OCR Text |
Show HEENEY MODEST AND UNASSUMING Cannot See Why He Hasn't Chance to Beat Timney. Shaggy as ever, modest and unassuming unas-suming in the spotlight thrust upon him, Tom Heeney, New Zealand's gift to the heavyweight division, has settled set-tled down to training for his title joust with Gene Tunney in July. Today as the accepted challenger for the heavyweight crown, a modest fortune already to his credit, and a greater one ahead, Tom was just as modest about his fighting ability as when he first came over here in the hope of earning a few dollars fighting second raters. He didn't think then that he was of title caliber. Tom still has no exalted opinion of his ability, "iust a plugger," he says. "But I can't see why I haven't an even chance to whip Tunney," the New Zealander declared. "I'm just as strong and tough as he Is. Gene is no superman and we'll just be fighters in there on rather even ground when the gong rings." Straight to the St. Nicholas "gym," a low-ceilinged training parlor for the rank and file of the "racket," Heeney hustled, "to get the kinks out." He plans to work several days, rest a few more, and work again easily until time to start the grind at a regular training camp outdors. Atlantic City probably will be chosen as the site for the final six weeks of preparation for the match, tentatively set for July 2G, at the Yankee stadium. Heeney has a feeling that he trains best indoors. He will cut outdoor work to a minimum as far as possible. If let alone, Tom would do all bis work at St. Nick's, for "it was good enough for me when I started and it's good enough now." Tom trained for every fight in the winter eliminaiion series in a room that also served as the work shop for a couple dozen preliminary pre-liminary fighters. From that room he went out to battle Jack Sharkey, Johnny John-ny Risko, Jimmy Maloney and Jack Delaney, all of them favorites to beat him. None of them did. Strangely enough, neither Tunney nor Mr. Heeney ever has seen the other in action within the roped battle ground. When Gene fought Jack Dempsey in Chicago last fall, Tom was busy training for his match with Maloney. The 192G edition of the Dempsey-Tunney series found Heeney living in London on $12.50 a week because be-cause of a dullness in the leather market. It was a case of a "long time between drinks," Tom explained. |