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Show Rivals Confident 2 As Battle Nearsl Ex-Champion In Readiness For Fray; Plates Reliance In ''Iron Mike" to Win; "Gene Must Be Brittle" ii joi; WIIJJAMS CIlICAdu, Sept. 20. "I can still hit t-iiuiili to kiiiM-k out any imiu I hii." 'J'liis was .liick Dcinpsf.v's answer hi mi' Unlay when I asked him if he I n.Miiiiht he euiihl win the title baek i'loni .Mr. (jene Tunney, the social linn (if the gold coast, this week-in the Hal tic of the Don.h. 'J'he answer was also significant of the manner ot t'U'ht ho intends to w'a,i,'e iainst the present cham-1 cham-1 lion --he is t-'nin in for a knockout, knock-out, come wliat may, and how. Always After Kay ol that this is surprising. Demn-sey Demn-sey has always jjone in to win hy a knockout. This characteristic ; pari ially exiilains his tremendons hold on the fi.u'ht public. lie has always been the minifi-cent minifi-cent junblei- of the rinis, sinashinff, slashing onrnshini; fighter, haliit-ually haliit-ually willim; to take a punch on the beezer in order to counter with a death-dealing punch. "You ought, to know I was in bad shape for that fight," Dempsey reminded. re-minded. "You wrote a story last winter that I hud lost ten pounds 'sitting in a corner' before the fight. That was the truth, I denied it then beca use I didn't want anybody to think I was making an alibi. "I weighed j!M pounds Sunday before the fight. That was the last day I did nn.v training. "When I came into the ring I weighed ISO, no more, and possibly a little less. Idon't know where the weight went, luit it went." Privately Dempsey thinks his nerves finally cracked under the strain a strain occasioned by the many legal difficulties with which he was beset and a growing realization realiza-tion that he was below par fistic-ally. fistic-ally. "For the first time in my life I began lo worry about) winning," cont inued Dempsey. "In all my other fights I just went about the routine business of getting into shape, determined to he ready and hopeful of the best. But never did I find myself wondering if I was going to win or lose. . "A couple of days before the fight I read a headline in some newspaper news-paper "Tunney 'a Youth and Stamina Stam-ina May Beat Champ.' Vsually I don't pay so much attention to what is in the newspapers. But somehow or other, I couldn't seem to get away from that one. Began To ('rack "Looking back now, I know what i was wrong. I was beginning to crack, I was getting edgy. Sub-i Sub-i consciously I was beginning to feel that maybe I might not be champion cham-pion after this fight. Still on the day of the fight, I was more like myself, and when the gong sounded I was thinking of nothing beyond getting over a haymaker as soon as possible." I asked Dempsey if he honestly felt he could break through Mr. Ttmney's fine defense with a finishing finish-ing punch. fa Tunney Prepares for Savage Body Attack Which IJested Sharkey; Training Program Nr Of Champ Gets Criticism 1IV IIKMiV L. 1 AKiiKLL CHICAGO, .Sept. 20. (I'L'). OeliO .. Tunnev, to hear the talk around his 1 ') training camp, is a dead cinch to win from Jack Dempsey when they meet for the second time here ,. Thursday night for the world's J' hea vy weight cba nipionsltip. '. "Cene is a dead cinch to win. He can't miss," Bill Cibson, one of his li; board of directors says "and he'll ft knock -Denipscy out in five rounds." I ( hump Siirpcinely Confident That, o-f course, is optimistic chal- ' ler. It hardly could he expected U that the boys around Tunney would even whisper that his chances were j doubt ful and t heir confidence no ' doubt is regulated by the supreme M confidence of the champion. He it surely lias that if he has nothing iU Hse. j ' Giving ear to the conversation on the street, it can be learned that Tunney has many supporters al-0? al-0? though Chicago is a red-hot Dcmp- ;i, sey town, but there are very few - who have enough faith in the cham pion to figure that he lias any kind of a cinch ahead of him. There is plenty of respect for the danger of Ihe I enipsey punch. Comparing Ihe two fighters as they approach the return match and as hey were last year at this lime, II Tunney has a few advantages. He certainly has more confidence than he had last year. I Tunney has been belillled at times P because he won the ridiculed into a V, rash attempt to vindicate himself. f There can be no doubt that he will j. win by a knockout if lie can, but ' otherwise he will be pleased to ac- cept a victory as it may come lo l Tunnry Is Larger , Tunney may be a little larger than he was last year. lie looks heavier around the shoulders but. II weight is not much of an advantage t; agn inst 1 ompsey as a few pounds j- do not mean a big increase in punching punch-ing power. Tunney has been a no- i' torijius "puncher although he is a damaging hitter. ' ; Tin- champion is in good physical I condition but his fighting form ean- not be judged until the bout is fin- ished Thursday night. His train- : lug program has been criticized and f for all he says about the continuous boxing and training he has been i doing for more than a year he pro- ; liably will find that he would have li been better off if lie had had a , fight, or two under his belt. j Tunney has been boxing a lot, of i ' course, ttul he hasn't corrected one , serious glaring fault, lie doesn't know how to handle himself on the ropes. And anyone who has seen y , Dempsey in action knows what he j can do when he gets his man on the ropes. 8 The Tunney camp expects nothing ( but a body attack from Dempsey t but the former champion can hit ' ' around the head very effectively as ) he demonstrated in the first round t of his fight with Jess AYillard. e "I've it more tb;in an outside ehuiK-e, anywuy,'' he answered. "Tunney admits I almost stopiK'd him last year, not once but twice. He .says the punch I hit hiui iu the neck in the fourth round, took his voice away for three days, and he says I lilt him with a right hand that paralyzed his left arm in the same round. "I was terrible last year. If I was aide to hurt him then, I ought to be able to knock him out this year." "Why didn't you follow 'those punches up?" I asked. Dempsey's answer was interesting and typical of the simple candor of the man. "Say, I didn't even know I had hurt him. I didn't think I was hitting hit-ting hard enough to break a piece of Molba toast." With this a halt smile broke across Dempsey's mouth. "This Tunney must be kinda brittle, brit-tle, ain't he " |