1939-07-04 — Page 25

THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 4, 1939.

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Who'll Blow Up The Bomber? We're Waiting For The 10 To 1 Shot Who'll Make The Champ

Look Silly

Says DAN PARKER, famous American boxing

scribe

THE hand that rocks the cradle merely rules the world. But the mitts that rock heavyweight championship contenders have the world hy- pnotised.

Foremost among the kings who can do no wrong is the Monarch of Mittdom. Some of our heavyweight champions have been heir to all the weaknesses to which human flesh is subject, in addition to several on which they alone held the copyright.

But, while they wore the mantle of the immortal John L. Sullivan, an aura of invulnerability seemed to surround them, when seen through the worshipping eyes of that superlative-squandering silly, Jonathan Quentin Fan.

Which brings us to the question before the house, "Is Joe Louis really so far above his field that he'll reign supreme for many years to come?" Though all the evidence at hand points to an answer that is as positive as it is affirmative, a swift gander into the arnicascented tomes of pugilistic history may help give us a saner perspective on the Brown Bomber whom we are now cloaking with invincibility.

JOE LOUIS The Brown Bomber.

about him.

Joe, as usual, said nothing with his tongue. He did his talking with his

sowing the wind for his annihilation, Louis.

fists. Thus, maybe Tony Galento is everytime he "shoots off his yap" about

If Galento doesn't get the next crack

at Joe, it will be the winner of the Louis on one knee, as if praying for

Baer-Nova bout. Baer, who quit to

mercy, four years ago, doesn't deserve the chance to do it again, if for no other reason than he's been on. the downgrade for four years while Joe has

on been travelling that long toward his

peak, which experts agree he hasn't

Back in 1892, a year before the author of this screed had arrived the scene, a young upstart of a bank clerk from San Francisco, named yet reached. James J. Corbett, had the temerity to enter the same ring with John Sullivan, at New Orleans.

The wags of that gas-lit era sur- Schmeling fight, we get a saner, slant passed themselves inventing jokes on champion Louis. about the probable fate of this pom- Schmeling was a shopworn relic padoured dude who dared to entrust with whom Ben Foord, a fifth-rate Bri- his frail body to the club-like dukes of tish heavyweight, had stayed the limit the Boston Strong Boy. The intelli-a few months before Joe caught up gent, self-confident bank clerk was with him in their second match. probably the only person in the world In addition to being washed up, John who knew that the beer-softed bully-Henry Lewis was a victim of fright- boy from Boston, far from being the induced paralysis when he faced the superhuman destroyer his hero-wor- Bomber and was blasted into insensi- shipping followers had pictured him to bility in less than two and a half min be, was just a tired old man on whose utes. blubbery body years of dissipation had taken their toll.

L.It would be almost criminal to toss

now.

Lou Nova in with the Bomber Maybe he'll be ready in another year, taking into consideration not only his he has never been counted out, though that pork chops and easy living bring own improvement but the deterioration twice forced by the referee to surren-about insidiously in all champions while der because of bad cuts...

they are basking in the treacherous a few rounds because, if the fight last- But whoever does the trick, Joe Galento would have to beat Louis in light of their supposed invulnerability. ed longer, his poor physical condition Louis, like every heavyweight cham- would defeat him, even if Louis pion who preceded him, is going to be couldn't.

jolted from under his halo of invinci-

ent's body

LITTLE AND BRUEN LEAD THE FIELD

be radically wrong with Joe the night Corbett, Jim Jeffries, Gene Tunney, and I fear that something would have to bility one day by a guy who, like Jim such a repetition of the Sullivan-Cor- Jim Braddock, didn't have a chance in bett miracle occurred, because. Tony's a million. For, just as surely as they mode of fighting dovetails perfectly never come back, if they linger around The inside story is that in the first into the pattern of quick Louis knock-long enough they always get licked!, Schmeling bout, Louis, acting under outs. Corbett was right and everybody else orders, was carrying Max for a while was wrong. He won the title in the to make the movies more marketable. Barrel to the brawl, he rushes out; as When the bell calls the Battling Beer 21st round. Yet, so deeply ingrained At that time everyone assayed Schmel-wide open as the doors of his. Orange in the consciousness of the world was ing as cheaply as he is valued the myth of an invincible John L. Sulli- that Louis has disposed of him. Louis fists almost meet behind his back and now pub, draws back both arms until the van that when the shocking news of took the match so lightly, he didn't then lets fly a left hook to his his defeat was spelled out on the tick- even bother to train seriously for it. ers of thousands of barrooms where The plodding turtle of a German, mak- Sullivan devotees had gathered to cele-ing the best of his opportunity, caught brate their hero's victory, no one would Louis with a couple of telling rights in believe it.

