Evening star., 1927-09-14


Trainer of Jack Dempsey.
Copyright. 1927 in all countries nv North
American Newspaper Alliance.
HICAGO, September 13.-This
is certainly the soft era in
boxing. Take Gene Tunney's
~ living quarters in the Cedar
Crest Country Club, at Lake
Villa. Sumptuous! Soft!
Can you imagine in your widest
dreams what John L. Sullivan. Bob
Fitzsimmons or any of the old-tme
champions would have said of these
palatial training quarters?
You can't get tough in lah-de-dah
surroundings" Sullivan once said, and
he spoke what the boys nowadays
would call a mouthful.
But toughness seems TO have pass
ed out of the fight game. Look at the
way these fellows are training for
the heavyweight championship. Less
than 10 rounds of boXing-some days
less than 10 rounds of work even
when you include rope skipping, bag
punching and caliSthentics. and half
the time the days work consists of a
round of golf or a couple of hours
of fishing.
And for what? Here we have the
worlds heavyweight championship be
ing decided in a 10-round sprint, and
the purse runs into well over a mil
lion dollars. Soft! I'll say it is.
Much To-Do Over Cut.
Here. a week or so ago. Tunney
gets bumped over the right eye by
Chuck Virgins in one of their spar
ring SettoS and suffers a little cut.
There's much to-do about this, and the
heavyweight champion lays off for a
couple of days.
I'll say this for Gene, however. He's
one champion who disdains to wear
the protective headgear while spar
ring in training. In the old days the
fighters often got bloody noses and
black eyes, and even sometimes cauli
flower ears and broken noses in their
training bouts. But those We're the
hard days of boxing.
When Jack Dempsey passes it looks
as if the fight game would lose the
last of the romantic, blood-tingling
type of battlers.
Now nobody is happier to see the
boxing game rise to a genteel level
than I am. But I contend that you
cannot get fighter into the best
fighting condition unless you put him
through a siege of hard training and
make him live in a manner that will
tougher him.
If you have two fairly matched men
toughened and seasoned in this man
ner you get a real battle when they
clash. That is what made the fight
game what it is today. But it is my
opinion that the more the fight game
flourishes the nearer it approaches a
decline. 1t is getting away from fight
ing and coming closer to boxing. 1t is
losing its romantic appeal and de-
veloping into a parlor game.
Need a Little Roughing.
I'm not trying to moralize. I'm
merely pointing out the difference he.
tween the training methods of today
and those of old Both Dempsey and
Tunney would be better fighters if
they roughed it a bit more. and ac-
customed themselves to hardships
rather than live in ease and luxury.
even while training. They're not
building stamina this way.
There is an aexcuse for Dempsey
taking these RESTS" in his training.
Jack Is comparatively old for fight
er. But / can't say l can excuse Tun.
ney's lay-offs. Gene is young, strong
and well able to stand the gaff of real
training. He has a big advantage
over Dempsey in this, because a siege
of real tough work would put him
in such fine, powerful condition there
would be no chance for the Dempsey
of today to cope with him-even over
the short 10-round route.
But Tunney is not putting in any
hard, strenuous efforts. He's train
ing, to be sure, and he's getting him
self into excellent physical condition.
certainly, but he is not whiting him.
self into the tough, hard, rugged
fighter who could withstand Demp-
sey's hardest blows and smite back
until the older man would be forced
to crumple.
No. Tunney is doing just as he an
nounced he would do-hes training
to outlook and outpoint Dempsey, and
If fortune smiles, strive for a knock.
out when and IL the wide-open oppor-
tunity presents itself. 1t is the safe
and sane policy of the ring today.