner, just as it was to Moran, who presumably was too honorable to take advantage Of it, if it chance that Johnson money hs,,- pened to be back on the Juarez ventuYe and the champion realized he need not necessarily get in condition. Willard
 might suddenly be inspired to nnake a
 real try for the championship And he would either get it or joint the cfass in wfich Moran has become a f7xt,,re.
 Willard is being kept carefully un-
 der cover until this bout takes place in Mexico, and meanwhile is being her aided as the leading white heavy weight fighter in the country. That is an empty honor in itself consider ing the type of boxers that grace the division, but if there is any merit in the appeIlation it surely doesn't be- long to Willard. "Gunboatv Smith l has invariably demonstrated that he is a better man than Willard and Jim