AMERICAN KNOCKED OUT BY WOODCOCK

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25607, 23 September 1948, Page 5

AMERICAN KNOCKED OUT BY WOODCOCK

HOOTING AND CATCALLING BY SPECTATORS . . LONDON, September 21. After being knocked out in the fourth round by the British boxer, Bruce Woodcock, the American, Lee Oma, cried in disappointment. Oma was assisted to his feet, and led to his corner, where he hung his head and burst into tears.

The fight was hooted and cat-called from early in the second round. Oma made a terrible showing from the start. So monotonous did Woodcock’s left-hand punching to Oma’s face become that the crowd kept time with the blows by clapping their hands, and at one stage there was a chorus of Lie down! Lie down!”

Oma. who remarked at the weigh-ing-up that he was the first fighter to train on gin rummy, did not attempt to land a blow. He became a chopping block as the fight went on, and the hooting, clapping, singing, and stamping increased. When Woodcock landed a right to the jaw half-way through the fourth round Oma went down, and rolled over and over across the ring. He was counted out amid boos, and pennies were thrown into the ring as he writhed in apparent agony on the canvas.

When Oma left the ring there was pandemonium among the crowd. The slight applause for Woodcock was drowned in a crescendo of booing as the American was led to his dressingroom.