A CHAMPION WRESTLER

Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 13

A CHAMPION WRESTLER

STRANGLER" LEWIS WINS TREMEM6US WEIGHT AHD STRENGTH An occasion, when a “good game little man ” could not beat a “ good big man was Saturday nigbt, when, in the Town Hall, the enormously-built Ed. “ Strangler ” Lewis, five_ times champion of the world, won his first Dsmedin bout in the sixth round by two falls to one against Glenn Wade. The prodigious weight and strength ot Lewis against, the comparatively Liliputiari. Wade gave the former champion an easy win, 1 after Wade had given of his best to make the bout open and fast. The scales . on which Lewis was weighed could hardly ■ have complied with the Weights and Measures Act. His weight was announced as 18st 61b—2st 61b heavier than Wade —but the gasps of the large audience when the biggest of the Brobdingnagians to enter the ring here lumbered in his loose slippers to his corner increased _ to whistles of amazement and admiration when he threw aside his dressing gown. Over 6ft in height, Lewis’s torso was almost hogshead-Rke in its dimensions through and across, while his aldermanic portliness was no less impressive. Beside him Wade, for all his 16st, appeared as a mere stripling, yet he several times lifted the giant high and dumped him, once to secure’ an equalising fall. Lewis/ is undoubtedly the strongest wrestler yet ’seen iii Dunedin. He will have none of the acrobatics of the modern 'school —possibly because his weightand build make impossible the gymnastic hurtlings through space of his younger and more lissom mat opponents —but none seen here can outpace him for speed or outclass him for smoothes ness in -working-out of -holds. Lewis is not spectacular, although he can elbow jolt devastatingly, and - he relies on his strength to bent his man. He slowly hut surely wore Wade down by his perfect balance when leaning on his opponent while ho worked for a hold, and relied almost entirely on a vycelike headlock and buttock throw for punishinent. For no reason are not wrestling, audiences strange ?—Lewis was Hooted on his first appearance, and his continual and unchanging use of the headlock-made him no more popular, there being some hostility when he took a splendid fall in the third round after four times, somersaulting Wade with headlooks applied with tremendous crushing force and completed with vicious halches and then crashing down with all his surplus avoirdupois on the exhausted Wade., When Wade quickly retaliated at the opening of the next round, after having two more sampling -of headlocks by lifting the mighty Lewis above, bis head, dump-; ing- -. him . solidly . and pressing

his. shoulders to the mat, the spectators wore highly delighted. Carrying the fight to Lewis and_ trying put hammerlocks, from which Lewis es'caped by the sifrfple expedient of plunging his head through the netting, and toe holds, Wade'werit for another body press, but he found Lewis as hard as a: totara log to roll over. Not even Wade’s jolts and knee kicks could stir ■ Lewi» into a mix-up. The champion expressed his growing, irritation by gesticulations and applied a headlock, which Wade slipped, and tossed the 20 stone of American manhood into tho ropes. This was too much for Lewis, who bounded out to place his vyco again round Wade’s head, hut Wade ;was. ready and lifted him high for, the ■ dump. -As frantic agitation, of rtheHm-'i mens.© uplifted body of Lewis put Wade off his ■ balance, arid, as he collapsed, ■ Lewis came down heavily on top of him - to secure the winning, fall with a body press. An amazed public took nearly a, minute to realise that the bout was ' ended in the sixth round; thev had become habituated to the matches being carried complacently through the eight rounds. . The. bigger and better man

.wan. It was a changed Wade who was seen in action. Since he was last here Wade has' developed into a faster, more aggressive and versatile wrestler, of the type which now. packs the halls when matched with Blomfield, King Kong Cox, and wrestlers of the merrier school. Time Was when Wade suggested that he was shocked when the rougher matmen declared their belligerency by elbow jolting and those tricks of showmanship which they produce from their copious hags, but, against Lewis, he was not the least bashful about his attempts to irritate his opponent and to give, joy to the ■ gallery. He worked .an entertaining variety of holds with smoothness and - sureness of application, but in Lewis he was against a man. far too strong and experienced and too difficult to pin or even hold, THE PRELIMINARIES.

