The Champ Meets A Veep

With a .22 rifle I smashed small clay pigeons he tossed in the air. With a BB gun, a prototype of the one to be manufactured by Youth Unlimited, I knocked a dime-sized piece of cigaret tin foil out of the center of a small washer he tossed up. With a piece of wire he fashioned a small circle, the size of a half dollar, chucked it skyward and instead of shooting through it or around it I hit the wire with a BB pellet. He showed me a beetle crawling along the road—a very small beetle, about the size of my little fingernail—and said, "Hit it!" I raised the BB gun to my shoulder, cheeked it and, following instructions, did not aim. I merely took a good look at the beetle and pulled the trigger. The pellet kicked up some red dust just in front of the beetle's nose. The beetle stopped in surprise. "You missed," Lucky said. "When it moves again, you hit it." It moved again, crawling forward on the assumption that I was not ready with my practically infallible BB. I smashed a pellet square into its liver.

It wasn't anything much. Lucky hits ants that way.

You get the idea now. Rademacher has done the impossible. Lucky McDaniel can teach anyone to do the impossible. Youth Unlimited, which has grabbed quick hold of Rademacher and McDaniel, is founded on the conviction that the impossible is possible.

This inspirational notion brings us around to the fight. Is it possible for Rademacher to beat Patterson?

No.

PROS AND CONS

Rademacher is a big man with a big punch. When Zora Folley was an amateur, Rademacher defeated him. Folley, a boxer in the classic style, is now ranked No. 2, just behind Eddie Machen, in the National Boxing Association list of heavyweight contenders. Rademacher's amateur record of some 79 fights and 72 wins is most impressive, and not the least impressive fact about some of the fights is that he has been knocked down on occasion and has risen from the canvas to win. He is a champion and has the heart of a champion. He will have a considerable weight advantage over Patterson. The professional champion weighed 184 pounds for the second Hurricane Jackson fight a few weeks ago but Rademacher in training has been staying close to 210. Rademacher is tall (6 feet one), broad of shoulders and magnificently muscled. He has a short, strong neck, an indication of sorts that he can take a punch to the head. He keeps his chin tucked into his left shoulder, which will make it difficult for Patterson to get a clear shot at his jaw. His waist is thick and hard, which implies ability to take body punishment. He can hit hard with either hand.

But Rademacher in training, unless he was under wraps, has looked much too slow to handle Patterson, who has the hand speed of a middleweight. Rademacher's combinations are few and slow, his jab seems weak and his footwork is plodding and uncertain. Against the fast and competent Clarence Hinnant, his principal sparring partner, Rademacher has made amateurish moves which Hinnant deliberately did not respond to. He is easily jabbed and does not seem to know how to slip the punch.

Trainer George Chemeres, assisted by Gannon and Sergeant Regis Blair, Rademacher's Army trainer, seems to have taken Rademacher's limitations into account in preparing him for the fight. He knows an amateur, accustomed to three-round bouts and two-minute rounds, has trouble pacing himself in professional ranks. Holding the clock on Rademacher, he has had him boxing 4�-minute rounds in hope that this will keep him from tiring when he goes on the professional standard. Rademacher has been boxing as many as five of these prolonged rounds and running four to eight miles a day.

Still, it does not seem that it will be enough. It is simply not conceivable that a heavyweight champion of Patterson's ability, or any heavyweight champion for that matter, can be taken by an amateur. Patterson improves with every fight. At 22 he is clearly years away from his peak but he has already begun to look as if he might be one of the alltime greats. A Rademacher victory would make him look like an alltime bum. Patterson is a proud young fellow. No one is going to make him look like a bum.