Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-09-28
KNOCKDOWN BY DEMPSEY TAUGHT
TUNNEY new PSYCHOLOGY ANGLE

| NEW YORK, Sept. q P)-The
crisis Gene Tunney expected to face
sooner or later in his ring career
ooning UP from the floor, dazed and
wobbly at the count of nine-taught
| the heavyweight champion something
new about psychology.
| On his homecoming today from the
Soldier field battle-ground, Gene told
how for several years he had planned
to meet the situation that confronted
him when Jack Dempsey floored him
in the seventh round in the spectacle
on the Chicago lake front.
Outside on 42nd street, more than
1000 fans yelled for q sight OF the
champion who rose from the resin
dust to pound Dempsey into submis-
sion for the second time. They had
met Tunney as ne came into Grand
Central station from Cleveland,
rushed the guards, closed in to shake
his hand and had pursued the big
marine through an underground pas
Sage to hotel lobby and thence
to the front of Manager Billy Glib
sons offices. Now they wanted
speech.
Unmindful of the racket outside,
Gene sat on the top of the same
desk, in the same position, in which
he greeted friends and scribeS after
stripping Dempsey of the title at
Philadelphia last fall. His mind was
full of psychology and the reaction
he had planned for the crisis-a re-
action that never came.
ever since I entered the profess
sional ring in 1919 have known
that sooner or later 1 must be knock
ed down. l also knew that when
that happened I must get up come
on, and win my fight despite the
handicap.
"I had worked out two lines OF
action The first was to get up and
camouflage my real condition by
letting go a right hand punch with
everything behind it-including
PRAYER that it landed. The second
was to get up and dive into clinch,
holding on desperately no matter how
the referee tried to break us, and 1t
necessary to go down again for an
other nine count from whatever punch
came next. If my head then was
not clear I planned to take still
another count and so on until l
legained my senses.
ssBut when I actually found myself
down realized my plans were foolish
I couldn't gamble with my title. My
best chance was to make Dempsey
follow me and I thought: He can't
catch me-
Dempsey always has had trouble
hitting man who was going away
from him. His greatest successes have
been scored against men who carried
the fight to him, trying to outslam
tne master slamner at his own game
"They say that ran away from
Dempsey. You don't realize that /
could have travelled twice as fast
if I had wanted and if I had been
hurt Just bit more. Instead I
regulated my pace. putting on steam
when l thought it necessary, and
slowing enough to let Jack catch up
whenever / thought he would come
close enough for stiff counter
Wallop.
''My head was clearer right then
than at any moment from the time
I reached Chicago three weeks earlier,
All the cobwebs left in my brain by
the heat at Lake Villa and the ex-
citement of the day were swept away
by that series of punches to the
head in the seventh round.
eThose counters slowed Dempsey
up even in the seventh. Two in par
ticular remembered, both solid
smashes to the chin. AS they landed
I could almost see Dempsey losing
his advantage and thinking to him
self: I'D better watch out myself
OF this fellow will knock me out
'"Then he beckoned, Come on and
fight admitting his own inability to
control the situation. It certainly was
gratifying to think that again I was
master even though I had been on
the floor only seconds before"
Gene smiled at the recollection and
then explained how the first prin-
ciples of situation mastery had been
pounded into him by one of his early
fistic tutors.
"I've forgotten his name" Gene
said, "but his teaching was this: If
you can be master of every situation
when you are being licked, you'll be
great. Know when to box, when to
slug, when to protect yourself at ali
costs, and then box enough and slug
enough to keep things under control
even wher you are bei;2,. outboxed
ard outsluggcd.
Tunney said lie was startled in
viewing the motion pictures OF the
fight to realize tinat Dempsey landed
six smashes on his chin before the
crash in the seventh round. Gene
said he felt the first three only and
/ that the first impression in his brain
/ was:
Gosh, but this floor is comfort
able"
Referring to the "long count" con-
troversy, Gene said the referee warned
both him and Dempsey on the knock
down rules just before the first bell
"The referee, Dave Barry, called
us both 'boys'," Tunney said, "ano
the last thing he said to us was: 'Ir
case either of you boys score 6
lnockdown, the boy who does goes
Immediately to neutral corner o.
I won't count"
The champion, after ten days il
New York, during which he plans
i to see two world series games, viii
leave for few weeks in the Maine
1 10 fioI1-