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Show jj. . He Looms Among Heavy Contenders - ' 1 mA$, A A : -A . 'r piiM7JAr- ' A -A zfAb; m'MAA ' : . - iAs -riCfxk h:: Zfr - A ' ' ' kwwsnVJP Ah. ,, , " 'ij 1 i ' " - iP':"--'&---i;v'-'--'- :. .'r: THE WORST VJis ' " " Sharkey Possesses Great Supply of Self-Confidencel Former Gob Claims All Fighters, Except Mr. Sharkey, Esquire, Are Merely Tramps stomach. Sharkey trained down to US 7 pounds, pot. a return match with Iti'cord, ami when the bell sounded, walked out w ith his hands held over his head inviting liecord to hit him ia the stomach. This time tbe punches had no effect and Sharkey weal iai to win by a knockout. This is mentioned by way of showing show-ing further what (itaint pecuhtri-lies pecuhtri-lies marl; the young man's mental makeup. I luce Sharkey was knocked out. lloniero Kojas. the Chilean, put him away. This was in the sixth professional pro-fessional light Sharkey had, and it came at a time when tbe belligerent belliger-ent Chili bean was fighting at his i.esf. Sharkey has an explanation for that knockout. "I bad just got married. We needed the money to buy a new living-room set. I cut the honeymoon short, went in and foitpiil: llojas. and took a pasting. I'.ul we still have that living room et and il's a pip." says be. Johnson-Swing By JOE WILLIAMS NEW YORK, Nov. 29 Mr. Gene Tunney, the new heavyweight champion, cham-pion, sieaks glibly of the "will to win" and the powerful psychology attached thereto. This reminds me of Mr. , Jack Sharkey, the loquacious Lithuanian of Kovo on the one side, and Boston Bos-ton ou the other. Mr. Sharkey, whose real name happens to lie Josef Paul Cueoskey. has this '"will to win" quality developed devel-oped the highest possible degree. Conceited K-ugg In the old days when the fight racket was in the hands of vulgarians, vulgar-ians, you might have said that Mr. Sharkey was nothing nio-e nor less than a conceited niugg, but those days npjiarently are gone forever. Before he stepped into the ring r.n. u;.- rt.ri,f n.;o. i.r........ ie:u.- . gularly enough it was against a negro a 2llil-po!tui!er who had roughed him around on dei k. In accordance with Ihe ani-'e.-d navy custom a duel with the eiitts fui-lowed fui-lowed and Sharkey, weighing around 1 tJO. won. From that time on be was a fishier. IK; was beaten only outre in the navy. Biff Crowley, heavyweight heavy-weight champion of tbe Atlantic' fleet, outpointing him. One of his first, professional fights was against Eddie Record, who beat him. Sharkey weighed 2I'2 pounds, was hog fat. and out of shape. Record l it him Pi the stomach and knocked him down. Tra.bis To Weight This incident led lo tlc ,..H..f " Sharkey could not take it in the Sharkey announced to all and sundry sun-dry i hut he intended to luiock the Seuesnnibiau for a row of revolving butter tuhs. "He's just a tramp," thundered Mr. Sharkey. These words were uttered in the office of Billy Gibson, who is known to the trade as the business manager of Mi1. Tunney. '"Xow don't say that, Sharkey," pleaded Gibson. "I don't think Wills is a great fighter, but he is not hat bad. I'd like to see you win this' fi-ht, but you never will win it with that kind of attitude." "I still maintain he's a tramp," repealed Mr. Sharkey. It is a matter of comparatively recent history that Mr. Sharkey succecdod in verifying his estimate of AVills to the complete satisfaction satisfac-tion and astonishment of the world at large, handing the veteran negro the worst messing around ho ever has endured. 1 1 After the fight Mr. Sharkey turned turn-ed to the gentiomen of the press and said: "Now bring on that leatherneck. leather-neck. There never was a sailor that couldn't whip a marine." Melancholy Ueticence If these incidents fail to give an insight into the melancholy reticence retic-ence of the 24-year-old battler. J need only mention that in a subsequent subse-quent discussion of old champions. Mr. Sharkey, on hearing a veteran glow over the abilities uf Jim Jeffries, Jeff-ries, cut in with this : "Who ever told you that guy could fight? lie was a tramp, too." I don't know whether this attitude atti-tude fits accurately under the heading head-ing of Mr. Tunney's celebrated ''will to win." I do know, however, that never saw anybody in the fight tucket, or out of it, for that matter, mat-ter, who possessed such a sublime faith in his own prowess as this ex-sailor. YYatehuig him against Wills I was impressed more by his enthusiasm tor throw ins fists than tbe skill or oower with which he threw them. I tlwmght he looked good largely because be-cause Wills looked terrible. I came away from the fight with Ihe notion that Mr. Sharkey would j be easy for Tunney a nd u h-u for Jack iH'hine.v. lr didn't strike me ' that he bits hard enouuh to keep a 1 ormhlable foenuin away for any , great length of time. Against such I ighters Messrs. Tunney and J e- : hiney are sure shots. Mr. Nharkoy is a product of the j navy. His first gluv-o fkht was mill the batt.eiip North Carolina. Sin- 1 |