The Washington times., 1928-11-07
C s $3.50
F0REARLY
BOUTS
BY Jack DEMPSEY
,rnsr HeavyEsikiii champion IL
the World

the World
Customs III the fight game
have changed i lot since /
started mixing it with the boys
years ago. III
Nowadays q promoter decides y
put bn d show and goes out look
ifik for talent. thus making II easy
Tor the battlsrs who have llothing
To. do but SIT around walt for
offers and accept the best ones.
when / was q Kid fighting along
III nv early DAYS in Utah. Colorado
saw iii anybody's SKINNER" was
s'f -Four ii five times fought fel-
lows, whose names are not listed IN
my record, for nothing but side
one occasion 1t was $3.50 because
one occasion Ii was 80 because
$3.50 was all / had. and, therefore,
ali that 1 could bet, 4 stopped that
fellow IN two punches and felt
ratfef. well. paid bscaiise GOT
from him ST rs 4 punch. ~ n.
ana Nevada, we Fellows had 70
match ourselves most of the time
and then 90 ana hunt around for
some body who would promote 4
show. we weren't always lucky,
at least I wasn't, for the first year
or two.
found plenty ot felI6ws i
Thought / could smack into de-
feat and there we're an awful
lot iii them at6iifia loose who
had an idea they could punch
me bOW-legged. So I wasn't
ever lacking as regards Op.
ponents.
But digging up promoter that
was different. When we couldn't
find anybody who would take 4
chance on our drawing powers, we
would fight anywhere we could
attract i crowd, and take q chance
that We could pick up 4 little
loose money by passing the hat;
after which we would split the
proceeds. Bit they never were
much. The biggest amount I ever
The biggest side bet was Shiny
to make it $25 but / didn't have SIS.
Promoting Of my early fights
wasn't such a daring thing for. the
matchmaker as in the later days
when Tex Richard was gambling a
million or more per battle.
III my memory ii correct. /
fought about SIX successive
fights for promoters early III
1914 and tile biggest money
got was $25.
The other amounts we're SIS, two
fights for $40 each, another for
$3.50 and 4 sixth battle for $3.50.
The promoter Of that last one had
guaranteed me SIS to begin with,
but q STORM hit the town, the crowd
was small and he asked me to cut
reason that $3.50 struck me as being
Once, 1 promoted one of my own
fights-the one against Freddie
Woods. hired hall-ofi credit
got my bill posters printed on credit
and guaranteed Freddie S25-also
on credit.
1t struck me that I couldn't lure |
a crowd with d fight alone. so |
announced that dancing would fol- |
low the fistic fireworks Admission |
was about % cents. Things looked |
good, and then a deluge hit the |
town an hour before the fight,
could have packed the crowd" in |
my pocket. But the fight went on |
anyway. Knocked out Freddie |
and then in ring togs helped to |
tear down the ring and haul it |
away so that there would be room
for the dancers.
BY that time the rain had
stopped and folks strOlIing
along the street lin the little
town Of MOntrOSe pOked tkeii.
heads Through the doors TO
see how things were going.
No one was on the door because T
my ticket taksr was busy hauling
chairs from the middle OF the floor
to the "sidelines."
So they just walked in and a
pleasant time was had by all-all
except me.
Ruin stared me in ths face.
had Spent all my m0ney-$1S or
l was in debt to the ex-
tent Of 500. Ii you don't think
It was ruin I'd like to point out
that it took me over d year to pay
off the creditors.
a | fought d fellow named lack
Boyd; another who was a. husky
piano player who was QUITS clever
with the gloVes--his naria was
Dick Tr6nnce-and two other rel
lows, all in ten days, and nv earn
ngs for these four victories was
$3.50,
g., - - z1u... .tI.L "a. .,8ts