BOXING AND BOXERS

Shannon News, 12 November 1926, Page 1

BOXING AND BOXERS

GETTING BACK FORM. I DEMPSEY AND CARPENTIER. Writing just prior to the DempseyTunney contest, Eugene Corri makes some interesting remarks regarding some ex-champion boxers. It has never been said that Dempsey has been anything but a clean liver, he writes. I, personally, have always found him to be a very sensible young fellow, unspoiled by the ' fame and immense fortune that have I come his way. Big cities have never I appealed to him. Dempsey is esj sentially an open air bird, and I think I I am right in saying that he has not i flirted with the lights of Broadway. J But three years is a big slice off a fighter’s life, especially when those years have not been' spent in active employment. You may never intend to allow yourself to get rusty, and you may fight as hard as you like against rustiness, but mere training ;so as to preserve ,a healthy, strong body, doeb. not guarantee fighting fitness, and Dempsey will have proved to be an amazing exception if against Tunney he is the same:wonder fighter he undoubtedly was when last in the ring. Carpentier’s Fear. The case of Carpentier may be cited as a. fighter who, though he did not put a glove on for the better part of five years—he did not engage in a contest from shortly before the out- ! break of war when he met Gunboat Sftiith, until after the Armstice —he re-entered the ring to win his greatest triumphs. But I can tell you that when the Frenchman was free to return to civilian life he was obessed by the fear that he would have to begin all over again. Let me tell you this little story. Peace had not yet come when Carpentier, enjoying leave in Paris, strolled into one of the many gymnasiums to be found in the City. Boxing was going on and he was Invited to have a spar by a particularly hard-hitting Belgian, Carpentier consented, but only on the understanding that there would be no fierce hitting. Now, the Belgian could no 'more hate played light than he could have flown, and theyhad scarcely put up their hands when Carpentier took a blow that shook him from tip to toe. This had the effect of making him see something like red, and feinting, he ripped his right to the jaw and the Belgian dropped all of a heap, to remain obliyious to the world for half an hour at least. Carpentibr made off to join some of his cronies at a neighbouring cafe, and to them he declared that he was the happiest man in all Franco. The reasn 'for his joy was sought, and said Carpentier: "I have just discovered that what I dreaded I should not find —that I •hold to my punch.” And I happen to know that had he not made that discovery he would not have matched himself against Dick Smith at the Cirque de Paris with the readiness that he did. He was immensely relieved when the fight was over and in his heart I suspect that Carpentier considered himself to be lucky to beat Smith. Dick Smith, to his dying day will have it that had he not been hit very low more than once he would have won. But Carpentier was never his pre-war self until after he had knocked out Beckett at the Hoi born Stadium. The Jim Corbett Type. A fighter who has been on the shelf for many a long day as Dempsey has been, is trying himself highly in going up against a man like Tunney, but with his advantage in weight and height and his vast experience behind him, it is natural that he should be favourite. Those who saw Tunney in his fight with Carpentier—-you will remember that the Frenchman preferred to try his hand upon this particular American rather than come to London for a battle with Jack Bloomfield —regards his; chances of taking the title most favourably; and there can be no doubt that Tunney is one of the most improved fighters in all the world. -He is a good-looking young fellow, and in physical shape Is moulded rather after Jim Corbett, as the old champion was before he struck his flag to Bob Fitzsimmons. He is an inch shorter than Dempsey and some three years the younger.