Evening star., 1922-01-30

This seems SO clear that no one
looking on at the game has any idea
that Rickard will stand pat. He will
draw. Or maybe he won't play the
hand at all He may draw Brady
aside and say:
Look here. let's play your hand to-
gether.''
Or. again, he may pull Brady's
! black face card out of his hand while
Brady isn't looking. Whatever hap
pens, it is not bad prediction to say
that the next big heavyweight cham
pionship battle will find Dempsey
and Wills in the ring together. Tex
Rickard always has wanted to pro-
mote Dempsey-Will bout. He has
always said that these two heavy
weights appear to be the only men in
the country who could put on a bat
tie worth paying big money to see.
Rickard Has Been Fearful.
But Rickard has been afraid OF
the bout because of the color. His
belief has been that the public doesn't
involved that a negro once more
would hold the world heavyweight
title. Jack Johnson's career as
champion, Tex believes. has made the
bare idea of another champion of the
same race generally repugnant, even
though he has known that Harry
Wills is a far different type of a man
than Jack johnson.
William A. Brady. on the other
hand. was in the fight game when
Joe Walcott, George Dixon and Joe
Cans were in their prime, and their
popularity in their day causes him to
believe that the public would patron
ize a fight between Dempsey and a
negro of their type. And SO. having
never forgiven himself for dropping
out of the DempseyCarp syndi-
cate, he wants to stage the next great
| heavyweight battle on his own hook.
1t is doubtful il Rickard would sit
back and let him do this. In fact.
Rickard today intimated that he would
wait until after the Wills-kid Norfolk
battle, and then have something to
say. meaning, Of course. that il Wills
slows away the India rubber man in
decisive fashion he will makean offer
for the fight. Since he has lease on
| the big arena on Boyle's Thirty Acres
F.! in Jersey City it would seem that he
| is in better position to bid higher
| than Brady or any other promoter.
Brady Is shrewd Fellow.
Still, Brady is no slouch when he is
| fully enlisted in a campaign. They
don't make them any shrewder, nor
any gamer, either. Years ago IN Key
| nolds' Hotel in Boston, after a fight
| between Brady's man, Steve O'Don-
nell. and Jake Kilrain, then an old
| man. in which O'Donnell had made a
miserable showing. John l.. Sullivan
| encountered O'Donnell in the lobby
| and bawled him out most unmerciful-
ly O'Donnell. who at the time was
| only twenty-one years old. stood for
| it until Brady, then mere slip of
| man. pushed him aside and gave Sui
livan all that the ex-champion had
given O'Donnell. with more to boot.
| Sullivan could have fiattened Brady
with one blow. but Brady bluffed him
out of the hotel.
! Brady entered the pugilistic game
| from the theatrical profession. He
took up Jim Co-bett and was his
| manager when h- defeated Sullivan.
! Later he made a champion out of Jim
Jeffries, and then retired, returning
, to the play-producing field in which
ever since he has been consistently
successful. He has never promoted a
| big championship bout. but he has all
| the qualities that make a successful
| promoter.
JCopyright. 1927