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Show anyone) mentions "gain- bit" in connection with the various va-rious Joe Louis ring enterprises, the responding answer is likely to be in the nature of a hoarse guffaw. The Bomber Is usually a 1-10 shot, or even shorter, which leans more tnj the sure thing direction than any gamble. Yet the gamble is still there in, this uncertain world. I The Louis crown is worth around'1 $3,000,000 as long as Louis wears' M. In his last start against Abe Simon ?Vl in the Detroit show : f Nj the champion raked t - 3 in a trifle under I ,j $20,000. So he was i gambling a $3,000. i t 000 title against a $-0,000 collection. V,' j with the odds at Zjk j 1-150, a price few r1 ' would care to offer JS".' - Sf in anv form of com-V,fetition. com-V,fetition. Grantland Rice No one rated SI- j mon with a chance to whip Louis.' But In taking numerous whacks and! smashes at Abe's granite chin, sup-, pose Louis had cracked one or both paws? This can happen to any puncher' at any given moment. Both Demp-sey Demp-sey and Louis carried iron fists into' action, where more than a few good fighters have been harried or wrecked by brittle hands. i When you are leveling against a: Simon ja-w, hooked to 255 pounds oi human fiesh and bone, only a pair! of tough hands can stand the test, j Fighting Hands j Jim Corbett once told me that in his earlier days he was a good: puncher. j 'I decided to go out for boxing,"' he said, '"for two reasons. One was the speed I had in my legs. The other was to save my hands." j Gene Tunney had early hand trou- j ble, one of the reasons he concen-; trated on boxing ir. ' f. place of the knock-1 ' fVi,"'"'?'! In his second start ;i . against Jim Jef- 1 1 fries. Bob Fitzsim- r."".- '-"T.,! mons might have I won if he hadn't '-aVSS smashed both hands J V"V;' i.M 'I on the Jeffries jaw- i ' i.'-.-." bone. They were J shattered down to tmi -' : --J the lower knuckles. I Gene Tunney More ttan a few rather important fights have been lost by broken hands. Louis is one of the few fighters cn record who can punch equally hard with both hands. This explains more than 80 per cent of his effectiveness. effec-tiveness. If either fin should crack up his assaulting powers would be cut down heavily. Both Tom Gibbons and Gene Tunney Tun-ney knew the way to keep on guard "against Dempsey's blasting left hook. Jack's right was nothing like the Louis right. So when Louis is swinging away with any two-handed attack he is always taking a double risk against a concrete head or cement chin. He confessed to a pair of sore hands after the Simon party. Another Angle It is also a matter of judgment as to how long anyone can keep at lazoredge working . as often as the f-sj Bomber does. No v,-:.-i;'S other heavyweight Asf champion ever took jf , i any such gamble. jS ' ,.- j Fortunately for Louis, he hasn't the I ' . & ' type of imagination -4 that keeps him keyed up. j sfT But long training i i -periods can remove a big part of the T . .l. . , Joe Louis ... keenness that fol- lows long resting spans. There is a touch of drudgery to training that most fighters either dread or dislike intensely. Mickey Walker and Benny Ben-ny Leonard, two of the best, were always below par in their training. The wonder is that Louis, with all the cash he has piled np, is still willing to face the grind. He will have practically no recess from now until late September this campaign on top of 15 defensive stands. It is easy to understand Mike Jacobs' Ja-cobs' big rush. The answer js the draft. Both Louis and Billy Conn are not so many strides away, and the odds against their going to an army camp will be considerably lower before the summer is over. Draft numbers that were once in the tree-tops have now fallen to the lower limbs. And they are falling faster every week. No one knows this better than Mike and those handling the desti- nies of most of the leading challengers. chal-lengers. Time, tide and the draft wait for no one and beyond early summer the shore line of all sport is thick with fogs and gathering mists. As the matter now stands Jacobs has arranged four starts for Louis in the next six months May, June, July and September. This will leave Louis facing his twentieth defense of the main crown if he slips safely safe-ly through them all if there is someone some-one around for him to fight. |