Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-02
Speed Figures 10 Give
Billy Edge in Short,
'SociabIe' Battle
Might Hand Champion
A Much PubIicized
Boxing Lesson
BY JOHN LARDNER,
4periaI Correspondent of The StaY

NEW YORK. Jan. / tNANA).-
Army camp routine is pretty much
the same everywhere. which makes
1t doubtful that Sergt. Billy Conn
Is getting up any earlier in the
morning than Sergt. Joe Louis.
Nevertheless. Sergt. Louis cannot
afford to linger a moment too long
In the hay these days, for Sergt.
Conn, his principal rival in civilian
life, obviously is In the state of
mind which comes, according to
Sanskrit philosophy, from rising
early.
In short. Sergt. Conn is sharp.
He is missing no bets.
Willie recently was made boxing
instructor of his outfit. and his
first meet was to propose a boxing
meet between his champ and Louis
camp, with Joseph and William to
meet in the heavyweight event.
my motives are pure as a
baby's," said Sergt. Conn. 1T
would be pleasure to fight Joe
in a nice, clean, sociable entertain
ment, for no dough"
Billy Figures Shrewdly.
am not sure just what baby
William had in mind. in describ-
ing his motives. but it must have
been a pretty shrewd infant.
In a sociable Army boxing meet.
bouts would be limited to a brief
number Of rounds. Speed would be
ut a premium, and the chances are
that Conn would outpoint and
tantalize the champion and give
him widely publicized boxing les
son. There is no end to the ad-
vantages which William might de-
rive from the meeting he suggests
It's true that the Pittsburgh
flash is known as slow starter, but
this calculation is highly relative.
Conn may be faster in the fourth
round of long fight than in the
first round, but he Is exceedingly
fast in the first round-and where
the distance of the bout is short,
he will generate all the speed that
one man can comfortably use.
Louis has some quick knockouts to
his credit, but not against swift and
confident artists like Willie. Also,
at the moment, Conn is much closer
to his best ring condition than
Louis.
On the whole. I am afraid that
William has been guilty of thinking
shrewd thoughts in his spare time.
The bout is not likely to materiallze
during the war. but If Conn could
make it come off he would be pur-
suing a strategy which has worked
very we'll now and then in the past.
Corbett Spared With John L.
You'll remember that James j.
Corbett, another quick man with an
idea, once spared briefly with John
L. Sullivan when the Boston strong
boy, still champion, was making
stage appearance in Corbett's home
town of San Francisco. Mr.. Corbett
used to tell all kinds of stories about
the information he cleaned from this
encounter. and the profound psyche
logical benefits he drew from 1t.
Mr.. Corbett was inclined to ex-
aegerate sometimes, in his memoirs,
and l doubt if he made much more
impression on Sullivan that evening
than he did on the spectators, who
do not recall any startling develop
ments. Still if Corbett felt good
about it, why should any one else
complain? He said it helped him
later, when he took the title from
Sullivan, and probably it did,
Jim Jeffries was a sparring part
ner of Corbett's some years before
he scored two knockdoWns against
the gentlemanly Californian. Gene
Tunney once spared with Dempsey,
when Dempsey was champion. Max
Baer did not box officially with
Primo Camera before their title
fight. but he did spend considerable
time in Primo's company with and
without gloves. and took the oppor-
tunity to exercise some characteristic
Baer psychology.
Max Got Cameras Number.
This was during the filming of the
motion picture, The Prizefighter
and the Lady" in which Max and
Primo appeared together. They had
4 film fight. and between shots Mr..
Baer used to wire Signor Cameras
chair and give him hotfoots and
otherwise keep him entertained.
The psychology was terrific" said
Mr.. Baer later. Il had Primo's
number from there on"
It's true that Sergt. Conn's case
differs from all these in the fact that
he already has had real fight with
Sergt. Louis. He probably knows
all he'll ever know But do Louis
and the public know he knows?
Sergt. Conn UNDERSTANDABLE is eager
to distribute few samples, with
malice aforethought, and if the plot
humanity and militarily is possible,
Sergt. Conn will bring it off.