I didn't want to derail the interesting Tunney-Langford thread into another discussion of Wills-Dempsey-Tunney, etc, but I stumbled onto this very interesting article from the NY Times and thought I would share it. From "City Greets Tunney in Heartfelt Way", the New York Times, September 26, 1926, page 1 & cont: "Promoter Rickard, in his talk, was bitterly opposed to giving Harry Wills, negro challenger, a chance at the heavyweight title, and provided the most startling development of the entire demonstration when he advocated the elimination of Wills" manager, Paddy Mullins, from the boxing sport. "We don't want men like Wills' manager in boxing," said Rickard. "There is no room for such in boxing. He tried to say that he was offered a bout with Tunney last year only on the condition that he lay down. I know I never discussed such a thing with him and I know also that neither Tunney or Gibson ever made any such suggestion. Such claims as that is what has ******ed the progress of boxing in the past." Later, we had this odd bit from William Muldoon: "William Muldoon, member of the State Athletic Commission, whose advocacy of a Dempsey-Tunney bout in preference to a Dempsey-Wills bout deadlocked the commission, sent the following telegram in response to his invitation to attend: "I cannot accept your invitation for the Tunney luncheon today. I thank you very much. Five months ago I suggested that Dempsey be given a trial with some man near his own weight and size, to see if he was still the fighting Dempsey, of which I had grave doubt, and said it would be unfair to the public to put him against Wills without our having some proof of his condition. I named as his opponent Gene Tunney." 1. The denial of attempting to fix the cuffs on Wills is interesting. Rickard's response is to blackball Wills, the top contender for years. If I had been Rickard, I would have rebutted the charge by giving Wills an up and up shot at the title. That would have proved I wasn't trying to cuff him. There is no proof of course, and this sort of thing would probably never have positive proof, but my take is that Rickard's reaction points to the charges of an attempted fix as probably being true. 2. Muldoon--Muldoon twice skuttled a Wills fight, once by complaining about the pricing of the tickets, and this time because Dempsey's condition would have meant that a match with Wills was "unfair" to the public. Somehow a match with Tunney was not. Follow this logic if you can. My take is that Wills was just getting the run-around.
