Omaha daily bee., 1919-02-23
WILLARD, TO WIN,
MUST Be IN OLD
Time CONDITION
Carrying Excess Weight Will
Mean Loss of Circus Own
er'S Drawing Power
and Championship.
BY KID GRAVES.

The eyes of the entire sporting
world are upon Tex Richard, while
he is hunting for a site for his now
famous heavyweight championship
battle, between Jess Willard, the
champion, and Jack Dempsey, the
challenger. The announcement of
the location for staging the affair
will be the signal for all the world
to wager on their judgment of the
two men.
While Willard will have the
backing of a great host of admirers,
the majority of fans will favor
Dempsey, figuring his strength and
speed, together with his active pug
ilistic life recently, will more than
offset the tremendous advantage in
height. weight and reach that Will
ard will have. Whether or not these
advantages will enable the champ
ion TO win, can only be told when
the men meet, next July q. Will
ards immediate friends say that the
public idea of Jess's idle life is a
one, claiming that the big
fellow has been doing light train
ing at his private gymnasium in his
home and that he has not allowed
himself to become so fat that he
cannot get into fighting condition
again.
What Is Wizards Besta
1t has been said that Dempsey
could whip Willard, even if the
champion were at his best, but when
you stop TO consider that Wizards
best has never bSsn shown, this as
sertion is rather hard to believe. Big
Jess has never been extended since
he won the championship and even
in the bout in Havana, when he won
the title, he wasn't forced to extend
He simply took all that the
Big Smoke" could hand out and
grinned, contenting himself with
just wearing Johnson out with con-
tinual jabbing. Before his bout
with Johnson, Jess never reached
his best. 1t took the coaching and
teaching he received in training for
this bout to bring him up to his
best and then he didn't have to exert
Bout on the Level.
The Havana bout was strictly on
the level. You can take that from
those that were there and saw the
scrap. Matt Hinkle, the famous
Cleveland referee, Tom Andrews.
the Milwaukee sport writer, and Bob
kdgren, Of the New York World.
all agreed with me that it was ab-
solutely on the square. Jess won
without being hurt, taking no
chances at all during the bout. Law
ing back for fear that Johnson might
have something that might end ii,
playing safe and wearing his man
down until he got the signal from
his corner to try to finish it. When
the signal passed, Willard reached
out with his wonderful reach, as
though to gauge the distance, and
Johnson was in such an exhausted
condition that the blow, light as i
was, was enough to finish the bout.
Like Kick of Mule.
When ! say the blow was light, |
don't mean that it had no force at
all, for Willard was man that could
not hit lightly if he wanted to. His
light blow is like the kick of a mule.
so it is no wonder that Johnson fell
over and was counted out. Jess has
stated numerous times that he was
afraid to hit hard for fear that he
would kill Johnson and for the same
reason, Frank Moran lasted his ten
rounds with the champion at Madi-
son Square Garden, March Is, 1916.
1t has always been the advice of
old time followers of the boxing
game to string along with the
champion until he is beaten and It
may not be bad advice in this case.
This is my prediction, if Willard can
get in as good condition as he was
when he met Johnson or Moran, he
will win. If he cannot get in as good
shape as he was for either of those
bouts, Dempsey will be the champ
ion. The result of the bout depends
entirely on the condition of the
champion when he enters the ring.
Keep Coin in Pocket.
While not betting man myself
can advise those that want to wager
on the result of the bout, that their
money will be safer in their pockets
than placed on either man at this
early date. Willard may be in bet
ter shape than is generally thought
and it is certain that he has time
enough TO get in good condition for
the independence day scrap if he
chooses. Whether he will or can
get right" is yet to be seen. With
all due respect for Dempsey's fight
ing ability and an earnest desire TO
see him win, at this time, I can
univ string a1nnor NTH H. .h....s.:....