Show P CE JACK KEARNS who drew in many mill ons ens in trade WIth Jack Dempsey was explaining how tough it Is to rate and rank f Kearns and Dempsey made the greatest combination m ring history It was a tion of a smart shrewd manager the maJor master of ballyhoo and a slashIng puncher y WIth an Iron chi eM It all gets down downto downto F to the matter of styles K Kearns ear n s a sa d For example A can lick B B can cant trim C and C can murder A I don t believe Dempsey could have beaten Harry Greb when both were at theIr best for Greb had too much speed and was even I rougher than Dempsey was Yet Greb had trouble wIth such smaller fellows as TIger Flowers and sev several eral others who also had speed Against that I d say that Demp Dempsey sey scy would have had an even chance wIth Joe Louis for this one reason I he could take a punch around the head better I m of the Dempsey of Toledo 24 years old pounds of punching dynamIte who I was also fast There Isn t any matter of game gameness ness or heart mixed up m in thIS When it comes to taking a hard punch you I eIther can or you can t Some of the gamest fighters I ever knew couldn t take a punch Tough Ranking I III 11 tell you how tough It is to I rank fighters the always genIal I Doc continued I couldn t name you a greater fighter than Jack Johnson But Johnson had trouble with Sa San Langford and after their first meeting let Langford alone On the theother theother other hand Langford another great fighter met pound Jack Black Blackburn Blackburn burn seven times wIthout any great success Sam WIll even show you some teeth Blackburn knocked out You see where that leads us- us from Johnson we gh ng pounds to Blackburn weigh ng pounds and who looked that weIght when facing Langford at pounds John Johnson Johnson son and I say again that he was one of the greatest I ever saw out outweighed outweighed weighed Blackburn by some 80 pounds and yet was no better against Langford than the far lIghter and smaller man Pound for Pound What about Harry Greb at his best and Ketchel I asked Kearns Pound for pound were there any two greater Both were great Kearns said But here again you have two dif dlf different ferent styles The Greb that almost assassinated Gene Tunney and Tom Gibbons before hIs eyes went bad was a whirlwind I m not sure Ketchel as good as he was could have ever naIled hIm But if you are talking about pound for pound stars I Il II slip you youa a pair Bob FItzsImmons and MIckey Walker Don t forget that FItz weIghed in around pounds for Corbett And he be was world s champIon after that scrap MIckey Walker was not even evena a middleweight But I know of more than one world s cham champIon champion pIon he could have beaten For another example I don t be belIeve believe lIeve Joe Louis would have given Dempsey any more trouble than Mickey Walker would have gIven Jack Crazy All AU rIght But we come again agam to a matter of styles Mickey Walker would have given Dempsey aU all the trouble m in sight The Peacemaker Here s a funny story Kearns said that few know By gettIng me out of a fight for nothing I got Dempsey into fights worth millions I was having an argument in a aSan aSan San FrancIsco barroom WIth a big Swede named Hansen An ex hobo who had lost most of his bis fights was sitting In the corner all alone His name was Vas Dempsey I finallY slugged the Swede and the Swede slugged me back About that time this kId Dempsey got up took me by bythe bythe the arm and led me out The Swede had 60 pounds on me so I wasn t sore It was that night we decided to work together although my pals pais told me I was cuckoo I think the first move I made took us both to the top Dempsey had been right right- hand crazy I turned hun him into a left hand hooker by hIs right hand to hIs side and using only his left It was Dempsey s left leU that led ledon ledon on to some 10 in gate re- re receIpts re Great Lightweights There has been a rather weird scramble lately Involving mixed we Dy By this we mean the top drawing cards of the WIllie day Pep a featherweight around pounds pounds- Johnny Greco a lightweight with a adi di displacement placement of pounds Beau Jack another lightweight who can make pounds pounds-FrItzie a welterweight at pounds I don t care what they weIgh as long as the crowd wants to see em light That s a Mike Jacobs rebuttal asI I |