The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-05-08
| ALKING
IT OVER
BY JOE WILLIAMS

RTEW YORK. May 8.-Well, the
IN vast vanities Of our boxing
commissioners have been more or
less soothed and everything practi-
cally is Strengthened out for the
heavyweight battle between the
Messrs. Sharkey and Schmeling next
month. and the boys are predicting
that it will be a blazing struggle
Maybe it will, though you never can
tell about heavyweight battles these
DAYS. especially when Sharkey is one
Of the principals. because he can be
very terrible when he wants TO.
don't care particularly for a heavy
weight or a race boss that gives Won
superb run one DAY and bad one the
next. Inconsistency Of this type does not
oenuote real class The truly great never
vary by any wide margin from top form.
Even an occasional fash OF brilliance is
not enough to rft the in-and-outer high
and dry above the rim Of medlocrity.
sharkey has had hts moments Of bril-
lance. but he has had just as many lapses
never know how 70 figure him and all YOU
can ever say about him on the eve OF
fight is that he may be very good or very
bad. or both.
r EXPECTED him to be at his best
i against Scott in the south last
winter. It was a picture that should
have appealed to his peculiar type of
mind He was in there as a repre-
senttive Of America battling an Eng
lishman. His sense of patriotism be-
ing what it is, this should have fired
him emotionally and driven him on
to his greatest effort.
have no way Of knowing how his
emotions were affected but he fought a
clumsy. awkward. iniudicious battle
against a second rate opponent. There
was little about his performance that
could have been encouraging to his fol-
lowers or that would justify the conviction
that against more formidable opponent
he would easily win.
n n
And yet facing Schmeling he is likely
10 be an altogether different door knob.
Eut how is any one to know this in ad-
vance? True. somehow he always manages
to get down in front a winner and the
oldest maxim Of the copy book among
bettors is 10 keep stringing with the
winner. and for all his inconsistency Of
form the Boston COB has been a con-
sisteut winner. Perhaps nothing else
should matter. It certainly won't with
the boys who decide to Law their dough
against the German.
Too much stress should not be placed on
the fact that Schmeling has been stopped
a couple of times bv Wiener-Schnitzei
fighters. This would not necessarily mean
that he is easy to hit. weak jawed or an
ordinary fighter. A number of fighters
have been stopped early in their careers
only to come on later with a rush that
carried them TO the top, notably, in
modern times. Leonard. now in retire
ment. and rated one of the greatest
lightweights of all time. Sharkey himself
was boWIed over by a couple of sea weed
ohumps but that did not keep him from
advancing to what is left of the front
row of pugilism.
TINE most S p e c t a cular fight
i Schmeling has made in this
country was his knockout of Risko.
Paradoxically, it was his least i'm
uIessive fight, taking it by and
large. I mean that for the greater
part of the fight he was on the
losing side. 1t seemed certain he
would be outpointed. Under the
constant charge of Risko he was
NSaeking up and wearing one OF
those silly smiles that beaten fight /
egs effect in moments of distress
ard futility.
Suddenly out of nowhere came that
swishing right hand punch that caused
Risko to stiTen all over and go into
rigid body spin that left an unfOrgettablc
portrait on the minds of all who saw the
incident.
II might have been a lucky punch to
the extent that when and If a swinging
blow strikes a vital point on a moving
human object. all knockouts are lucky.
But that doesn't make them any less i'm
pressive or effective.
Something's effort against Pauline in a
later bout was less striking but the hard
bitten observers of the game tell you it
showed him as a real fighter. Personally,
I didn't care a great deal for it. I like
to see the big boys tumble and besides I
never did rate Pauline as high as Risko
as test of fighting formidability.