El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-03-05
Beck Amen Corner

BY "BECKn

JACK DEMPSEY was a wonder IN
} his time. He used many blows
which are now barred and, besides
being a hard hitter, he was fairly
clever. But boxers have learned a
lot since his day and l believe that
he would not stand much chance
against a modern middleweight-and
goodness knows, they are nothing
to boast about. The same goes for
LeBlanche. Stanley Ketchel was not
what a person would call a scientific
boxer. Ketchel had three or four
tricks that were hard for opponents
to solve, but he was tough and
game and he had the punch that
would stop most men. He had a
wonderful constitution and, had he
taken care of himself, would have
left behind him a much more bril-
liant record than he did. Papke beat
Ketchel and held the title until a
return bout was arranged, simply
because Stanley was caught out Of
condition. Ketchel was a harder
hitter than Fitzsimmons but had not
the noodle" of the Cornish black
smith. Ryan did not hit as hard as
either Stanley or Bob but he carried
a good punch, combined with lot
Of science and ring generaIshiP.
WERE it possible to put Le-
" Blanche, Fitzsimmons, Ryan,
Ketchel and Dempsey in one ring,
all at the time of their prime, it
would be a hard job to pick a win
ner. Many of the old time fight
fans viii net agree with my con-
illusions but here they are: Le-
Blanche and Dempsey would have to
rely upon their ability to assimilate
punishment and to give punch for
punch. Ketchel could stand, in my
opinion, against either of them.
Ketchel and Fitzsimmons would
have put up a wonderful fight but
Bob's ring generalship might have
won him a verdict. Ryan would
easily have Outboxed Ketchel and
might have kept away from Stan
ley's hard wallOps by his clever ring
generalship. As for Fitz and Ryan
well, they did fight one day. You
won't find it in the record books but
it was a whale of a battle while it
lasted and honors were even at the
close. Some other day will do for
the telling of that story.
PUT IL we shall miss the veteran
scribes at Understanding of
course, that Johnson and Willard do
box there-we shall have many
writer's Of the modern school. Ed
Smith, of the Chicago American,
recognized as one of the leaders
among the present day fistic
writers; Billy Recap, of the Phila-
delphia Public Ledger, another of the
present-day veterans; Floyd Glib
bons, of the Chicago Tribune; Jack
Sicily, the old time featherweight
but now sporting editor; Bud Fisher,
SD degree fight fan and cartoonist;
Damon Runyon, of the New York
American; H. M. Walker, of the Los
Angeles Examiner; Grantland Rice,
of the New York Evening Mail, and
dozens of other writer's whose names
are now familiar to the sport read
ers of America have made reserva-
lions for the big fiEht-if it takes
place Smith, Recap, Gibbons and a
few others are already here.
X <
THE dOpester of the New York
Sun was in a reminiscent mood
the other day and got off the follow
ing about the old-time fight writers:
"Soon the fistic scribes will wend
their literary way toward Juarez,
and the exodus brings to mind how
the grim reaper has thinned out the
ranks of the men whose fistic stories
were read the world over. In the
short span of years between March
II, 1897, when Corbett fell before
the freckled fist of Fitzsimmons, to
March 6, 1915, when Willard and