New Britain herald., 1919-07-02

strenuous enough to bring him down to his best fighting form. Tex O'Rourke, who trained Willard for the Johnson fight in Cuba, said that Willard weighed 243 pounds in that contest. He will go into the ring on Friday weighing close to 240 pounds.
 There was no letup in Willard's boxing yesterday. He went three rounds with Jack Hempel and after a short rest he boxed with Walter Monahan for three more rounds. Will lard looks better every day, and against Monahan he let out a, bit and one of his right jolts sent his spar ring partner off his feet and into the ropes. The champion was in eN- cellent spirits and was spry on his feet.
 Dempsey is. through boxing and did not put on the eight-ounce pillows against his targets, Tate and Ja- maica Kid, yesterday. He did some exercise with the pullies and then went through two short rounds of shadow boxing Dempsey, right at this moment seemed keyed up to the highest point of his training, He was impatient and on edge, and Trainer Deforest had to talk to him in the
 
 He worked with the flash of a light weight, and at the end of his short pantomime beads of precipitation were rolling from his face and body. The challenger is trained as well as a fighter could be. He ended his days work with a short session at punching the bag.
 Dempsey will take only light work today and Thursday. Willard plans to go through another rough-and- ready boxing session with Hempcl and Monaha today and will rest to- morrow.
 The betting fever is just beginning to fix it's hold on the place. Most Of the wagering now being carried is of the freak kind. It is not expected that the real betting will begin until tom orrow when the plunging sports arriver. At that time all the clans will be gathered, and it will not be until then that the true odds on this fight will come out On Thursday and Friday, it is freely predicted, the Dempsey followers will demand odds. and the present wave of cven-money talk will disappear.
 The fact that Willard is boxing every day shows that the cham pon has a world of confidence in himself and this confidence IS Ual king itself felt among the betting public. When Dempsey quit boxing yesterday aft ernoon it was an admission that he is trained down as fine as he wants to be. The veteran trainers here now say that Dc Forests job is 10 keep the challenger on edge and this will ! be no easy matter.
 Trcnd of Betting Shifts. Those who have been talking even money for Dempsey, and even sug- gested odds that the challenger will win are changing their minds on the betting after vest erday's workouts. There was a lot of betting talk at the Boody house yesterday and num- bers of wagers were made. The largest
 was a wager of $500 to s1,000 that Dempsey would win. This is a fair 1 indication of what the odds will be.
 The gamblers say that they will be no 1 better than. 10 10 S. while ii is OK pected that when the flood of Willard l money starts tho hackers of the : champion may be willing 10 offer 1 larger odds. A bet of $40 to $2OO was : made yesterday that Dempsey would 1 win inside of six rounds Another 1 wager was $500 to $900 that Dempsey ] would knock out the cham pion Still another bet was S100 to $500 that i Willard would not come up for the
 seventh round. There was also a, bet 1 of $75 to S100 that there will be A ] knockout. There was also on record at the Boody house a freak bet of s25