Evening star., 1937-06-18
N0F|RE, CERTAINTY
SHOWN BY BOMBER
Old Spark Apparently Gone
From Heavy Challenger,
Ex-Champ Ayers.
BY JACK DEMPSEY.
. H1CAGO, June 18-Joe Louis
is lacking sadly in aggressive
ness and certainty, two very

is lacking sadly in aggressive
ness and certainty, two very
important things for chal-
1enger to have. Call it the old killer
instinct" if you want to, but by any
other name it's the same. He carries
his laziness too far in the ring.
What the boys have been saying
about him is true, he doesn't look
anywhere near as good as he did when
he was training for Baer, Carnera,
etc. The almost impudent, confident
certainty he showed in those days has
been replaced by sort of uncertainty,
which makes him hesitant about
tossing the wallops he used to hurl
At his sparring partners.
He gets in the ring and waits. He
tails for feints. and he still is too
Easy to hit with a right-hand clout
TO the jaw. The boy doesn't seem
able to get away from a fast right
handler. Looking him over in his
training bouts, I'm forced to the con-
clusion that either he is too Slow
witted to do what he ought to do, or
else hes Stalling. But Stalling for
what? A betting coup? I can't swal-
low that one.
TOO Many Cooks" for Louis.
THERE'S a possibility that there
have been too many cooks" in
Joe's camp. Back in his early days in
the limelight, Joe had only Jack
Blackburn as his trainer and mentor.
All he had to listen to was Jack. John
scarborough and Julian Black, his CO.
managers gave Blackburn a free hand
IN training the fighter. They realized
they didn't know enough about the
game to instruct him.
Now-well. they tell me John and
Julian are experts" Time was when
Blackburn applied the homely rem
edies OF the training camp to minor
injuries; now a doctor takes over
whenever one of Joe's eyebrows be-
comes mussed
All this must be irksome to the
pnlegmatlc fellow who was not used
TO being coddled. Without knowing
1t. they've been softening up their
man.
Again, they tell me Joe has been
learning new things. But to quote
the irresponsible Mushky jackson,
kings jester at the camp, Louis kin
90 ony one ting alta time; he's gotta
either fight or tink; he can't do bot
at once. Wen he wuz f1ghtin' he was
1ghtin'; but when he is t'inkin' he is
tinkin."
One difference I noted between
Louis sparring bouts and those of
Braddock is that Joe always seems
trying against his opponent, whereas
braddock quite apparently is not
1t least, not always. Louis seems
wary, and when the sparring part
ners hit him, it is or their merit.
Old Spark Gone.
SOMETHING seems to have left
Louis. The old spark seems gone
He hasn't the zip he showed formerly
IN training sessions for other fights.
! can't help thinking what Benny
Leonard once said, that marriage
makes fighter a better man, but it
~-NsS b" AAioAA 4l6uCCl.
Also, wonder just how much the
beating by Schmeling took out of
Louis!
Joe today has all the faults that
Max Schmeling discovered in him,
ano ne has not all the merits he
had before the fight with Max. That's
. cinch. AS to his physical condition,
Louis doesn't look as good to me as
he did before the Schmeling fight.
He carries a plumpness in the thighs
that he could do better without His
handlers appear to think he is a bit
nne, and has been for some time.
Louis is more talkative-if you
can use that expression about him
than he used to be. The boy is no
Jack Sharkey, by any means, but he
will now and then make a SALLY to
one OF the sport writers without being
spoken to first. A year ago he was
what the writing lads call 'laconic."
Not long ago one of the doctors who
examined Louis pointed out that he
had an extremely low heart beat.
Seems to me recall that Battling
Nelson, the one time Durable Dane
lightweight champion, also had a
very low heart beat. But l don't
think Joe Louis is Durable Dane
In spite Of this low heart beat.
Stamina Is Questionable.
/ OUIS certainly is not ratified
easily, and was surprised to see
him fall for feint," as the late Jim
Corbett put it; this means a fighter
throws up his guard to ward off q
punch when his opponent merely
feints at him.
Louis wind is good, his timing is
fair. but doesn't seem to me as sharp
as it was, and his judgment of dis
tance is on par with his timing. He
does not put the snap into his punches
that he formerly showed and he has
lost some of his supreme confidence
md certainty.
To sum up, Louis hasn't got any,
thing. apparently. on Braddock when