Show THE PHE most astonishing single fac no tor connected with joe louis and his career has received only scant attention it concerns his weight when louis came to the top ol 01 the plateau a few years ago he was fighting around pounds the point was made then by this writer and many man y others that the man to beat beal louis would be a fellow named louis 1 it was well known I 1 at the time that the bombers deep inward P yearning consisted largely of two grantland rice nice elemen elemental tal details one was food and the other was sleep steak chicken or both to tog gethel ethell filled part of his daydreams after that came the deep desire for sleep or repose this combination seemed to be pointing directly at increasing weight many believed that within five years time louis would be in the puffy neighborhood of pounds or more yet when louis faced buddy baer in washington there he was again within a few ounces of in his 17 title defenses defens esIn in brae practically every fight he has known from the start louis varied his weight scale by as much as two pounds in most instances he been a pound away from his start ing displacement T rie he weight battle dempsey weighed pounds when he slaughtered jess willard against gene tunney seven years later jack was up to pounds tunney starting as a light heavyweight wel glit was always working to pack on a few pounds until he came to a mark between and jess willard weighed pounds against jack johnson in havana when he met dempsey at toledo the greatest weight shift ive known belonged to ace flu dkins who fought at and then sky rocketed after his ring career to when he went in tor for horse racing but louis goes marching along at a number that is now his official landmark there the te slightest change in his physical makeup after seven years the anaw answer r to this Is fairly simple mi mike lka jacobs and the bombers managers have kept him tod busy for any accumulation to make iny any headway in the last three thre years eyears louls louis hasl has spent the he greater part of his bis time in some training camp there is no other champion la in ring history with the money louis has collected who would have faced such a long grind most fighters hate haie training the drudgery of camp life louis has accepted the same without a squawk and this hes has been the main reason that he has kept his weight in ih full control A training angle A few days ago I 1 was talking with one of our 0 1 ur best known trainers and condition builders the biggest riA mistake stake any athlete makes he told me is getting out of condition by that I 1 mean well out of condition you can get so far out of condition in two weeks chavit that it might easily take two months to repair the damage it is so easy to get out of shape and so difficult to get back in again this aslone Is one mistake joe louis has never made I 1 doubt if lie has been far away from first class condition since ile he first came along the road against this method there was the case of jack dempsey who was out of the ring and away from action three years between the firpo and the tunney campaigns dempsey fighting once or twice a year during that period at least would have been in far better physical shape later on the measure ol of health one of the greatest combined coaches and trainers I 1 ever knew was keene fitzpatrick who gave nearly 50 years of his life to conditioning before he retired after leaving michigan keene came to princeton where he trained tiger entries in football track and crew he never missed a days work in 44 consecutive years when I 1 was over 60 years old fitzpatrick told me 1 I was in much better physical shape than many of the young athletes returning to college after a summers summer 19 vacation I 1 could actually outrun them I 1 tired tar far less than they did some of them returned to college far overweight facing a long struggle to get right again 1 I am a great believer in watch ing 69 your weight carefully keens keene added ive seen too many serious things happen to those putting on 10 20 or 40 pounds diet and exercise will take care of this keene was per cent right one answer to his idea is the case of joe louis who might easily have put on an 15 or 20 pounds but who has never e r varied more than two pounds in ais Is ring career any athlete who has to keep putting ori on and taking off weight is facing i a heavy handicap io 10 matter how good he may be |