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Show DILLON'S CHANCES FOR BEATING TOD BETfEH TIN MOM'S B Jack Know Little Tricks Enabling Boxer to Get Inside Larger H Man's Guard Monty Thinks Dillon Would Have Bet- B ter Chance to Beat Willard Than Moran. H By MONTY.) 1 B New York, April 1. The week in- H tervening since Jess Willard defended H his championship successfully against H the assault of Frank Moron has been H filled with talk of various sorts, most H of which is intended to prove that B Willard Is a fit person to own the fl title. It is not necessary to prove that by talk. Jess proved It himself by his actions In the ring. Ho demonstrated demon-strated so completely and so conclusively conclu-sively his superiority over Moran that there can remain -no argument in rebuttal re-buttal except by those partisans of the Pittsburg blonde who are biased by friendly feeling for him. A few things have been said about Jack Dillon, the Indianapolis giant killer, considering his chances In a bout with the champion. In our mind, it is highly importable that Dillon could do any better than Moran against the champion. He has one fact in his favor, however, that has been overlooked 'by almost everybody, a tiling that we regard as the most important im-portant factor of all in weighing bis prospects. Jack Dillon's entire ring career has been a series of efforts to break through the guard of men who greater height and range than his. When Moran met Willard he faced the longer reach problem for the first time in his life. With the exception of Jaok Johnson, every man Moran met had a shorter reach than he and Johnson's was exactly the same as Pittsburg Frank's. Thus, having been trained In the knack of using his own great reach as an asset, Moran had to fight a brand of new kind of battle when he mot Willard. He exhibited some of his usual ring generalship against the champion but displayed none of the little tricks so useful In enabling a boxer to get inside a larger man's guard. Jack Dillon knows all those little tricks. Having proved his ability to reach the jaw of such taller men as Tom Cowler and Charley Weinert, would Dillon be able to employ the same tactics tac-tics successfully to find the vulnerable parts of a man with five Inches more reach? That is almost the sole question. ques-tion. Dillon would not have to vary his strategy one whit If he faced Willard The Identical methods employed against other tall fellows he has beaten beat-en would be adpatable for a struggle wit hthe champion. The giant killer might look ridiculously small In the same ring with Willard. Yet we really believe he would stand a bettor chance to worry the champion than Moran did. With the possible exception of dusky Joe Walcott, we don't believe there was ever a man in the history of the ring so skillful at punishing a much taller opponent. It is even possible that Dillon would have a better chance to boa.. Willard than he would to beat Moran From Wlllard's standpoint, the champion cham-pion would bo fighting the same stylo of fight that he did against Moran and in a general way would offer practically practical-ly the samo amount of effectiveness. He would have the reach on both opponents op-ponents and therefore would fight them both in the same way. From Moran's standpoint, the thing is different. dif-ferent. Opposed to Willard, the Pitts-burger Pitts-burger was mediocre because ho had to try something he knew nothing about. Opposed to Dillon, Moran could fight the style of fight he knows and would bo much more effective generally. gen-erally. Thus, though Dillon should manage to beat Willard, he might be licked by Moran. That eventuality would give us one of those merry-go-raund affairs such as the Walcott-Lavigne-Kid Carter situation of nearly twenty years ngo. Lavign could bet Walcott, Wal-cott, the latter could slaughter Carter Car-ter and Carter in turn could thrash Lavlgne. These three never could settle any defnito qusetion of supremacy supre-macy among them. Wouldn't it be delightful, for the sake of ring history, If such a "three-cornered tie" should result here? Leavfntr nosslblHtifls nsirln and plunging directly Into "ifs" that are probable, we see no real likelihood that Dillon, even with the reach argument argu-ment In his favor, or anybody else will beat Willard for some time to come. The Kansas giant Is so good that he can stay champion just about as long as he wishes, according to our view. Two years ago, when we saw him in his first really good fight, against Soldier Kearns In Madison Square Garden, we went about telling friends-"That friends-"That fellow is a coming champion, sure. If he is handled right and gets a decent chance to learn the fine points of the game, he will become one of the greatest fighters that ever stepped Into a ring.' When Jess was matched with Jack Johnson, we disregarded the advice of older fight followers who said: "Don't be foolish, boy, and write that as your opinion. Either lay off the forecasts or say you think Johnson will win." Having seen both in action half a dozen times and knowing of the fact that the negro had deteriorated, we had our own opinion and proceeded to pen it, to tho effect that Willard would outlast Johnson and then knock him out somewhere after the twentieth twen-tieth round. It took him twenty-six rounds to do it, but ho did it all right. JuBt previous to the Moran match we declared that Jess had the better chance to land a knockout, but regarded re-garded a knockout as improbable. The most likely result was a victory of ten rounds, according to our forecast. That is just what occurred, though it is regarded now as almost certain that Willard would have knooked out Moran If ho hadn't broken his light Index finger in the second round and had to go it almost one-handed the rest of tho way. With the Moran obstacle passed over, wo wish to state the positive opinion that Willard will beat anybody any-body ho meets during tho next flvo years, and maybe within the next ten, if he decides to stick to the ring that long. Jess Is a clean liver and should retain his vitality for a protracted spell. Outside of Dillon, we think Jess can knock out anyone of the present heavyweights within five rounds if he tries to, and wo think he will stop Moran that quickly too, if they meet again and the champion doesn't suffer any broken bones. Jess Willard is a real champion. cn . |