The Washington times., 1928-01-25
YEARS
SURE FOR
CHAMP
By Gene Tunney
rro..Id.. EaaauvweirIlk ChaEmnlI

=
/ Fortunately for the tomb-stons
cutters. 1t. Is not given to the
average man to write his own
epitaph. Possibly IL was this tacts
among others, that prompted me
| to answer a question about retire.
ment recently by saying that
would quit the boxing game when
III was unconscious, meaning that
! only q knockout would convince
me that my days OF usefulness
| were over.
When win that come? You can
answer that question as well as
I. meaning that no one can. IL
| might come in my next fight. lt
might not come for years. And
then. IL 1t did, / probably would
/ decide that it was all mistake
! and demand another fight with the
new champion.
In spite OF what ! said on the
links at Miami, / know myself well
enough to realize that 4 am 1use
as great i, die-hard as any OF the
! old champions who refused to ac-
] cept times verdict and demanded
their come back chance. wouldn't
be convinced by one losing tight,
especially IL this came during the
next several years, for feel that
/ am at the peak Of my ability now
and fully anticipate remaining there
at least until 1890
i About that time, Of course,
some ambitious young fellow
will be- coming along ana, pro-
viFed i have been fOrtunatc
enough to hold the title In the
meantime. I will discover that i
am In the fight OF my life.
AS / look ahead ! see 1880 ana
the wears Immediately. following II
| as nv period Of gravest menace
i although am not deprecatIng the
fact that any one OF the chahen-
gers now available may prove my
nemesis no later than next summer.
IN any case. shall not retire AZ
long as there Is another good man
in the field. Admittedly, 1t might
he 4 temptation to be the only
heavyweight champion to retire TN
defeated, but there are two objec-
tions to this program. The first -
that doubt whether would stay
retired, which probably would mean
J that i couldn't fight at my best
after a protracted layoff
The second il the obvious unfair
: ness to the other men in the game.
1T would leave the best available
. man without anyone to challenge
and, even though he, succeeded %
, the title his claim would be clouded
as long as remained IL the back
ground as a possible come back.
This is a condition for which no
one In particular is responsible. but
} it exists nevertheless. The cardinal
rule of championship boxing is that
champion never really loses his
title except in the ring Tt would
60 against my ideas of sportsman.
ship to take advantage of such 8
situation. I have tried to be q
fighting champion; I hope to be ong
in the future.
The future? What does that.
hold for me, provided am able
to dispose Of those who now
challenge for the title2 10 an
sWer these questions, would
have to look to the younger
schools Of boxers, the men who
are showing promise now, but
may be several years AWAY
as they say,
One Of these who has impressed
me with his possibilities is James
, j. Braddock, a young, fast, hard
I hitting light heavyweight. Another
!. is Johnny Urban, brother of Jack
! Burke, the old light heavyweight.
+ Urban showed particularly well in
!, training Jack Sharkey for the
Dempsey fight last summer. or
course, Sharkey even then was
changing his style in order to
carry out his self-conceived plan OF
making smuggling match of it and
so, possibly, he was a bit easier to
hit. Nevertheless, Urban stood up
/. to him very we'll.
, I didn't get a chance to see Ar-
mand Emanuel after the big fight
in Chicago. but they tell me the lad
Z really is good. He had tough
boy on the floor out there, boxed
well and used his left hand with no
little effect. hear, too, that
Benny Touchstone, young Florida
, heavyweight, is very promising.
Any one of those mentioned may
n be the challenger within q year or
s so. 1t may be none of them. Pos
e sibly the 1880 challenger is fighting
e in obscure clubs, unknown and un.
d sung. This is one of bookings
charms. One never knows today
J, what tomorrow will bring forth.