It was on December 1, 1925, in Rothenberg’s Kaiserdam Autohallen in Berlin, that my wife and I watched Paulino, the husky Basque, knock out Hans Breitenstraetter of Germany, champion of his country. I cabled to Rickard: “Saw picturesque, hard-hitting Basque, Paulino, stop German champion. Looks fine prospect. Colorful. Managed by Descamps and Carpentier.” The next morning I received Tex’s answer by cable: “See Descamps. Offer two round trip tickets terms and fights to be agreed upon.” Then I witnessed one of the canniest pieces of press agentry in the business. Descamps was a manager of the old school. He knew Tex was on a spot. Descamps had a close friend in Jack Curley, American sports impresario who had promoted many world events, including the Jack Johnson-Jess Willard fight at Havana; and Descamps cabled Curley for advice. They were aware that Rickard would stake everything for a good heavyweight at this time and decided to hold out in order to obtain the best terms possible. In short, they were going to play their hand to the limit. After receiving his reply from Curley, Descamps fixed his Latin eyes on me, and with the nonchalance of a Machiavelli he said: “Tell Monsieur Rickard zat Paulino, he ess not ready for America. In a year perhaps. Who knows?” Then Descamps turned on a publicity campaign that would have shocked old man Barnum. All over the big cities of Europe he plugged a mammoth build-up, telling of my offer on behalf of Rickard. However, in the case of Paulino this was not necessary since he was a colorful boxer with a huge box office appeal. Descamps advertised Paulino as a cross between a Roman gladiator and King Kong. In France, for example, he plastered the barns and billboards and men’s comfort stations with huge four-color posters showing the Basque, axe in hand, toppling over a tree. The legend read: “Paulino Uzcudun, The Basque Woodchopper, Europe’s Greatest Heavyweight.” Then followed the modest subscript: “He can fell an ox with one blow.” I have one of the posters in my Garden Museum collection. There was nothing for me to do but to keep cool and wait for the publicity marathon to run itself out. But all the time I was in close touch with Rickard, keeping him informed of the progress I was making and of the activity of the man whose services he was not so eager to obtain. I followed Paulino to Barcelona and watched him knock out Constant Barrick in six rounds. I went with Descamps and Carpentier to Paris, where Paulino dropped Horace Jones with three punches—then on to Germany, where he and Franz Diener, the heavyweight champion of the Fatherland, fought a vicious draw. By now I was convinced that if Tex could get Descamps to change his mind, America would see a hard punching heavyweight who would fit in well with the plans of the Garden promoter. I kept after Descamps and, having received a cable from Rickard granting me permission to add to his previous offer, I felt confident I would land my catch.