Omaha daily bee., 1919-04-27
DEMPSEY'S TOUR
FAILS TO create
E n I H U SIAS N
Challenger Shows Speed In
His Exhibitions and Can
Probably Hit
Hard.
BY kid" GRAVES.

The tour of the Jack Dempsey
Athletic carnival, which showed in
Omaha last Thursday night at the
auditorium. while not so stated by
Jack Kearns. the man in charge Of
the Dempsey business affairs, is to
interest the American boxing fans
in Jack Dempsey's chances IF wrest-
ing the title of worlds heavyweight
champion from Jess Willard. Tho
show presents several novelties and
is we'll worth the price Of admission,
but it will probably fail in its real
mission if Jacks Omaha appearance
is criterion to 20 by. The impress
sion left in the minds of the Omaha
fans is far from all that could be
wished by the challenger's sattel-
ties.
Upper Cut Easy to Land.
It was easily seen that the chai-
lenger could work great deal bet
ter in actual contest than he showed
against his sparring partners, ,ut his
actions even then, did not arouse
any great confidence in his ability to
beat the champion next fourth Of
July. In fact, the general opinion
is quite thu contrary for even
though John Lester Johnson was
palpably afraid to hit hard for fear
Of offending Dempsey, It was teen
that he could land an uppercut on
Jack quite frequently. Even old
Denver Jack Geyer, who has long
since seen his best DAYS in the ring,
landed with an uppereut easily
enough. 1t may be easily judged
that when these two second raters
can land such dangerous blow on
the Dempsey chin. that Jess Viii
lard, with complete mastery Of this
deadly blow will be able to place one
of the kind on Jacks frontal adorn-
ment, and with the Willard force
behind it, there is little doubt but
that it will be Jacks undoing.
Another item that lessened Demp-
sey's popularity with Omaha fans
was the refusal of his manager to
allow him to box an exhibition with
Harry Williams, the Omaha heavy
weight. A host of people that ordi-
narily take no interest in such af-
fairs, was on hand for the show
simply because Williams was billed
to appear against Dempsey. All
arrangements for the exhibition had
been made with Billy Mccartney,
the advance agent for the carnival,
who was empowered to make all
such arrangements for Dempsey
and Jack Kearns refused to allow
Jack to perform with any but his
own hired sparring partners. Viii
liams was even denied the privilege
of appearing with anyone else, thus
causing his friends to think that
Dempsey feared the Omaha crap
per. This is not the case at al, for
Dempsey told me personally that he
would like to take Harry on, IS
favor to me. If for nothing else, but
he could not if Kearns forbade it.
Willard Stronger.
With all due regard for Dempsey
as 4 fighter and gentleman, and in
every other way, and as much as I
would like to see him become the
champion of the world, ! cannot see
that he figures to have one chance
in ten Of dethroning the present
king Of the heavies. His claims Of
youth and strength are perhaps we'll
founded, but his youth will not give
him any decided advantage, for
while Jess is older In point Of years,
he is really no older than Jack in
ring service and the chal1enger's
strength can in no way compare
with that of Wizards. Many ring
followers have thought that the
statement that the champion had
never yet struck his hardest blow
was all a publicity stunt, but it is
a fact, nevertheless. Jess Willard
has never yet struck any man =
blow with his full force, for he
doesn't know how hard he can hit
and ha,s AFRAID "a fxsr ana find Arr