Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-11
SHARKEY ALREADY HAS 1T.
BUT DEMPSEY is LACKING
Bostonian Will Bank Heavily His Agility, and
Manassa Mauer Is in Urgent Need of Practice
to Remedy His Sluggishness.
BY JACK SHARKEY.

day Or Wednesday, at the
VI latest, I should be able to
4 travel Just as fast as | want
for the next week in a way
that will bring me in to the day of the
fight at top speed. l may as well adj
NIT that speed is going to be one of
my main assets in my coming fight
with Jack Dempsey, one week from
this Thursday night.
Do not get the idea when I speak of
speed that l am going to get on the
bicycle" as they say when a boxer
does a lot of back-pedaling. No, Jack
Dempsey doesn't have to train for any
foot race so far as l am concerned.
They tell me that Jim Corbett made
n grand success of this style of fight.
ing when he took the title from John
l.. Sullivan, and that he let the old
Boston boy run himself ragged before
he went to work on him. 1 am not
criticising Corbett's style. Jim and
are good pals and maybe this foot race
stuff was the thing best adapted to
take John l.; you've got to hand it to
Corbett, he made huge success of his
job.
But what I mean by speed and as
it applied to my particular case is
speed of punch, of eye, of slipping,
rolling, weaving and the other tricks
of the trade that l specialize in.
Rounds Can't Be Wasted.
No doubt you can get an opponent
dead tired by keeping him missing
while you are on the run. But, with
a 15-round limit you can't afford to
waste a lot of time doing it all with
your feet. No matter how fast you
run or how much the other fellow is
missing, so long as he is the one
doing the trying, the round belongs
to him. You cannot afford to waste
many rounds In a 15-round fight, for
you may not be able to bring your
man down and the first thing you
know, you've run yourself out of the
decision.
The style which is natural to me
does not call for me to be too far out
Of range Of my opponent. / think !
can best describe what I mean by
saying that when am properly speed
ed up l can be far away, even though
1 am near. Sounds like some sort of
puzzle. doesn't it? I'll try and give it
to you clearer-I'm always in range
Of my opponents punches, but l
amt. Get me? Not yet?
Oh, well, it Is this way: You can be
within inches of your man and yet one
little movement, and it doesn't neces-
Sarily have to be of the feet, but of
the head, the shoulders. the waist, al
most any part of the body, but that
little move can bring you outside or
inside Of your opponents blow. Of
course, the move has to be the right
one.
If you watch me, either in training
or in my matches, you will see I'm
always close to my man and as much
as possible in a position to hit
The kind of speed am to perfect at
the start of my training is quite a
strain on the muscles of the neck and
the waist. For the first couple of days
the muscles referred to are sore. BY
Tuesday or the day after, this soreness
will be completely worn off and from
then on won't have to take many
more punches than those I want to.
1t may seem strange when 1 tell
you that I force myself to take lot
Of punches deliberately, but this is
something that every boxer in train
ing does. You've got to let yourself
be hit by the certain punches for two
reasons: To assist in your hardening
up and to enable you to know just
how to react in case you are nailed
in a bout with a certain kind Of
punch. l guess it is equivalent to
knowing how to keep your head while
you are getting it knocked off. OF
course. if you know how to get hit
why, then it amt so tough. But you
have to do a lot of practicing and get
yourself properly speeded up before
you can take that kind of chances.
And then, sometimes-oh, well, it is
all in the game.
Yesterday I worked 10 rounds. At
10 minutes of I started off with 6
minutes of work on the fast bag.
Then followed a round each with Paul
Cavalier, Johnny Urban, Leo Gates.
Marco Polo, Rocky Stone and Johnny
King. Shadow boxing wound up the
afternoon session.
Praises Sparring Partners.
It was dandy workout. I want
to say that / am highly pleased with
the sparring partners that have been
dug up for me. Every one Of them
can hit and step and they certainly
keep after me.
L suppose some will criticize the
round go with Rocky Stone. But his
work is funny and 1 certainly get a
kick out Of it. 1t does me a lot of
6Oo0 W nave ILLS ANICh AllTOCk OIL I00
ring" as some one has called Stone,
doing his stuff. No matter how hard
L try, / get little grouchy when I
start to get fine" and then one sight
of Rocky's poses and odd swings can
be counted on to hand me a laugh.
Jack Delaney was introduced while
was In the ring. What a hand that
bird got. We did lot of kidding of
each other back in the dressing room
while 1 was getting my rub down.
We were telling each other about the
different repairs" we had to undergo
He certainly has me beat by a few
busted hands, ribs, etc. That boy has
been good to the doctors. Jack saws
when l am champion he and 1 will
make good fight. or course he had
to spoil it by saying: IF Dempsey
don't lick you" 1 promised him /
would be careful. but not too careful.
Delaney sure looks huskier than
when / saw him before.
My road. work was kind of spoiled
for me today, as the wife was feeling
under the weather. and I had to hit
the road alone. AS rule Mrs.
rLnH