WILLS AND MADDEN

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

WILLS AND MADDEN

MEG-tOS POOR FORM. I FAILS TO K.O. IRISHMAN". NEW YORK, June 10. I The championship aspirations of Harry Wills sustained a setback last night. when the giant negro heavyweight failed) to knock out Bartley Madden, ru.ge 1 1 West Side Irishman, in a 15-round match I at the Queensboro Stadium. Wills won the judges' decision aiyl gained it by a decisive margin, but. Madden, fighting one of the most cour-1 ageous battles seen in a metropolitan ring in years, stood up under the negro's most terrific attacks. Wills .employed his great advantage in reach and 28 pounds' margin in'weight to good advantage, battered Madden all over the ring, opened nasty cuts about his opponent's ears, mouth and eyes, •but the hardest punches of the negro failed to more than shake the tough West Sider. Fighting the last four rounds with a stream of blood blinding his vision, Madden stood up under a terrific bombardment, and at times brought the crowd of 20,000 to its feet in recognition of his gameness by lashing out in a counter offensive. Madden Near To Knock-out Twice. Wills had Madden on the verge of a knock-out at least twice, once in the fifth round, when a shower of blows to the head sent the Irishman reeling to a corner, and again in the twelfth, when it seemed that Madden mti6t go down under the attack that sent blood gushing from the cuts about his head. But Madden, courageous to the core, stuck to bis guns; twice he lunged in with a left hook that stung Wills and slowed up the negro's attack, and at the bell for the round the Irishman was still on his feet and battling back. Throughout the last three rounds, Will-, sensing that his prestige was suffering a bitter blow, grimly fought for an opening. lie clubbed Madden viciously, but his hardest blows seemed to have no decisive effect on the chunky Irishman, and when the final gong rang, the throng gave its oyation to the loser, not the victor. Wills Puzzled. Maddens awkward ' tactics, which seemed to puzzle Wills and force him him into repeated missing, robbed the match of much possibility of spectacular features. The Irishman seemed more intent upon the reputation he would gain by staying the limit with his noted opponent than in doing any effective battling himself. Occasionally Madden launched into attacks that upset Wills, but Bartley's blows lacked punishing power. Both indulged in frequent clinching, with Wills doing the most damage at close quarters. Maddens spurts of aggressiveness in the fifth and sixth rounds, and again in the ninth, tenth and eleventh earned him a fair share of honours in these sessions, but a consensus of opinion conceded him not more than two or three of the 15 rounds.