The Washington times., 1927-02-19

. ANO 49, ASSNAASp 4AA q 4AAAobAA(A0A way
for my battle against Georges Car
pentier was a very decided cipher.
When the match was made the
Frenchman insisted upon o guaran.
tee Of $4,000. That put 1t up to
me to get what was left. The bout
did not draw capacity. So there
was nothing left. And that's what
/ got-nothing.
Tommy Gibbons was paid
around 500, 900 for mixing Il
with me. Again my portion was
almost that phantom thing
whats left" There was q
little surplus after Gibbons had
been paid and all the other ex-
penses had been met. got my
share OF that. Having received
It. / went out, bought myself q
few neckties. And then / was
Just about as rich as had been
before the fight.
BARLEY Madden got about four
times as much for fighting me as
/ got. There was a reason. The
original purse was small. Madden
wanted q big portion Of It for him.
self. OF course. ! could have baked
at that and demanded the major
part for myself. If had, Madden
wouldn't have fought. He wasn't
in the mood where he'd risk a
beating for a small sum Of money.
So yielded to Madden, gave him
the bigger part of the cash and
figured that I'd be repaid IL / could
accomplish a knockout victory over
him. did knock him out, and the
prestige OF having stopped q man
who never before had been on the
noor accompanied me, more than
money.
Some folks may take the attitude
that 1t was poor management on my
part to let the other fellow have the
big money and for me always to
agree to take what was left. / think
1t was good management. For IL
refused to let the other fellows have
about all the money, they never
would have fought me and then
never would have had the chance to
knock them over and thus establish
MYSELF as the man to fight Dempsey.
Through the last three years
Of my career. / fought for the
chance to prove myself the for
m1dable fOeman Of Jack Demp-
sey. did not haggle over
money. 1.WaS taking desperate
gamble, yes. II hadn't whipped
those fellows and thus denied the
chance at Dempsey, would have
established the rather unique
record Of having fought for many
years against the topnOtchers Of
the prize ring without having q
dollar to show for my efforts,
while many men Of mediocre
ability amassed countless thou
sands.
But from the beginning I had
faith in myself. / believed Ina
plicitly in myself. ! was ever Will
ing to take the chance; willing to sac
rifice the money / might have made
by getting just one or two big fights
in two or three years for the oppor.
tunity Of fighting often. winning
often. meeting Dempsey-and becom'
ing champion.
In the days when started on my
professional career, the money was
paid was small to an extreme. A
81 900 purse-well, that was 'fbig
money" When I had "cut" my
share with the manager, paid for
gymnasium, training and incidental
costs. usually ended up after each
fight with just enough silver money
in my pocket to make 1t jingle. And
sometimes was actually in debt be-
cause the expenses incurred in train
ing were greater than my share Of
the purse.
In the later years, when / be-
came American light heavyweight
champion, the ''pickings' were not
much better. II I had been willing
to fight set-ups / could have had
plenty such fights - but the re,
Enumeration would have been small.
elected to fight good men and,
when did, they insisted upon get.
ting the lions share Of the receipts.
They didn't care to risk the chance
oS my humping them of without