the early rounds and thus took out of For days, despite the fact that the Joe's hands the task assigned to him. newspapers had confirmed, the ticker's Max saw to it that the movies were mournful message; people refused to best sellers thereafter. believe it. Even after they had bow- The point to observe here is that if ed to the inevitable, they booed and a supposedly washed-up fighter like hissed Corbett for shattering an idol, Schmeling was able to get the upper instead of giving him the acclaim that hand on Louis by taking advantage of was his due for accomplishing what his carelessness, it can happen again, they had considered the impossible: with disastrons effect to the myth of

invincibility,

Cries Of "Fake!”*

Stout Heart

Tommy Farr is no great shakes as a fighter, but no one will question the fact that he has a heart as stout as a gnarled oak or a mountainside in his native Wales,

Oppon

that while Tony is drawing back, Joe Lightning "calcuators have figured will have knocked him about ten feet farther back with about three light- ning-fast left hooks and a couple of right-crosses.

Merely A Bum

St. Andrew's, To-day. The British Open Golf Cham-

tunity. Sometimes he is magnanimous over the Old and New Courses in

Tony berates Louis at every oppor-

pionship commenced yesterday and merely calls him a bum. sionally he gets abusive, however. Nor overcast weather, but conditions

Occa- does Tony's contempt for Louis seem were good at the start with a light

to be an act.

He butted into a conversation be-breeze which presented no difficul- tween two boxing experts in the Madi- son Square Garden lobby one night re-ties, although there was a pos- cently to agree with one of the writers sibility that the shower which pre- that Joe is invincible.

"But I thought you said Joe was a ceded the start would be repeated. bum?" asked the writer, surprised at this switch in sentiment.

The qualifying rounds were play-

Jack Dempsey was the Jolm: L. Sul- livan of this generation. When Tün- ney beat him in Philadelphia, in 1926, cries of "Fake!" filled the air for months. In fact, not until Tunney re peated his victory a year later in the Battle of the Long Count, was the re- Heart, combined with, defensive, skill sult of the first bout accepted as the acquired in hundreds of bouts in the I still think sol" snorted the beer ed yesterday, continuing to-day and true rating of the two big figures of boxing booths of England, enabled barrel that fights like a man. "You the first 180 players will qualify pugilism's platinum era.

Tommy to stay 15 rounds with Joe a said he's invincible, didn't you? Well for the Championship proper, which The night Primo Carmera was chop-year and a half ago. Since then, four that means you can't see him, doesn't ped down as if with a cleaver by the other fighters have duplicated Louis's it, and he's one bum I can't see with commences to-morrow. overhand rights of Max Baer, I sat at feat of outpointing Farr, which Jars telescope! Ill lick him wolser than I ringside, awe-in-spired, and, with the Joe's halo to an angle that is anything zeal of all false prophets, pounded out but rakish,

י

M

did the double ammonia,

James Bruen, the 19-year-old An Irish boy and one of the favourites for the title, had a score of 69 over the Old Course.

*** (LOUIS BEAT GALENTO IN THE FOURTH ROUND LAST WEEK).

a sentence that I lived to regretis Bob" Pastor stayed 10 rounds with "Baer will reign for a long time" Louis merely by back-tracking through wrote, after witnessing the crude ten hents. This fent doesn't make Bob job of butchering the braggart had here, but neither does it help the done on his inoffensive, on-like victim. myth of Louis the Dacoquerable,

Yet, a year later, in his first and only bout in defence of the title, the invincible, one was outpoin ing Jimmy Braddock, In worst excuses for

championship dóut éver sta

The lesson I learned

perience was that. 751 vincible, much, v lesa -on:

won butcherting:

Saner Slant

Joe Louis looks supre

him acco

reigh

Battling Beer Barrel

hter who beats Joe will have punch. Maybe

too. The only three specifications at

Sullen; uncommunicative. Joe, has set aaide a special section of his brain for storing up Just such remarks

Schmeling cast a lot of parsións against him in print after knocking him out in their first bout and to these he owes that compound fracture of the transverse process. If Joe hadn't been sore at him, he would have let Max:of

with a broken jaw

Staff Strateg

Tony Galento, the big Louli'a túry against

science he is as devoid.

foth.

John Henry Lewis, wa his staff as being due to gy they practised on:

weeks before. ght be inclined to be

John Bulls of the United States. had a 72, over the New Course.

LATEST POSITION

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