BOXING Woodcock Battered By Baski: Fight Ends in Seventh Round

Grey River Argus, 17 April 1947, Page 6

BOXING Woodcock Battered By Baski: Fight Ends in Seventh Round

LONDON, April 15. In a heavyweight contest at Harringay Stadium to-night, the American, Joe Baksi, defeated the British champion, Bruce Woodcock, the referee stopping the fight in the seventh round. Down three times in the first round, once in the second round, and swinging himself off his feet in the third, Britain’s heavyweight boxing hope, Woodcock, was battered to impotence in seven rounds by the heavy punching of the aggressive Baksi. The American took the initiative from the start and kept boring in. A left hook early brought Woodcock to his knees for a count of nine. A right cross then put him down for eight. Woodcock, staggering round the ring in an effort to last out the round, was again brought down with a right to the body. The count was going when the bell went Woodcock was dazed when the second round started. Baksi sent him down for nine with a right to the jaw. Woodcock, reeling, staged a grand recovery rocking Baksi with good right-handed punches which opened Baksi’s left eye. The British boxer in the third round swung a vicious right and fell full length on the canvas. Woodcock, with the arrival of the fourth round, had not recovered from the hammering of the first two rounds. He could not put sufficient power into his punches seriously to upset Baksi. Woodcock’s eyes were mere slits by the fifth round, and he resembled a Red Indian with blood from his cut eyes streaming over his chest and shoulders He was grimacing with pain every time Baksi’s gloves crashed into his face. Woodcock put Baksi down in the sixth round, but the American was unhurt. He was up immediately and resumed the attack. Baksi in the seventh round ripped in punches from all angles. The referee then stepped between the fighters and called a halt.