BOXING

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 June 1938, Page 4

BOXING

ARMSTRONG DEFEATS ROSS. [jy CABLE —PBESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] NEW YORK, May 31. Henry Armstrong, featherweight boxing champion, added the welterweight title to his collection by taking a 15-rounds decision from the former champion, Barney Ross. Ross weighed lOst. 21b and Armstrong 9st. 711 b. The fight opened at a furious pace. After losing the first two rounds, Armstrong opened his account, and from then on, boxing with complete abandon, dominated the rest of the bout. ’ Ross suffered terrific punishment from the sixth round onwards, and by the 13th round the spectators were calling “Stop it!” Ross struggled on feebly, on defence until the end. and lost like a champion after one of the most merciless beatings evei* seen. The Los Angeles negro is the first boxer in history to wear two crowns simultaneously. He will now meet Lou Ambers, the light-weight champion, and thus may even hold three championships. In his dressing-room Ross announced his retirement. He said: “I was beaten by a better fighter.” Most critics are amazed that the referee allowed the fight to continue after the eleventh round, and are even more amazed that Ross survived without being once floored. PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE The best-looking boxing match of the yeai’ was made when “Homicide Henry” Armstrong, featherweight champion of the world, signed up to meet the welterweight champion, Barney Ross, at New York recently, wrote Aubrey Burt in “The Sporting Globe." To pit a featherweight (maximum 9.0) against a welterweight (up to 10.7) sounds like pool’ match-making; but actually an Armstrong-Ross fight on paper looks so even that it has become a public demand in America. Armstrong at featherweight is acclaimed the world’s best fighter, with Ross and Joe Louis relatively near his standard. Nor would there be such a great difference in poundage between Ross and Armstrong, for Armstrong is said to have outgrown the featherweight limit and Ross is just over lightweight. Hear what the welterweight champion himself says on the point: — “Armstrong is no more a featherweight than I am. He is a fullgrown lightweight and is getting bigger. I have undertaken to come in there weighing 142 (lOst. 21b.), give or take a pound, and Armstrong will easily build himself up to 13S. That means four pounds difference —and, besides, they say this fellow is as strong as a bull.”

Apparently “Homicide Henry" agrees with Ross on the question of weight, for he is talking of vacating the featherweight class after this fight. This battle of the world’s best lighter men is as great a draw as the Schmeling-Louis engagement in June. Armstrong is really a middleweight from the waist up, fast on his feet, a crafty boxer when he cares to be, but by nature a ruthless fighter with ;■ knockout in either fist. Armstrong is the fastest hitter of r. generation—34 of his last 36 opponents in the professional ring have failed to stay 14 minutes with him —at an average. And those victims included the featherweight champion of the world. Pete Sarron. Ross is a versatile fighter and keen tactician. He swept all opposition before him on the way to the championship, and since he took Jimmy MeLarnin’s crown he has weathered all challenges most impressively and hasbeen a busy title-holder at that. He is not the knockout fighter that Armstrong is but, like the Australian. Jack Carroll, gives a man an awful hiding while he is not knocking him out. What is more in his favour from the Armstrong angle, he is always at his best against an aggressive twofisted fighter. If they come at him. then they have to be something exceptional to make him fight to suit them. Whether his strategy can cope with Armstrong’s whirlwind, powerful and accurate attack is the question likely to draw a record crowd.