The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-06-20
DEMPSEY One SURE BET,
SAYS PILOT JACK KEARNS
CALLS WILLARD AN OVER
RATED GIANT.
Champion Not a Fighter
and Never Was,
He Says.
(By FRANK G. Menke.

Toledo, o., June 20.-"The surest
bet in the world is Jack Dempsey to
whip the over-rated giant on July
A." declared Jack Kearns, manager of
the Utah mauler," today. II look
for q knockout, but If Jack doesn't
turn the trick and the fight goes the
limit, you'll find at the end the most
crumpled up, battered and smashed
ex-chamipon in the entire history of
pugilism.
willard isn't a real fighter-and
he never was. He never whipped a
good man in his whole life-and a
lot of third-rate performers gave him
some awful pastings. Willard would
have been in the pugilistic scrap
heap long ago IL fortune hadn't been
kind to him and given him a crack
at Jack johnson when the negro was
so far gone that a middleweight
could have knocked his block off in
a dozen rounds. Yet it took the
great and mighty Willard twenty
six rounds to do it.
This wonderful Willard has been
accusing me Of going over to his
camp to watch him in his workouts
to see what he's got. Say, don't
need to do that. I've seen him in
four fights, and of all the false
alarms that ever happened he is it.
Charlie Miller a joke performer, that
Dempsey put to sleep with one
punch, chased Willard all around the
ring in Frisco--and at that time Will
lard was whole lot younger and
was supposed to be a more aggres-
sive fighter than now.
Cant hurt Willard, Ell? Well, per-
haps that's right. You can't hurt a
man that you can't catch. | saw Gum
boat Smith pop Willard on the chin out
| on the coast and Willard spun all the
way around. Did that punch make him
fight-did it bring out his fighting
spirit? Not so you could notice it. All
that Willard did afterward was to use
his legs to get out of the way of Smith.
Might Be One Round.
That's the sort of fighter that some
writers are trying to bunk people into
believing is going to whip Jack Demp-
sey. Oh, fudge! I'll tell the world
| right now that before the first round
Is over Dempsey viii have hit Willard
so hard and so fast that II the great
| giant isn't stretched on the floor. he'll
| be doing the fastest marathon around
the ring that anybody ever looked at.
Some folks who are espousing the
cause of Willard insist that Dempsey
hasn't got a defense They're wrong
dead wrong. Jack Dempsey's defense
today is the greatest that was ever
ohONh u PilNb his SlylS OF
! going In at his man, his head down
and bobbing from side to side and his
ceaseless shifting make him an almost
unhittable target. No man ever has
been able to fathom that style; and
certainly Willard won't prove the ex-
! ception. tt
IT'S a joke to say that Willard is
too big for Dempsey to drop. Hitting
power is carried in the hands, wrists
| and forearms And Dempsey's fore
arm is bigger than Wizards leg. He's
got the lower arms OF 300-pound
giant and Willard win realize that the
first time that Dempsey's punch lands.
I've always contended that Jess Will
lard hasn't the gameness to take
beating and still fight on, and this
fight is going to prove it beyond
question of doubt
mo secret plan of battle has been
decided upon for Dempsey. To relieve
Wizards mind. I'll tell him right now
that Jack is going to fight him like he
has fought every other man. He's go
ing to tear into him until he has drop
ped him for a long, long count or until
he has cut him into shreds.
And you can stake your life on 1t
that Dempsey win win and that when
it's over. the entire sporting world
will agree with my sentiments now
that Willard is the poorest excuse for
a champion that the ring ever knew"