Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 156, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1919 — YOUTH MEETS BRAWN IN FRIDAY’S FISTIC CLASSIC. [ARTICLE]

YOUTH MEETS BRAWN IN FRIDAY’S FISTIC CLASSIC.

Not since an early May day in the year 1915 when Jess Willard restored the world’s heavyweight championship to the white race by sinking Jack Johnson in twenty-six rounds of battling in an arena in Havana has the sporting world so eagerly turned to an event as the one to be staged by Tex Rickard in Toledo Independence day, when Jack Dempsey, California satellite, will try to batter this same Willard into insensibility with a pair of four ounce gloves in a twenty-four foot ring. Not in years has such a dainty sporting dish been offered to 'a war suffering public as the historic clash of tomorrow between the world’s foremost sons of fistdom. Men, women and children, veterans who look back to the days of Sullivan, Corbett, Jeffries and Fitzsimmons with hearts filled with pride, will turn their thoughts from everyday life and permit them to dwell on the activities of these two behemoths of the squared circle. Jess Willard is thirty-seven, an unusually advanced* age for a champion. Jack Dempsey has just, turned twenty-four. Jess Willard displaces two hundred and forty-five pounds of air, while Dempsey falls four pounds shy of the two hundred mark. Jess Willard has a reach far in excess of that of his lighter opponent. Jess Willard is at least the equal of the challenger as a boxer, although neither may be sard to shine in this respect. Dempsey is undoubtedly the faster of the two, due to his lesser bulk. Willard packs a punch which carries more force than that of Dempsey, his superior weight giving him the advantage in this respect. Surely, the odds favor the champion, you will say. But wait. History shows in the majority of ring battles that youth has counteracted whatever advantage nature has bestowed upon those Who have had the advantage in weight and reach. Willard has been a dean liver in every way, but thirteen years in the life of an athlete is a long time and whether Jess can discount such a handicap remains to be seen. A good youth of twenty-four undoubtedly has the advantage over a good man qf thirty-seven. Dempsey, young, confident, strong and bubbling over with enthusiasm and energy, with his meteoric rushes, is going to be hard to stop by a man who has no in-l terest in the game other than the financial end of it. Jess Willard is fighting for the money he is to redeve and because the public demands that he defend his crown, not because he loves to fight. Dempsey is fighting because he loves the game and because he seeks the honor of wearing the crown as the world’s greatest fighter. Another advantage in favor of the youth, for he will put his whole heart and soul into the task mapped out for him. ~ If it were a finish fight we would not hesitate one moment in picking the brilliant young challenger to stretch the mighty Kansan on the canvas, but we fear that the best he can hope for in this length of time is a decision on points. Jess is too large and can take too many hard punches for any human being to knock him out in twelve rounds. His superior reach will save ham much punishment by holding his rushing opponent at bay. _ Ana , Jadk ever runs into one of W“ lard s punches—goodnight! . John L. Sullivan fell before the youth of James J. Corbett at New Orleans. Corbett later relinquished the crown to Fitzsimmons. F ’_ t , zs ™' mens was in turn bounced off the throne by the younger, hardier boilermaker, Jim Jeffries., Jeffries retired with the crown, only later to re-enter the ring to meet the youthful Johnson in a vain attempt to restore the title to the white race. Johnson, after several years of fast living, went before Willard and youth again was served. Certainly an imposing record for youth. But never in these famous battles was there such a difference in the size of the contestants as the one to be fought tomorrow. ‘Summed up it is a man of far greater bulk pitted against an ambitious youth who does not know the word “quit, the scales practically even. The only sure bet on such a fight is that both men will be on their feet when the final signal gong sounds and that if there is a knockout it will be Dempsey who must look at the rainbows in his second’s bucket ” Willard is to receive SIOO,OOO, win, lose or draw, and Demimey, as his share, will receive $27,500 of American money on the same teims. Looks as if there could be only one loser and that is the public, which is to lay out one million smackers to watch these two ring mamoths travel twelve rounds, the same two mamoths .who remained out of tne military service when their country •was at war and captured the easy money in sight. The American doughboy fought for one dollar a day. Willard and Dempsey are to fight for $127,500 for a period of thirty-six minutes. Queer old world, isn’t it?