The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-12-04
TOMMY GIBBONS
 LOGICAL FOEFOR
 DEMPSEY IN 1922
St. PauI'S Heavyweight Said to Be Better Than Many
 Imagine
By SPARROW M'GANN Special Correspondent of The Age
 Herald.

Special Correspondent of The Age
 Herald.
 Copyright, 1921, by The Age-Herald.
 New York, December 3.-Tommy Gibbons. the St. Paul heavyweight, who is matched to meet Georges Car pentier at Madison Square Garden this winter, will be Jack Dempsey's logical opponent by this time next year. This statement was made to- day by one of the best judges of fighting form in this country, a bet ting man who follows the game of pugilism not for his health but to make money. He specializes in his judgment of fighters. That Is to say he will pick a man and follow him and study him for months. The fighter will not know he Is being lamped, nor will his manager, nor anybody else, in fact.
 The man In question has been ap- plying this system to Gibbons. He says that Tommy is much better than anyone in this country realizes. Gib- bons knows it, but he is not getting excited. He has a brain and he is using it. There never was a more scientific young man than Gibbons and this applies to boxing skill as well as to physical conditioning. He is in no hurry to meet Dempsey but
 
 that Tommy is welding the pen with his eyes open. Queries on the part of the fight critics that he is meet ing setups, don't bother him a bit He knows how quickly they will shout the other way when he pro- duces the goods.
 A Gibbons Dempsey fight is not likely next June, but the winter of 1922-23 will see him ready to make his bid for the championship of the world. As to the Carpenter fight Eddie Kane, Gibbons manager has just received a picture of the French man which was taken three weeks ago. There Is nothing in that pie ture to indicate that the Frenchman is not in the pink of condition.
 Word IS that Carpenter is not breaking his neck to hook up in European engagement for fear some thing might occur to affect his big money chances in this country.
 The fight critics select Mike Me- Tigue as the next middleweight cham pion. McTigue's bout against the talkative Jeff Smith at the Garden last Thursday night is not regarded as reflecting upon Mike at all.
 He was willing to fight but Smith ciinched when he was not stalling
 
 anything. For a man who has been in the ring so long McTigue is show ing surprising improvement. He al- ways could box but now he has wallop. A recent string of knock outs testified to his newly acquired hitting ability. Right now a match be- tween McTigue and Johnny Wilson, the champion, is on the cards. Will son saw McTigue fight Smith and fig ures he can stow Mike away. Perhaps 1t was a good thing for McTigue that Smith fought in such a manner as to make his opponent seem less good than he really is.
 It certainly will prove so if Wilson can be lugged into the ring with Me- Tigue as an opponent.
 If McTigue were to meet Wilson and beat him soundly it would be a pop ular victory. since there has been fervent yearning on the part of fight devotees to see the middleweight title conferred on some other fighter Even Klaus successor, George Chip, was not so bad--a strong, rough and ready, hard-hitting mixer, but since then Al Mccoy. Mike ODowd and Johnny Will son have not been regarded by the public as meriting approval.
 Mike Gibbons, who is touring the