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Show IPS Ai. JS PCEJl .-..V:if,...; JACK KKAnNS, who drew In m;iny millions in trade with Jack Dcrnpscy, was explaining how tough it is to rate and rank fighters. Kearns and Dempsey made the greatest combination in ring history. It was a combination combina-tion of a smart, shrewd manager, the major master of ballyhoo, and a slashing puncher with an iron chin. "It all gets down to the matter of styles," Kearns said. "For example, A can lick B, D can trim C and C can i ' V ' trM". . ,'N vy;i murder A. I don't Grantland Rice believe Dempsey could have beaten Harry Greb, when both were at their best, for Greb had too much speed and was even rougher than Dempsey was. Yet Greb had trouble with such smaller fellows as Tiger Flowers and several sev-eral others, who also had speed. "Against that, I'd say that Dempsey Demp-sey would have had an even chance with Joe Louis for this one reason he could take a punch around the head belter. I'm talking of the Dempsey of Toledo, 24 years old, 185 pounds of punching dynamite, who was also fast. "There isn't any matter of game-ness game-ness or heart mixed up in this. When it comes to taking a hard punch you either can or you can't. Some of the gamest fighters I ever knew couldn't take a punch. Tough Ranking "I'll tell you how tough it is to rank fighters," the always genial Doc continued. "I couldn't name you a greater fighter than Jack Johnson. "But Johnson had trouble with Sam Langford, and after their first meeting let Langford alone. On the other band, Langford, another great fighter, met 139-pound Jack Blackburn Black-burn seven times without any great success. Sam will even show you some teeth Blackburn knocked out. "You see where that leads us from Johnson, weighing 210 pounds, to Blackburn, weighing 139 pounds, and who looked that weight when facing Langford at 170 pounds. Johnson, John-son, and, I say again that he was one of the greatest I ever saw, outweighed out-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 Stanley Ketchel?" I asked Kearns. "Pound for pound, were there any two greater?" "Both were great," Kearns said. "But here again you have two different dif-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'll slip you a pair Bob Fitzsimmons and Mickey Walker. Don't forget that Fitz weighed in around 158 pounds for Corbett. And he was world's heavyweight champion after that scrap. Mickey Walker was not even a middleweight. But I know of more than one world's heavyweight champion cham-pion he could have beaten. "For another example, I don't believe be-lieve Joe Louis would have given Dempsey any more trouble than Mickey Walker would have given Jack. Crazy? All right. But we come again to a matter of styles. Mickey Walker would have given Dempsey all the trouble 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 San Francisco barroom with a big Swede named Hansen. An ex-hobo, who had lost most of his fights, was sitting in the corner, all alone. His name was Dempsey. I finally slugged the Swede, and the Swede slugged me back. About that time this kid Dempsey got up, took me by 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 told me I was cuckoo. I think the first move I made took us both to the top. Dempsey had been right-hand right-hand crazy. I turned him into a left-hand hooker by tieing his right hand to his side and using only his left. It was Dempsey's left that led on to some $10,000,000 in gate receipts." re-ceipts." Great Lighticeights There has been a rather weird scramble lately Involving mixed weights. By this we mean the top drawing cards of the day Willie Pep, a featherweight, around 128 pounds-Johnny pounds-Johnny Greco, a lightweight, with a displacement of 131 pounds Beau Jack, another lightweight who can make 135 pounds Fritzie Zivic, a welterweight at 147 pounds. "I don't care what they weigh, as long as the crowd wants to see 'em fight." That's Mike Jacobs' rebuttal. |