The Washington times., 1928-04-11
CHAMPION
TELLS Of
RlJSES

By Gene Tunney
worlds Heavyweight Champion
MIAMI, April 11.-Tricks in
the boxing trade are rapidly
vanishing, and this is one OF
the most hopeful signs for the
game. I do not mean that ring
strategy is a thing of the past,
but strategy and tricks are
entirely different things.
$ Strategy simply means fighting
with the head as well as with the
fists. while tricks might mean any
thing up to putting a horseshoe IN
the glove.
Tricks. as they were played in the
old days, took many forms, the most
common of which was to plant q
Ioud.moutl1ed heckIer at the ring
side to distract the attention OF
fighter at the crucial point. l
haven't heard of any first-rate box
ers of the present day falling for
this ruse hut old-time referees are
full of stories of how fighters
turned their eyes for one brief sec
one and lost fights they might have
won.
1t has not been long. either. since
rowdered cement was sprinkled over
the hands of boxers, making g con-
.crete-like coating that actua!ly
amounted to having rock IN the
glove.
Another referee told me how
the drinking water of tighter
had been dOped and how mana
gers smeared the faces of their
principals with Vaseline to make
the blows slide off with compare
lively little harm and also to
make the opponents gloves gen.
orally messy and less effective.
'.And boxers were not the only
ones guilty of using heavy grease,
added the old-time referee. I once
refereed a wrestling match between
Hackenschmidt and Ysiff Mahmout,
the Terrible Turk. The Turk slid
out Of the Russians holds ike an
eel for a little while and it was ap-
parent that he was all creased up
ike a new wagon axle. But after
a few minutes ] noticed Hacken-
schmidt lnassaging the Turks back
like a chiropractor and before long
Mahmout's broad, swarttay back be-
gan to look like a piece OF raw
.heefsteak. As the match went on
he appeared to have been skinned
alive and was wincing at every
touch OF Hackenschmidt's hands or
contact with the mat.
what happened was that
HaeIxenscl1nliGlt had lost match
60 the Turk once before because
OF his trick nf Oiling his body .
and before entering the arena on
that night he had nut glue on
his hands and sprinlxIed them
with coarse sand. And he sand
papered MahmOut right out Of
the match
But the shady tricks which ruled
IN the ring long ago were largely
the results OF the lack OF super
vision Of boxing. As years went on
they became fewer and fewer until
recently there has been little Of
which fans can complain. Later
day tricks have been held strictly
Wfthin the rules. 4
moments often complained that he
fooled them by pretending to be
groggy and then. when they opened
up in over-confidence. put over the
finishing wallop. Leach Cross was
obliged to go home surrounded by
an army of policemen one night
after an incident which was taken
as a trick by those against him.
Cross was facing frankie Mad
den who. by the end Of the next
to the last round was so badly
dazed that he thought he was 60
ing into the home stretch. AS he
reached the center of the ring he
held out his hand for the customary
last round shake. Cross did not
stop to correct him. He simply
him around into the most favorable
position that could be desired for
terrible left. Madden went down
and the bowling Madden fans rose
UP. Cross was perfectly in the
right but he had to wait for hours
IN his dressing room before the
policemen considered it safe to
escort him home.
The hest story Of boxing
tricks. however. was the pro-
duct Of the brain Of William A.
Brady, former manager of Cor
bett and Jeffries. All he en-
plOyed was pure psychology and
as a result his new protege,
Jim Jeffries. virtually won
fight over Bob FftZSimmOns in
Fits dressing room.
Brady, after Fitzsimmons had
won from Corbett, was faced with
the problem of getting new cham
pion and after combing the country
he brought Jeffries to New York.
Brady saw that his new find vas
widely heralded and the constant
talk of the new Western giant
aroused Fitzsimmons' curiosity al
though, after he had agreed to
meet him, he was not much worried
over being able to dispose OF the
contender.
On the night Of the fight at
Coney Island, Fitzsimmons was in
his ring clothes early and his dress
ing room presented a peaceful
family scene. Fitz was lying on
couch in his bathrobe while his
acrobat wife sat tanning him and
giving him encoura cement In the
meantime, Brady was putting his
plans into action.
Brady went to Martin Julian,