New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1927-07-11
HERE AND There
IN SPORTS WORLD
Two Important Comeback Fights
Scheduled

New York, July II tP - 1t is a
peculiar twist of sports fortune
that within eight days. this week
and next, the ring will witness
com eback fights by the two men
who less than a year ago stood
around the heavyweight peak, one
the champion and the other con-
sidered leading menace" even
| If side-tracked.
1t would have taken the seventh
son of seventh son to have had
the boldness to predict in the sum-
mer of 1925 that these two, Jack
Dempsey and Harry Wills, would
fall from their positions within a
fortnight of each other, as they
did, and in another twelfth month
be striving to get back into the
picture, each trying to sidestep the
decline that comes with age.
Within a few days after Gene
Tunney had dethroned the man he
had trailed in title hunt for five
years, Harry Wills was decisively
whipped by Jack Sharkey. Making
his first appearance in the ring
since that October night. the giant
negro battles the Bounding Basque.
Pauline Uzcudun. here this We'd
nesday. On Thursday of the follow
ing week the same Sharkey that
upset Wills will attempt to halt the
comeback of Dempsey
Fate seems to have cast the 25-
year-old Sharkey for the role of
Jack the Giant Killer" though
there seems substantial reason TO
believe he will find the task OF
conquering the former champion
more difficult to accomplish than
the job of vanquishng Wills last
fall.
There is this decided difference,
however, in the present outlook for
Dempsey and Wills. The big negro.
even should he defeat. the younger.
more agile and stronger Spaniard,
has no prospect of coming back
into title consideration, After II
years in the ring Wills, the experts
agree, has put his future behind
him" .it
Dempsey. on the other hand, has
q return championship fight with
Tunney in prospect If he can defy
Time, recover the accuracy of his
old, devastating attack, and whip
the youthful Sharkey.
The monopoly of heavyweights on
tie fistic limelight this year has put
its usual jinx on the ambitions Of
the smaller fellows to figure in title
bouts, or, rather it has dampened
the enthusiasm of promoters for
pionship fights which would be
obscuned by the focus of interest
and attentions on Dempsey Tunney,
ct al.
In the metropolitan sector only
the Dundee LatZo welterweight bat
tie has enlivened the smaller di-
visions and it was far from a finan-
cial success. Even the proposed
Delaney McTieue light heavyweight
title tussle, ordinarily an outdoor
natural" has failed to arouse the
expected interest. 1t has been post
poned a month until August II.
A similar situation existed in 1928,
the last big boom year" among the
heavyweights, when Luis Firpo was
making his spectacular advance to
a fight with Dempsey. That year,
promoters staged such notable en-
among the little fellows
as the Criqui- l<ilbane, Dundee-Cri-
uui, Nilla-Wilde. Greb-Wilson and
second Leonard Tender bouts, but
nearly all suffered big financial
losses. In four title bouts in the
lighter classes at the Polo Grounds,
promoters lost more than 100000,
but Tex Richard stepped in with
the Firpo- Dempsey climax in the
same arena to draw approximately
$1,000, 900 from a capacity crowd of
$1,000