Upset Boxing Win To Spencer

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31441, 7 August 1967, Page 20

Upset Boxing Win To Spencer

(N.Z.P.A.-Beuter—Copyright) HOUSTON. Thad Spencer won a unanimous 12-round decision over the former World Boxing Association champion, Ernie Terrell, in a heavy-weight title elimination bout on Saturday.

It was the second fight of a eight-bout series sanctioned by the W.B.A. to pick a sue-

cessor to the dethroned champion, Cassius Clay.

In the first bout, on the same card at the Houston Astrodome, Jimmy Ellis, beat Leotis Martin. The referee, Ernie Taylor, halted the fight in the ninth round when Martin suffered a badly bleeding nose.

Terrell, with a 13-pound advantage over Spencer, lashed into his opponent in the first round. But in the second round Spencer knocked Terrell down with a devastating right Terrell, who. lost the W.B.A. version of the heavy-weight crown to Clay in the same

ring last February, scored the only other knock-down, in the fifth round. He caught Spencer with a left hook with less than one minute remaining in the round. By this time Spencer also had a small cut over his left eye and on the bridge of his nose. Terrell, who was heavily favoured to beat Spencer, was penalised two points by the referee, Jimmy Webb, for low blows in the tenth round. In the last three rounds he showed the effects of Spencer’s pounding body attack. The bout had been fairly even, but by then Terrell was wobbly on his feet and con-

tinuously backing away from Spencer’s determined attack. The referee frequently slapped at Terell's left arm as the taller boxer wrapped it around Spencer while attempting to pummel him with his right Ellis and Spencer now will meet in one elimination semi-final sometime in the northern autumn. Other scheduled fights in the series are between Karl Mildenberger (Germany) and Oscar Bonavena (Argentina) in Frankfurt on September 16, and between the former champion Floyd Patterson and Jerry Quarry in Los Angeles on October 28.