/ The four preliminaries provided excellent wrestling, the amateurs all mov-ing-fast through all the permitted holds. Results:—

H. Vent (9.4) beat C. Reid (9.2) on points.

G. Terry (11.0) beat C. Keach (10.7) fly £ fall, a figure four scissors ana armhold secured in the second round L. Williams (12.0) heat H. Hunt pn points after each had secured a fall in a willing bout. M'MuUan (12.4) beat R. Meikle (12.9) with a body press fall in the .third round. .. blomfield disqualified COX HIT WITH CLOSED FIST £Pna United Pbms Association.] AUCKLAND, August 8. The disqualification of' “ Lofty ” Blomfield for striking his opponent, “ King Kong ”■ Cox' in the . seventh round brought a sudden termination to ttie contest hero on Saturday night. Blomfield had been twice thrown through the ropes, and on the second occasion/while lie was standing on the

staging outside the ring, he hit Gox with his closed fist. >ss Prior to this incident each man had obtained a fall. The first was won byCox in the fourth round. He jolted the Aucklander several. times prior to lifting him for a slam and body press. Blomfield drew level in the sixth round when he followed up a series of forearm jolts with three flying tackles, each of which sent Cox sprawling. Blomfield then finished with a body press, A HECTIC CONTEST POLICE CLEAR THE RING [Per United Press Association.] GISBORNE, August 8. Kirilenko defeated Little Wolf by two falls to one after a hectic seven rounds’ con.test. Kirilenko scored a fall in the fourth with a body press following a slam, and th© Indian evened in the sixth round with a deathlock, which he refused to let go, the referee having to break the men. Little Wolf was disqualified in the seventh round when he tied the Russian’s leg in the ropes and refused t© let go. The bout was a hectic affair, and the referee, in a melee in the third round, lost his shirt. When he was disqualified, Little Wolf attacked the winner, who retaliated by chasing him with a water bottle. The ring was eventually cleared by the police. It was a very rough bout, Little Wolf continually being warned for using strangleholds and other illegal tactics. WALKER AND SAVAGE BEATEN [Pee United Press Association,] WELLINGTON, August 8. Frank Bronowicz (16st) beat Steve Savage (15st) by a surprise fall in the seventh ' round. They impressed with their workmanship. • Frank Judson (16st 21b) beat George Walker (15st) on points after each had obtained a fall—in the fifth and sixth rounds respectively. It was a colourless bout. The junior heavy-weight elimination contest for the New- Zealand title was won by “ Snowy ” Bartlett “(New Zealand), 13st 51b, from Peter Venter (South'Africa), 14st, by a penalty fall in the second of three rounds. TEST MATCH ATTRACTION M'CREADY' MATCHED WITH LEWIS Until Ed. “ Strangler ” Lewis’s recent. arrival the superiority of the British Empire champion, Earl M'Cready, as the greatest wrestler ever to visit New; Zealand was. never in serious disput. The issue between the two men, both right at the top of the wrestling tree, will be staged in the Winter Show Stadium, Wellington, on Saturday next, the evening of. the first Rugby test. New Zealand v. South Africa. The meeting between M'Cready and Lewis, unquestionably the greatest bout so far staged ..in the. history of New Zealand wrestling, will have a strong flavour of -international rivalry. M'Cready is the - finest -.wrestler the British- Empire has produced. Leading United States sports authorities! have nominated Lewis as “still the real champion of the world.” That statement may hold so far as America is concerned, but M'Cready has aply demonstrated in three seasons ;of New, -land competition that among the. ■wrestlers hitherto seen here he stands without peer and that he is capable of taking any wrestler to the limit Of his resources. In Lewis he meets the hardest opponent of his career. A win over Lewis would make M'Cready chief and most logical opponent for wrestling’s recently-crowned champion, “ Bronte ” Nagurski, who late in June captured th© title from Dean Detton. Fop an Australian championship match with Detton, M'Creadv was under a guarantee of £2,000. Realising the importance of his bout with Lewis, M'Cready has declined to accept contests for a week prior to the major event and has embarked on a programme of special preparation. The greatest money-earner any sport has known, Lewis has drawn through the gates over five million dollars more than his nearest rival, Jack Dempsey. In over 6,000 contests, beginning when only a boy in his 'teens, he has lost fewer than 90. Lewis, now in his forty-fifth year, is wrestling’s wealthiest man—-but declares that he his still two ambitions, to beat Gama and to capture the world title for , the sixth time. To accomplish the second ambition involves a third, to defeat M'Cready.