San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1924-03-02
Heavyweight Champ Didn't
Do Enough Graphing
to Lose Speed.
BERLENBACH THE SAME
New Knockout King Res.
cued From Mat Before
His Muscles Hardened.
BY ROBERT EDGREN.

wrestler can't be made into boxer
Wrestlers have tried boxing offer
enough, and have failed.
Frank Gotch, great wrestler
thought he could step into Jim JET
fries shoes when Jim retired from tn,
ring. He had a couple of bouts ano
was beaten so easily that he gave vi
all idea of becoming a boxer.
Big Joe Rogers, called the "Ameri-
can Apollo" a huge wrestler well over
six feet tall and weighing nearly 300
pounds, tried boxing. Tom O'Rourke
managed him and intended TO work
him up as a heavyweight challenger,
but Rogers flivvered after half dozen
starts and went back 10 wrestling.
STRANGER" Ed Lewis, heavyweight
wrestling champion, thought he'd take
up boxing and go after Dempsey S
crown. A session with the gloves on
showed Lewis that as box-fighter he
was q very good wrestler.
On the other hand. years ago Tom
Sharkey tried wrestling, and in spite
of his big muscles didn't make much
of himself in the graphing game.
Walter Miller, western middle
weight wrestling champion, started as
boxer, with Mike and Tom Gibbons
in st. Paul, but gave up boxing for
wrestling when he found that he
didn't have speed enough TO land on
either of the Gibbons boys.
George Hackenschmidt, the great.
est heavyweight wrestler in the world
in his prime. wanted to become a
boxer and fight Jeffries. George
thought he was stronger than jeff,
and faster. because he could turn a
back somersault on a handkerchief
and move around a mat faster than
any other wrestler he ever met. Hack
was q physical marvel-no doubt of it
and amazingly fast for a wrestler
and strong man. He boxed few
months with Gunner Moir, an English
wrestler who took up boxing and be-
came English heavyweight champion.
Hack told me that he could handle
Moir without much trouble and he
thought Moir about in Jeffries' class.
Then little Tommy Burns went TO
England and knocked NOR out easily.
and Hack revised his opinion and
stayed in his own game.
Dempsey Quit in Time.
About fifteen years ago a little
Canadian wrestler and boxer named
Art Edmunds did some fine fighting
But he was much more a boxer than
wrestler, although he held Canadian
championships in both sports, and he
/. might have become a worlds feather
weight champion at boxing if he
hadn't developed too much muscle on
the mat.
Gotch, Lewis, Hackenschmidt, all
big seasoned, muscular wrestlers OF
that type, would look like truck horses
r in the ring against a good middle
weight, and would be easy victims OF
any hard puncher.
But here's fact that isn't gener.
ally known.
Z. Jack Dempsey started his career
as a wrestler.
Before he began boxing he Travelled
around through Colorado, Montana
and Utah towns and camps taking OF
wrestling bouts with local champions
He was a pretty good wrestler, ant
Walter Miller, who trained a LITTLE
with Dempsey in Los Angeles and saw
how Jack could slip on a half Nelson
instead of using left uppercut, salt
Jack could make a good showing
against any wrestler even now.
Dempsey was lucky enough to be
come interested in boxing and TO star
as a professional boxer when he wa
only 10. He never did any NOR
wrestling. AT that time he was slen
derby built, and. except for his wild
shoulders and powerful arms. was no
= near his full development. He hadn'
developed a wrestler's muscle-bount
torso. A couple of years later Demp
sey couldn't have become a grea
fighter, for wrestling would have tie,
up the great speed that is Jacks chic
fighting asset.
Fitz Was a Combination
( Bob Fitzsimmons, the crafty an
Z hard-hitting holder of three world
Observation-Disclosures, light
, heavy and heavyweight-at differen
times. started as fighter and wrestle
/. combined. Down in New Zealand
:, when Fitz was a boy, fights were sti
: held under London prize ring rules
I, bare fists, TO n finish, and wrestlin
locks and throws allowed. Fitz, Dor
. in Helston, Cornwall, knew a lot abou
Cornish wrestling, in which trippin
and wrestling while standing up ar
combined. and used wrestling trick
in his early finish fights. But late
he always liked to wrestle, and usua
ly had a wrestler in his camp whe
training for a fight.
He didn't. however, get on the ma
and tug around by the hour and d
his muscles into hard and rigid knot
That Fitz wasn't a regular wrestl,
was proved one time in New Yor
nfter the Horton Law went out. whe
there was no boxing and some boxel
tried wrestling. Fitz and Gus Rul
lin were matched to wrestle in Mad
son Square Garden. Rubin kne
nothing about wrestling. but he thre
Fitz. II was an awful blow of Bob
pride. He never wrestled again.
Paul Berlenbach, the most sens
tional newcomer in the American rim
who started with string of twent
one knockouts and who looks like
coming champion in the light-heay
and perhaps the middleweight elias
was an amteur wrestler. He was
good one. too-the best in the coul
try. He won amateur championship
But. fortunately, Berlenbach BEGAN
interested in boxing at the New Yor