Gard Sivik. Jaargang 7

[p. 46]

fighters
armando

[p. 47]

 

‘Just keep out of the way of his right hand, Jess -

 

you'll be okay.’

 

So Firpo hit Jess Willard with his left hand,

 

knocked him groggy -

 

then he hit him with the right.

[p. 48]

 

Besides his furious attack,

 

his repertoire included

 

butting, gouging, hitting under the belt.

 

At the sight of a cut

 

he would try to open it more

 

by scraping his glove laces across it.

 

He was not only a fighter,

 

he was a terror.

[p. 49]

 

But Dempsey knew poverty.

 

He had to acquire toughness to make a buck.

 

He did.

[p. 50]

 

A guy didn't have to know how to fight.

 

All he had to do was be brave enough to enter a ring.

 

After all, these boys had faced flame-thowers

 

shells and tanks.

 

What was a mouthful of leather?

[p. 51]

 

I knew he liked to wrestle men to the ropes

 

and then hit them.

 

I made up my mind

 

that he would not do that to me.

[p. 52]

 

Now I was on pedestal.

 

They're still doing this act in boxing.

 

Get a guy on the pedestal.

 

Then get another guy to knock him off .

 

Nobody suffers this way - only the boxers.

 

 

 

There's only one bloke entitled

 

to be on this pedestal.

 

He's God.

 

And he can stay there

 

because there's not a knock-out punch

 

been devised which can knock him off.