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SOUND OFF! SIZE ISN'T IMPORTANT danced rings around the over-rated
(Continued from Page 4 ?J · Billy the Smith must rate as being Jeffries for 20 rounds before being
the top man for having the most totally knocked out in the 23rd round. In a
and it also broke Willard's right cheek- crass letter ever printed in your modern ring, that marvel of a man
bone into 13 fragments !! magazine. Corbett would have won a unanimous
This opinion was not made over- He asserts that the heavier and tall- 15-round decision without working up
night. Rather, it took hours upon . er the fighte r, th~ more likely he is , a sweat.
· hours of slow and still motion_study of to defeat his opponents. Looking.at the Billy the Smith rates Max Baer as
many great punches on my_ film_s ~nd heavyweight division proves quite the being a "serious little · heavyweight."
much reading to conclude this opm10n. contrary. Even a novice boxing fan knows Max
Let's go back to June 9, 1899. Bob was not serious nor was he little. Baer
MICHAEL HUNNICUT Fitzsimmons, 5-1 1 ¾ and weighing was called ••the Merry Madcap" and
Harrison, N. Y. onty 170 pounds, gave J im Jeffries, 6- the ••ctown Prince of Boxing" by
2½ and 225 pounds; a terrific beating sportswriters. Baer was always a clown
DEMPSEY THE GREATEST before succumbing to the "boiler- and never learned how to box because
I am 18 years old and have studied maker" in the 11th round . Fitz, who he didn't give a damn. He posse·ssed
boxing for a long time. The greatest was 37 yea rs old, would most liktly probably the hardest right hand ofany
heavyweight fighter in my opinion is have outpointed Jeffries in 15 rourtds fighter and strictly relied on it to put
Jack Dempsey. (modern rules) if he had been younger. his opponents into dreamland, where
He was a gentleman outside the ring,
Canada's Tommy Burns, smallest 50 of his 79 opponents went. So much
but in the ring pe was a killer. He had
man in history to win the cham- for Baer being serious. ·
the greatest left hook of a ll time.
pionship, performed that feat in 1906. Max Baer little?? Hah! The man
Some boxing experts would look at Standing but 5-7, our Tommy gave 5- stood 6-2 ½ and weighed a solid 215
Dempsey's films and say he could have 11 ¼ Marvin Hart a 20-round boxing pounds, bigger than Sonny Liston and
been out-boxed. I disagree strongly. Joe Frazier (two men Billy the Smith
It is true Dempsey would leave calls GI ANTS! and I believe Max
openings in his defense, but it worked
could have knocked out Frazier if he
for his advantage.· When bigger caught him with his right.
figh ters would hit Dempsey, he would
Baer won the title by ·defeating an
throw a harder punch back. In other
even larger man than himself- 6-5¾,
words, Dempsey wanted to exchange 267-pound Primo Canera! He sent the
punches with other. fighters. Dempsey • game colossus toppling 11 times in 11
.could never have been outslugged. rounds, Max winning via a technical
Jack was a ferocious puncher and he knockout. -
had the courage of a mounta in lion. Rating Dempsey, Louis, Charles,
It is true that .clever boxers did give Tunney, and Baer as being little is ab-
him trouble. But did Dempsey ever get surd. It's true that weight and height do
out-boxed in his prime? No! influence a match but it's the ability of
Only one man ever went the distance
the .fighter himself that determines a
with Dempsey and that was Tommy
winner.
Gibbo.ns. Dempsey won by a decision.
Corbert, Fitzsimmons, Burns,,
So this proves that Jack wasn't likely
Dempsey, Tunney, Sharkey, Schmel-
to be out-boxed by anybody. In my
- ing, Braddock, Charles, Walcott and
b_ook. Dempsey is the greatest of all. Patterson were not heavy men. How-
AL ROOK S ever, with the. exception of Burns and
New Castle, Pa. Fitz, they all stood six feet or over.
They all possessed very good ring
Men like T-ommy Burns (above) and generalship and boxing ability except
Jack Dempsey (left) tend to dis- Dempsey. He relied on his two-fisted,
prove the argument that bigger whirlwind attack to overwhelm his
fighters are the better fighters. opponent.
Burns was a per{ ect example of . To ca ll them sma ll and overmatched
this. At 5-7, he almost always against 215 pounders is a mistaken
was up against much bigger fo~s.
assertion because all of them defeated
lesson. A year earlier, Hart had
bigger men in their careers. They all
defeated Jack Johnson, a feat almost had courage. None of them quit by sit-
forgotten today by boxing experts. ting on a stool as Liston did.
Jess Willard, 6-6¼ and 250 pounds, I disagree wholehe_artedly against a
was lambasted by Jack Dempsey, 6-1
super-heavyweight division because
and only 187¼ pounds, and the giant
there have been too many so-called
had to retire after the third round fo r
sma ll men who have t ri'umphed over
fear of being beaten to death. big men.
Going back to May 11, 1900, boxing·
master James J . Corbett only 184 PAUL MEDLEY
pounds and 34 years old, literally Cambridge, Ontario, Canada □
48