The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-01
|om's Best Bet Thought To Be un-doWn Conition Of The Champion
By WESTBROOK PEGLER fIeaaed Wfra in ARS-EeraId

SHELBY, Mont, June 6O.-So pO- tsnt is the spell of ballyhoo that, s sufficient power of lung match ght be arranged between the in |finitesimal Pancho Villa and the |mastaGonic Mister Willard of County Pottowatamie.
 Six months ago. In dyspeptio mo- ment, William the First, Duke of Muldoon, then regent of the fight game in New York, with absolute powers extending to life and death over the men who wear the cauiI- flower badge. said that Tom Gibbons, ..he St Paul land owner, was too mall to fight Jack Dempsey. The ecree was sealed with the official ucal device, a police whistle ram ant on a prostrate cauliflower, and hat, for the time being, was the fin ish of the Dempsey Gibbons fight. It was considered reasonable enough ruling. too, because Tom Gibbons in his only fights in New York had shown up not so well, be- Ing pasted and. chivvied from rope to rope through 15 rounds of bewtlder- \ment by Harry Greb, and held al- most even by Billy Miske, who was Twice demolished by Dempsey.
 But the duke reckoned without the pkyer of ballyhoo. Gibbons was |poeular boxer and business man Tn St. Paul and the tributary north L.
 man named Dan McKettrick, agent for Jack Kearns, received telegram from someone in Montana, whose name has since been forgotten oi- afering Dempsey SS00,000 to box Glb- hons. McKettrick turned the offer lover to Kearns, who thought it was tjust one of those telegrams, put Iaccepted conditionally. The thing |went through this time, however land now, in far Montana after tu- Lmultuous troubles, Gibbons IS con lceded a chance to beat Dempsey The Ballyhoo Did It.
 Gibbons six months ago was )deemed to be a ludicrous match TOT Ina champion, but his sudden rise on the Hone sheet is not anything new. 'CApentier was inflated by ballyhoo' - Two years ago Bobby Barrett
 e lightweight with nothing ous
 low through on his right stae,
 made into a match for Letue
 Tender, which cfoWueu p''ii
 in Philadelphia.
 hons has not increased In pound
 beam or height. He is the same
 Gibbons that he was when liar
 reb ridiculed him except that ms
 h is better. II he were a
 younger than 34, he might De
 |bat same magnificent vitality
 gave Dempsey annihilatinS pow
 Toledo. But he is edsing along
 rd early middle age and IS at
 five years older To po9hqs 1s
 ter and much less poWerIul III
 attack than Dempsey,
 hons Is Healthy.
 ihbons is in beautiful health AS
 works out in the sun there dP- ?-
 rs moderate precipitation on his ite. hodv. He boxes with good
 chansscar skill and is good at bcking wbeeg.s Dempsey is a mark T any man'- pNnCrr1stsz'' hecauSe tL nia fef1s6 consists of outhltuIIsI outii sInnoms as knockouts in his record some If which should be ignored because |i,, one instance at least, he put on lar elleged fight with Sallor Mal lin. his sparring partner ana knoCh cd him cold. How many sparring ea have plunged in that list of knockouts cannot be ascertaiheu from here. ooan+ knockout over Chuck Wlgglns' iourneyman light heavyweight whom Dempsey would have assasslnated III -,na pnnch. Wiggins went 10 rounds Ar1ith Gibbons, and even then @ the Knockout was only technical. ne lreferee stepped in to save WleslhS From mutilation. So that IS tiie bower of Gibbons attack
 gom Hasn't Been Tried. ,,o no ts Nobody knows how game he IS ecause he has never been trleo, 10 i've Gibbons an outside cLdt tHo Eainst Dempsey, there is cited tne eterioration of the champion since fought Georges Carpenter two ears ago. Dempsey has changed Considerably. He disdained to ask rom Carpenters condition lhen' put put low he frequently asks how Hloooiis 1fSpss He n1aved 1ap, mush ball with Eddie antor fhe comedian, and troupe fj actors on the training lot ln At Kntic City for hours in the afternoon.
 was always leaping With energy
 spirits. In the old beer garden
 sreat Falls, his boxing has been
 er listless. The weather Is not
 but he drips sweat. There are
 .hes of eruptions on his body
 oh may have been caused by hI!-
 tt or rub stuff" as the boxers
 it. by over training or by poor
 rnal conditions.
 Lived Easily.
 empsey lived much and HVe1
 " for two years. The only gooa
 ring partner he has had out here
 eorge Godfrey, the negro, whom
 ut out of commission more than
 eek ago by right drive to the
 which splintered two ribs. since
 he has had to use little fellows
 Harry Drake aud Jack Burke,
 yweights, who can't give him
 tussle.
 1t Dempsey's muscles are all well
 ned. There Is none of that roly-
 ness about him. His waist is
 VII tight as he reaches up to slam
 bag, and there is no fleshy flap
 ble over the hip bones through his
 r-all jersey tights. The slight
 de of doubt is created. Such is
 power of ballyhoo.