The Milwaukee Leader

"Dempsey Won't K. O. Me," Says Gibbons

BY DEAN SNYDER

SHELBY, Mont.—Tommy Gibbons is the most talked of man in the world at this minute.

But Tom doesn't do much talking himself.

For two years he has pushed ahead—pointing toward Dempsey.

"I can't train any different for Dempsey than I have done for all the rest of my fights," says Gibbons.

"Every fighter tapers off for a match in his own individual way.

The real change in my fighting life started two years ago when I began hitting for knockouts.

"Up to that time I thought boxing was the thing.

"But just being clever won't get you any place in the heavy weight class. You've got to put them on the floor to make people like you. I have been accused of fighting setups.

Anybody you can lick is a setup. Some of the so-called trial horses wouldn't get in the ring with me.

Admits Dempsey Punch.

"Dempsey has always been my ideal of a fighting man. The champion can sock. He can use his head in the ring. He can make his feet dance. And personally Dempsey is one of the most likeable fellows I ever met.

"I'm just a contender now. After July 4 I may be something else. It isn't the money I'll get if I win—or the loser's end if I should fail—that I'm fighting for. It's the title. My part of the contract calls for no money until Dempsey gets his $300,000 bit.

"Three weeks hard work is all I'll take. There is always a chance of getting stale. I know my limits.

Helen, my wife, and the three babies will be with me. She thinks she ought to be near me when we have so much at stake.

"She says I spend all my time writing to her and the children when we are separated, I'll admit I am always thinking about her and the youngsters.

Scouts Knockout Idea.

"I don't know how I'll fight Dempsey yet. I can box him. I can fight him. I can mix them up. But I'm going in there to beat him decisively.

You have to do that to win from a champion.

"I'm going into the ring with one feeling—Dempsey isn't a superman.

If I thought he was I wouldn't have made the match. Some of the betting, I understand, is on the round Dempsey will knock me out. These people are going to be surprised.

"I have never been knocked out in my life. It won't happen in the Shelby ring. I have made a study of nerve centers. Surgeons at Minnesota university showed me through the clinic. Knocking a man out is like pressing buttons. When you press the right button or combination the lights go out.

"Dempsey's fame rabbit punch doesn't worry me a bit. It isn't a fair blow but he will never get far enough behind me to lay one in there.

I feel I could have whipped Carpenter just as easily as Dempsey did it. That was the only time I ever saw him fight."

Saw Dempsey Once.

The champion has seen Gibbons in action once, also. That was the Greb fight at the Garden.

But he didn't see the real Tommy Gibbons that night. Just 13 days before Tommy was flat on his back with a flu kayo. It took away his strength, his cleverness—his real fighting self.

The Shelby ring will be a checkerboard July 4 and Tommy Gibbons will know every move on it.

Dempsey will knock me out.

HEAVY ADVANCE SALE FOR BIG JULY 4 BOUT

SHELBY, Mont.—With the arrival of Tommy Gibbons here to start his training for his fight with Jack Dempsey on July 4, Shelby will get its first real martial atmosphere.

Work on the arena is progressing rapidly, and the advance sale of tickets continues beyond expectations. The promoters estimated today $400,000 worth of orders have been placed on file and that from $5,000 to $10,000 worth are coming in daily.

Feeling that the Dempsey-Gibbons fight is now sure of being a tremendous success in every way, prominent business men of this section are planning to make such an offer for the proposed Dempsey-Wills fight on Labor Day that no eastern promoters will be able to better it.