Minneapolis Spokesman

Almost About Everything
By Percy Villa

On my recent trip East I had many conversations with promoters, fight managers and fighters about the fight racket. They used the word racket as if it was legitimate. The game during the past few years has been at its lowest ebb but the managers and promoters are still around as though the game was prospering. According to Nat Fleischer, the publisher of Ring Magazine, who runs a directory of the bloody sport, there are less than 2,000 active fighters in this country. Last year there were 3,000. In 1945 there were about 5,000. Only a few pugs are able to produce a living at their game and Fleischer estimates that at least a thousand of those registered are unable to earn a living and are searching for other employment.

This is not a local or a national situation but a universal crisis in what was once the most profitable of all sports. All over the world fighters, in recent years, have dropped out of the game. Many are learning trades or going to school or in the services. The profits are small. TV has forced the little promoter to get out of the business and many of the die-hard fight fans have at last become disgusted with what once was called a sport.

Years ago (say twenty or twenty-five years) I used to get my biggest thrills attending the Twin City shows. Just to name a few who fought regularly year after year: Jock Malone, Johnny Tillman, Billy Miske, Mike and Tommy Gibbons, Mike O'Dowd, Fred Fulton, Johnny Ertle, Harry Greb, King Tut, Mickey Walker, Cowboy Eddie Anderson, Tiger Flowers, Joey Sangor, Bud Taylor, Sammy Mandell, Henry Armstrong and Dave Shade. In those days there were always a couple of dozen preliminary boys who were much better than the main event fighter parading around the country today.

Today there is no evidence that there are any young guys able to follow Willie Pep, Joe Louis, Ike Williams, Ray Robinson and Sandy Saddler.

I learned from Fleischer, that never in the history of the game have so many pugilists thought of the fight game as a part-time job. In many cities, says the editor, fighters pick up side money at night after they have put in a day shift at other jobs. Most of the fight managers and fighters agree that since TV has come into the picture the game hasn't been the same. Only the main event fighters get the coin but the preliminary fighter is happy to get a few hundred bucks for his services. The big time fighter stays in the East where he can collect his purse and TV money at the same time.

It is impossible for the small town promoters like the Twin Cities to compete with the telecast fights from New York. Chicago hasn't had a fight of national importance in more than six months.

"Friday nights are out," said one manager, "How can you expect people to pay for an ordinary fight when they can sit home and see the best fights for free on TV?" ... "Personally, some of the fights are not to my liking, but it's still for nothing."

Anyway you look at it, it's no good. The game is getting to be a thing of the past, and that is one subject that most of the men in the boxing game agree on.

While in Washington we took in the flicker "Iron Man", now showing at the Lyric theatre. This is a good solid boxing picture. Jeff Chandler, an actor of many talents, is cast as the man of iron, and does a good job of portraying a gent with a homicidal complex when riled. The majority of the fight shots really look authentic. The picture also shows the game as it really is. There are many new twists in this picture. How the manager makes arrangements for his charge to take a dive, and what the manager will do for an easy buck.

Chandler doesn't look too bad in the ring, though he moves around with the footwork of a Tony Galento. Matter of fact, he looks a lot better than some of the stumblebums in the fight game today.

The "Iron Man" is a good picture, with a new slant on the fight business and a lot of good action shots. Worth seeing.

Just a few last minute predictions: I'm saying that today's front pages in the dailies will show Winston Churchill in the lead... Rudolph Halley, "the crime buster", will become president of the New York City Council... And Joe Louis (and how I hate to pick him to lose) will come in second when he exchanges rights with young Rocky Marciano tonight. Clip and save.