The Connecticut labor news., 1923-08-11
DAY OF BIG PURSE FOR PRIZE FIGHTS
 DRAWS TO CLOSE
Recent Fiascos Leaves Bad Taste With Sports Who Move to
 End Elm

It is probable that the day of sky high purses for championship battles will soon pass The Shelby affair 1 followed by the Willard -Firpo hasco has left bad taste in the mouths of lovers of the boxing game and
 movement is on foot all along the line to cut down the size of the purses Jack Kearns, the manager of Jack Dempsey, by his tactics. in holding
 out for the last dollar of the $3Io,ooo demanded of the promoters of the ! bout as the champions share of the battle, started the ball rolling for
 smaller purses. Speaking on this point Grantland Rice, the we'll known sport authority, says:
 The greed of managers and fighters has come close to wrecking a sport that IS attracting more nationwide in terest than any other. It has been long procession of greed since the game was launched upon its new boom, apd in the wage of this greed there are now two definite public calls on all promoters.
 First, no guarantee of any sort, but percentage of the gate only Second, a big drop in prices where l $Io or SIS will be the top limit and where there will be big allotment of 1 $2 andN S seats. This change is bound to come. If boxing commis- sions and promoters haven't intelli- gence enough to see 1t, then boxing l IS doomed. They have found that they can get no help whatsoever from managers and fighters who in the
 main are even willing to wreck the game for few extra dollars. The manager and his fighter have no vision beyond the dollar. It is now up to the commissions and the promoters to curb this greed and lift the game out of the muck Senti-
 ment along this line is extremely strong. We haven't heard dissent l ing voice. And even rabid fight fans are hoping the sport will be abolish ed unless there IS a quick and defln- ite movement in the right direction. There is almost sure to be a noisy financial squabble when the problem of matching Jack Dempsey with Fir DO or Wills comes due. This Labor Day match will be fought on per- centage. Firpo most likely will take the stand that he is now as big drawing card as the champion and he will be about right. There is strong chance that the Jersey City winner will insist upon as large a percent age as Dempsey gets. Kearns apparently sees this episode taking form,- for he is now discussing the possibility of Dempsey-Wills battle. Kearns in one way has an edge that he will find New York and New Jersey battling for the big Labor Day plum and so he can take the best pro- position. offered. Both Kearns and Dempsey want Firpo on the next
 card, and not Harry Wills.
 We have an idea they know what
 would have happened to Dempsey in Shelby if Wills had been in the ring
 in place of Gibbons It is better than even money that under those wide |open Shelby rules there would have
 been new champion of the world
 within seven rounds.
 It IS now a remarkable thing as to
 how many people through the far
 west and the middle west believe thar
 either Firpo or Wills. has a great
 chance to bring the present Dempsey
 down. For as one fight fan said to him after the Shelby date: You're
 the champion, but you're not Demp-
 sey. It IS question now as to
 whether the old Dempsey will be on
 hand Labor Day, as to whether we
 will see the old Dempsey again.