In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

BOXING 49
emplary record as a soldier. His family background is Irish Catholic, he
grew up in New York, and he stylishly incarnates the cultural ambitions
that accompany social ascent. Sometimes, however, journalists lose patience
with him: "I'm afraid Tunney will wake up to realize that he has
been reading a poem by Shakespeare or Kipling, or one of those big
writing fellows, and I'm thinking the title of the poem will be, 'A Fool
There Was'" (New York Times, September 22).
These sharply different public personae translate into contrasting
fighting styles. The adjective most frequently used for Tunney, even by
his opponent, is "scientific" (Dempsey and Dempsey, 179ff.). He is "a
cool, unruffled boxer" (New York Times, September 24); his eye and his
mind always control his body. "Tunney is a good boxer in a boxing
sense, while Dempsey never professed to be a boxer. Yet he is of the type
of strictly fighting man who needs no boxing in any event" (New York
Times, September 23). Dempsey's fans praise his "fighting fury" and his
"tigerish, vicious rushes." His "chief second [has] laid out an elaborate
program of instructions which [aims] for the champion to present an
appearance of frightfulness, which it [is] hoped [may] scare Tunney into
impotence." This image is staged to embody precisely that spontaneous,
unselfconscious physical impetus that Brecht sees as the strongest protection
against knockout.
The vast majority of the public seems to favor the sober Tunney. For
the past seven years "the balance of popular feeling has always been
against [Dempsey] in most of his big fights," even in his title bout against
the French challenger Charpentier. "That nobody allowed his fears to
sway his sentiment [is] proved by the demonstration in favor of Tunney,
and against Dempsey, when the contestants [come] in" (New York
Times, September 24). From the very first round, there is no doubt that
Tunney will win. But despite the radio announcer's explicit bias for
Tunney, it is impossible to avoid hearing the nostalgia in his voice when
he remembers the performance of a younger and stronger Dempsey:
Tunney puts a right glancing blow to Jack's jaw, but it doesn't bother
Jack at all. They are in the center of the ring. Jack backs away from
Tunney's lead and takes a light right on the face. He backs away to the
ropes. Jack does not show the speed he is accustomed to showing. It is
not the Jack we are accustomed to at all ... Everybody is howling,
"Dempsey is groggy!" but he does not look so to me. This is not the