The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-06-12
Not in Fight Books
for. Foreign Scrapper
to Annex Heavy Title

Americans and that q kindly proVl-
dence always rushes to the rescue
of a Yankee heavy when he is in
Jeopardy.
They point to Jack Dempsey's being
knocked out Of the ring by Luis Angel Fir
DO. ard ye. seeking the Wild Bull colder
than a cold storage mackereI in the very
next round. They say Georges Carpenter
had Dempsey wineing in the third. and
yet the fourth found tie Frenehmsn laid
out like carpet.
Yes. heard you. There was Bob Fitz-
simmons. who vas born in Cornwall. Eng
land. and developed into quite tighter in
Australia. Bob poked Corbett in the we'll
known solar plexus at Carson City in 1897
and became the champion. But on the
day Fitz turned the trick he was an
american citizen.
- II r
THEY have been trying it for
l. years, and now comes Herr
Schmeling TO try it again. He lacks
the skill of a Mitchell or Carpen-
tier. He hasn't the size and bull
like ferocity of Firpo. Perhaps
he's as tough as was Heeney the
night he was knocked out by Tun-
ney here in 1928.
But ii also might be argued that Shar-
key lacks the cleverness of a Corbett, the
punch of Dempsey and the indomitabIc
will Ito win Of Sullivan. It's right in the
laps of the silly little gods of the ring
and they all have been kind to our Ameri-
cans.
OF all the foreign elove tossers who have
tried to take away the heavyweight title,
Firpo came closest to success. In fact.
II the Argentinian had had a clever
American handler in his corner-a man
well versed in the rules--he probably would
have landed the championship after seal
ing Dempsey right into the works of a
portable typewriter.
= q
a LII Luis Angels seconds had to
IA do was to stop the fight then
and there and insist that Dempsey
had been out of the ring more than
ten seconds and had been assisted
back. Once the mauler got his bear
ings he gave Firpo about as thorough
a beating as he had administered to
Willard at Toledo in 1919 Firpo
went down seven times and the bat
tie was over in the second round.
with all the action packed into some
thing like five minutes Of competition, that
was the most dramatic and exciting fight
in the history of the title. The Dempsey
Carpenter bout went four rounds, and
there was wild moment when the French
man caught Jack on the jaw twice in the
third. But once Dempsey decided to stop
carrying the game 168-pounder, there was
nothing to it but grief for gorgeous
Georges.
International fstic competition reached
its crest under the promotion of Tex Rick
ard. But there we're big international
heavyweight fights long before Richard was
born. There are old timers around town
who remember the first important scrap
for the world championship-the first con-
test that attracted international atten-
ton. And some Of the old boys still get all
excited over It,
TOHN c. KEENAN,, the recognized
- American title holder, went over
to England and fought Tom Sayers,
the British champion. They went at
it with bare knuckles for forty-two
rounds and then, with the English
man blinded, his supporters rushed
the ring and the fight was called a
draw.
The next big international fstic excite
ment over there came with John L. SulIi-
vans visit in 1888. The Boston strong bow
was matched with Charley Mitchell for a
finish fight. $500 a side, at Chantilly.
France. John and Charley had it out In
the rain. with both having a hard time on
the slippery turf. After thirty-nine rounds
the imbrOglio was declared a draw.
n y
Six years later. after the ill-conditioned
Sullivan had been knocked out by Cor
bett. Mitchell came back for another fling
at the title and what Gentleman Jim did
to Charley was a caution. That fight
started out at Coney Island. but finally
landed at race track near Jacksonville