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Show FRENCH CHAMPION TFLLS : WHY HE WILL WIN FROM BECKETT IN COMING TILT By CEORGES CARPENTIER London, Nov. 12 After all that has been said in England, in Paris, in America, thai 1 would wrk;ftle out of the ficht wiili Joe Beckett, it has all been so yerj amusing, perhaps now 'and then annoying, for there was a suggestion that I was timid, afraid, i you friends of mine, will I hope, be lieve me that I have begun to train harder and with more earnestness than I have ever done in my life Training Hard. For nearly a month I have been at La Guerche, a quiet, straggling little place some 150 miles from Paris, where there is but one cafe, almost no life, hustle or bustle quiet always. With me has been Eddie McGoortj. and his trainer Gibson, and mans fighting men. j My training here has Riven me more pounds in weight I cale 78 1-2 kilos, ior as ou would sa 17:'. pounds, which is heaver than I was When I met your Dick Smith in my first fight for five years Those Who know me would not have it that I am unreasonably opti mlstic but I am sure that if all goes will with me I shall, when I meet Joe Beckett at the Holborn stadium on Iec 4. be a better man physically than 1 ever was. When I took the fight against Gun-j boat Smith in 1914, I was still growing. grow-ing. I was not a man full grown. Now I am 25. I make this confession readily, hnw- ever. When I fought Dick Mnith at the. Cirque do Paris I suffered a strangeness strange-ness that 1 have never experienced be: fore; the crowds, the cheers, the liar-ing liar-ing lights the knowledge that 1 was free to box again after many long days when I doubted 1 should ever be able to do so again, brought uneasiness to me; I wobbled and felt sick Inside, and there were moments when my eyei were blurred and I could not find .. sense of distance. f It was only when the ficht was over j that I gained 8 normal frame of mind Sim..- then, in the privacy of my gymnasium, I have had many fights, no mere sparring bouts, and today I feel physicallly competent to take the ring against Joe Beckett, I almost wish the combat was tomorrow Tis ficht with BekeU, I know will be one of the hardest ever. May 1 make this concession When in the early pari of the vear I slpned articles to meet the best heavyweight in Great Britain, I was nssured thai of a certainty certain-ty my opponent would be Billy YVHh No one spoke of Beckett; I had not taken hirn into my reckoning, and, 'please forgive me, Beckett, when I rushed to London to see you against, th' bombardier, I put much money on Wells. Since that night when Billy was! stretched on the floor of the ring l have thought and dreamed only of; Beckett. I have Itched to meet him. j And since that night I have but one notion, to fight him, for I know you' know, everybody knows that if I beat him I shall get fuiiher on thr high way thai leads to the world's chain pionship than if I were to meet and I defeat a dozen other men. Wanted to Defend Title. Vfi'M mj affair with Smith and m request for a postponement they said I had no liking for Beckett; that I contemplated running away, It Is true I had much money offered to me to go to the States, but not a sincle offer have I taken seriously. I never thought of going, though a big fortune awaited me there, before I had defended my litb of European heavyweight cham-piion cham-piion In London. If 1 had rushed to America. I should have committed professional suicide Surely, if I had sidestepped Beckett, 1 could never have held my head up in England again. |