The Washington times., 1930-03-21
REACH RING
HE|GHTSBY
HARDWORk'
BY JACK DEMPSEY

DIV JACh
American-born ringmen are
complaining that the foreign i'm
portations get all the breaks"
and that means the shots at
titles or at big money.
Just so long as it's a guy from
Europe, Asia. Africa, South Amer
lea, or anywhere outside the
U. S. A., he gets the headline
acts" claim our native boys
There are two ways of looking
at it.
Luis Firpo came here and did
quite a bit of fighting for $3.50
$500 and so on before he got
to the top. He had to wade
through a big group of Americans
to do that. So he didn't reach
the big-money class merely by
being a foreigner. It was because
he beat some husky Americans
along the way.
Spalla, BalSa, Person and
!. others came, had their chance,
q blew it-and passed out. The
i fact they were foreigners
didn't carry them along after
I, It was discovered they couldn't
fight as well as was expected.
q Pancho Villa and Elmo Flores
Eame from Manila at the same
time. They started out together,
Villa got $425 for his first fight;
8S6 for his second. He won and
went on to the championship and
big money. Flores couldn't make
the grade and did a fade-out.
" Schmeling didn't get big money
s3ust because he was a foreigner
He got only a trifle for fighting
Joe Monte. If Monte had whip
ped him that would have been
the windup for Schmeling. But
he beat Monte, then Joe Sekyra
They gave him Risko next. He
stopped Risko. Naturally, he
was big shot" thereafter.
e Pauline didn't get any fortune
Tor his early battles in the U. S.
A.. He started at low wages. But
he was consistent winner, he
had considerable color and that's
why he reached the high salaried
class.
Heeney went in as a substi-
tute in his first outing in the
Il. u. s. A. His reward was
i small. But he won, he was
VI given other chances and won,
s. and so onward and upward
he went. The fact that he
was a foreigner did not mat
ter in his career. He was
Just a little bit better than
the Americans he fought
or at least as good as the
tOpnOtcherS.
Primo Carnera-circus giant
and cartoonist-came here pre-.
ceded and accompanied by a big
ballyhoo. He went on tour and
in 10 fights, mainly against
fourth, fifth and sixth ,aters,
picked up over 100000. There's
some complaint by the Americans
over that. Why there should oe
T can't figure out. Carners
operated on percentage. People
weren't dragged into arenas and
forced to pay big money to see
him. They came of their own
free willard paid eagerly. The
same chance is open to any Amer
lean.
Phil Scott got a break" I'll
grant that. But his top earnings
came from. the Sharkey fight and
were no more than $4,000. I
doubt if Scott got more than
$4,000 for all his battling in the
U. S. A. And he had quite a few.
AS I see it, the best thing for
the American fighters to do-if
they reckon that the invaders
got "all the breaks''-is to take
on the invaders as they arrive
and then beat them-not take a
beating. In that way they can
nnonopolize the spotlight and pick
up the big money themselves.
But if they aren't good enough to
beat back the aliens, why com.
plain if the victorious foreigners
get the big money?
o., Copyright. 1880. King Features
Syndicate. 1nc)