NOVA A STEP NEARER TITLE MATCH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 109, 10 May 1941, Page 3 (Supplement)

NOVA A STEP NEARER TITLE MATCH

NEW YORK, April 5. , j The Pagliacci of the ring had all < the laugh knocked out of him last ' j night—probably for keeps. i 1 i Lou Nova, a guy with a chin of i - half cement and half of iron, and as '.. j determined as a Supreme Court de-; ( ■ ision, stopped Maxie Baer in eight ! ■ i rounds and probably gave the ex- ] kinc of the playboys all thc light j I he'll want from now on. With a sell-out rowd jamming i Madison Kcpiare Garden. Nova took the great rcicrot-hand shots of the; I great Brier right on the chin for j seven round*—rind then made Mad- I j cap Maxie "liollcr uncle." j He stabbed Bncr's left eve half closed. He raised a •'mouse" under I the right eye. Then he dropped Max . ; with a short right for a count in I the eighth. Then he floored him • j with the same thing again. Max ; bounced up at thc count of two this : tim<\ but Referee Donovan realised ' he'd had enough for the evening and •baited the bout ricrbi there "with , ; Nova a technical knockout winner at two minutes IS seconds of the. 1 eighth. j For seven rounds it was one of j the toughest heavy-weight hitting : ; mathes seen in ihi~ big sports; ', "barn" in years, as both clouters I fought not only for a shot at. Joe! : Louis' heavy-weight crown, but for I .■ what amounted to their fistic , , careers. j Now it's Nova who wins the , • chance at Louis in September—pro- i . : vided the Bomber is still sitting on the throne then. -! As for Max. well, he came in with : . the cheers of the crowd in his oars. . | but he walked out with, at best, • ; only mingled boos and huzzahs. For ; _ I after holding the upper hand i j through six rounds, he "ran out of • ! gas-" j _\ Up to the eighth. Max looked like .; a killer. Nova poked him with lefts ~ j through the first two heats, but he ; '■ came hack in the third and fourth I ' | with those right-hand bombs and i i really had the California collegian ! 1; in trouble. Sporting an 181b weight, -ledge—he weighed 22051b to Lou's! 12022 —and an admitted' edge in I 5 j punning power. Max made it look r j for a time like Nova wasn't going f I to weather the storm, -i j Once—in the fourth;—as wild a round as anv dyed-in-the-wool fan ! p j could ask—Nova took a right "on : e l the whiskers." fell back into the; ropes, sagged to thc bottom strand, , and but. for lhat much support,; j would have dropped out of the ring c j or at least hit the floor. In the third. e I too. Baer backed his fellow Calie ■ fornian into a orner and had him d ! hurt with those ".Sunday punches." : Twice these Baer specials: lifted Lou r J right off his fight, but each time he d came down and just charged right o j back in. His "dentless" chin and e ! critfd teeth just wouldn't let him , : hit the deck. In the fifth it appeared Max had > " nunhed himself out with his efforts > ' in the preceding two rounds. 1 ": He fell into more frequent clinches n • and threw less punches. And those Ihe threw, especially the rights. g I seemed to have no effect. In the i-! seventh. Lou stabbed Max all over a-'the place, and in the eighth, as long >r jas it lasted. Max just wasn't ibis • terested. n I The action was more than satisr] ! factory to the thousands who turned .a i out for the tussle of the two "come- .? back kids." v '| So terifjc was the slugging in the s : ! fourth found that, a ringside seat •" i spectator died of heart disease.