OCR Text |
Show NTO ONE can say how long Joe ' Louis and Billy Conn will be in the army or how they will look In the ring after the war Is over, and they have traded the khaki for ring shorts. No one can come close to guessing guess-ing what new or good heavyweights i the armed forces will develop whether or not said forces will give the i game another Gene Tunney. In the meanwhile Mike Jacobs is getting get-ting along with the best he has left, which at the; moment seem to be Lee Savold and Billy Conn Cl,ksl- ! Baksl, a big,! strong, rugged fellow, game enough and pretty good puncher, has had some time in which to Iron out a few kinks and polish off number of rough spots. He was at least a. prospect when he first came along, but Just how much polishing he can absorb Is another guess. His main needs have been more speed and much more cleverness, which only come through hard work along these j two Important lines. These two ! qualities don't look up and knock, j In their last meeting Savold was much the smoother competitor, but Baksi still proved that he had certain cer-tain possibilities that could be carried car-ried much further with any touch of smartness or ambition. About Louis and Conn Joe Louis and Billy Conn still have some time on ahead in which to retain re-tain a good part of their stuff. After all, Bob Fitzsimmons was 33 years old when he knocked out Jim Corbett at Carson City. Fltz, with a pair of shattered hands, was still good at the age of 40. Corbett was close to 34 when he carried Jim Jeffries Jeff-ries Into the 23rd round at Coney Island. It will be several years before be-fore Louis and Conn are as old as Fitz and Corbett were In two of their greatest fights. The point has been made that army life won't be any great help to either. I disagree with this angle. Army life, in the matter of keeping keep-ing physically fit, Is sure to be better than civilian life. I know Louis has been boxing In army shows for the last two years. He Is over his old fighting weight by some eight pounds, maybe ten pounds, but that will be easy to take off. Louis never gets far off the proper road. The primrose trail has never appealed to him. Outside of Gene Tunney, I'd say that Louis has kept In better shape, year after year, than any fighter I've known. Certainly old 1 Ruby Roberts, winning the title at 35, was no stickler for the stralght-and-narrow path. Louis won't be as fast as he was a few years ago. But he will still have most of bis punching power and most of his ring skill. He will keep most of his ring Instinct. Ills reflexes won't be quite as rapid, bat they wlU still do In a pinch. After all. Jack Dempsey had a three-year rest between his Flrpo and Tunney contests, without an intervening fight. Jack, In this long layoff, did nothing like the ring work Joe I.ouls has been doing in the army. He was in nothing like the same shape that Louis Is today, and will be for two or three years more. My guess would be that Louis at 34 or 33 will stiU be something to beat. Have Some Years Left Billy Conn is harder to guess. Not so much has been heard about his army life or his army work. But Conn, younger and faster than t Louis, a better all-around boxer, should have the same chance to finish fin-ish the war as a first class rlngman. Conn could always afford to put on a few pounds without losing any speed. I hear that he Is now up around 183 pounds. It would be no trouble to boll this down to 180, which should be his more effective weight. The Pittsburgh entry has an amazing amount of vitality and too much courage for his own good especially when he meets a Louis. Conn is another who should be a first-class heavyweight at 34 or 35, provided he takes any care of himself him-self on the physical side. Both Louis add Conn have more than one or two years to go, before starting downhill at any rapid pace. Just how long the war will last-Just last-Just how long they will be kept In service is anybody's wobbling guess. American League Race I asked a group of Yankees how they figured the race, leaving the Yankees out of the argument "Washington," one said. "Probably j the best balanced team in our league, j Should run 1-2 sure." I "Detroit," another added. "Better pitching, day In and day out." There was vote for the White Sox and a vote for the Browns. "But any club that loses one or two good men to the draft will be in a bad way," another added. |