Show f dI LE H RG AV E o OF R REDS DS LEAD BEADS AL ALL c IN TW TWO M MAJOR JOR LOOPS Champion Still Stil Plenty a Fast in i the Roped Ri Rind g By Robert Edgren In New ew York Jack Dempsey is regarded as a sort of a mystery Wherever Jack has spent much of his time the local foll followers of sport know all about him but New York is still guessing Some of th the tha critics even even refer to Dempsey as having become fat and slow Not that they've seen him at work or have seen him stripped or cr r have hava seen him mat at all They know that I seen him mat at all They know that Dempsey hasn't fought for abo about t three years and judging him by previous champions they consider It a logical logical- deduction that he must be foe fat tat and slow Didn't old John L L. Sullivan put on a tremendous lot lotof of fat of between fights in much less than three years And didn't Jim rIm JE Jeffries go uj up U from 24 to pounds when out of action for six years Ive I've seen Dempsey at Intervals all through his three years of inaction and I can assure the world that Whatever else Dempsey Is hes he's n neither fat nor slow Not a bit fat tat and not a bit slow stow Dempsey is a avery avery very unusual person Other fighters haye have to be driven into training by bythe bythe bythe the urgent necessity for attaining Some Mme sort of fighting condition I Dempsey trains all the time because he loves training likes the thel hard sweating workouts abhors fat and flabby flesh and takes pride in keeping himself straight and trim II and fit Jack Dempsey would woul l almost prefer prefer prefer pre pre- fer losing a leg to gaining three Inches around the A man can lose a leg through accident he argues but anyone who grows fat tat and gross ross has only his own laziness to blame Dempsey isn't lazy He HeIs Heis Is 16 so full of energy that he cant can't keep still sUIl a minute He moves around more In a day than anyone I ever saw On a hunting trip Inthe in inthe inthe the mountains he never stops Hes He's I hiking galloping his horse carrying a pack running down to some stream with a trout rod climbing a steep hill to see if he can cap find game gameon on the other side riding up ravines and coming down over the ridges away from the trail restless movIng moving moving ing Incessantly In town hes he's Just the same He doesn't know how to rest Just sitting down quietly t tires re him Hes He's never happy unless hes he's mo moving n nTh Th That t kind of Ot a man doesn't grow fat And he doesn't slow up tip be because because because be- be cause he doesn't get out of condi condi- tion A normal man doesn't lose his speed under 40 years yeans of age 1 I I know athletes who have shown very little loss of ot speed up to 60 LIKES ROUGH SPARRING PARTNERS I spent part of last ast winter in Los Angeles Dempsey was there One morning I met him at the Br Breakfast club This is an organization of ot business men who meet in the hilts hills a above bove Holl Hollywood w od at daylight ride horses horBes over the hills and along the country roads have breakfast in the open air ah at and go to their business later I was told by several gentlemen that Dempsey Demps was a very active member that it was his custom custom custom cus cus- tom to go for a hike and a run over the hills every morning at daybreak finish with a a horseback ride and have his breakfast at t the club with the bunch before going back to town Any athlete who lives that way by choice when not in active training Isn't going to grow fat tat or get very much out of ot condition The only question about Dempsey's Dempsey's Demp- Demp sey's fighting fitness when he fights again is Just how good his Judgment of time and distance will willbe willbe be after such a long absence from the ring Its It's generally thought that thata a lighter fighter must fight tight often to keep the knack of fighting A training bout isn't quite like a real contest There Isn't the same danger of or tIring tiring firing or of leaving a chance opening opening opening open open- ing for a losIng punch or the same Judgment used in using the methods that win However Dempsey's exhibition boxing is almost like fighting H Ho usually usually gets gets as tough sparring partners part pal ners as he can find and tells them to fight But of course ourse he cant can't get really good men The good men can mike mke much more money in III the ring and they arent aren't going to let any Dempsey knock all the fight out of t I them In training bouts The men who work long with Dempsey seldom seldom seldom sel sel- dom do much in hi th the ring afterward Another thing that keeps Dempsey dissipation fit is Js the avoidance of all tion No other heavyweight ghani pion plan ever eve lived as car carefully not carefully fully n f even Bob Fitzsimmons who liked JJ Jl n few bottles of wine now and then when not In training for a tight fight Dempsey never drank o or smoked d. d He wont won't touch hard liquor under any clr circumstances even circumstances um t even even as medi meUI- cine I once w went nt to a dinner given by Dempse Dempsey to a number of newspaper newspaper newspaper news news- paper writers rs One of the boys pro pr produced pro o. o a bottle at Dempsey's table and called for glasses and cracked ice lee hiding the bottle under the table Dempsey immediately told him to get the bottle away from his table He finished his dinner hurriedly paid the check and left the party part When we e stepped outside Dempsey drew a long breath turned and said Can you Imagine that fellow doing that to me H He knows I never drink and wont won't have it Jt around He knows there are always people just waiting waiting wait walt ing for a chance to roast me Suppose Suppose Suppose Sup Sup- pose some some prohibition agent had seen him with that bottle bottler Can you imagine the newspaper headlines next morning f 1 can see them Jack Dempsey arrested at drunken party bootleg party bootleg liquor found under champions champion's table What A panning Id I'd get all over the country Dempsey never did fight without doing a lot of ot hard training framing and getting getting getting get get- ting Into as good condition as he could After Atter the Firpo fight Dempsey said to me I 1 was out from the legs up through that first round I dont don't know yet how FIrpo hit me but I was out as far as my head Is concerned and nd only my good legs carried me around and my arms in instinctively instinctively instinctively in- in tried to keep on fighting I hardly remember anything about what happened until I got the smelling smell smell- ing salts after the round and m my head cleared I won the fight be because because because be- be cause I did two months of roadwork before I put In the finishing work boxing and my legs were great If 11 Firpo had done the roadwork I did If if hed he'd had my legs legs legs-I I wouldn't have kept knocking him down w w. when enI en enI I was halt half out myself and he would have have finished finished me It pa pays s to work That's Dempsey's philosophy It pays pars to work He has been workIng working work- work In Ing several months now in different parts of ot the country and making what money he can by using his workouts for exhibition purposes purpose I think theres there's very little doubt that when September comes Ja Jack k Dempsey Dempsey Dempsey Demp Demp- sey will be quite fit to fight tight any any- body He certainly will not be so 80 fat and slow that Harry Harty Wills canhit can canhit canhit hit him him it If Its It's Wills And if It its it's Tunney it will be a lightning fut fast fight while it lasts In either c case se theres there's no chance for a fl fight ht Dempsey has been content to carry a man along to a decision only twice once with once nee with Tom Gibbons There There's no doubt that 1 it ithe I he fights tights Wills hell he'll try to win in tit 1 a around around around round and If a round passes to win as quickly thereafter as possible He may be a little more deliberate with Tunney Tunney-as Tunney as he was with Carpentier Copyright 1926 by the Bell Syndicate Syndicate Syn Syn- Inc |