LEACH CROSS RETIRES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 699, 8 May 1916, Page 3

LEACH CROSS RETIRES.

BEATEN BY SAYLOR. Milburn Saylor, the American lightweight who visited Australia sonic time ago, and created a sensation there by winning a series of battles by knockouts, until Fred Kay stopped his career of victory, recently gave Leach Cross, the noted New York "fighting dentist" a thorough lacing. A New York paper describes the bout as follows: — " Leach Cross, without a doubt one of the best fighters that ever rubbed his shoes in rosin, has about reached the end of his ring career. lie met Milburn Savior, of Indianapolis, at Cincinnati, Ohio. February 21, and was knocked out in the fifth round. After being floored repeatedly, his seconds mercifully tossed the sponge into the ring to save the game New Yorker from further punishment. Cross was beaten from the clang of the bell in the opening round, lie was no match for the husky Westerner and took a beating like the game battler he is. As soon as they came together Savior went after the New York dentist like a wild bull. Cross was taken by surprise, but. fought back in his usual style. "In the second he managed to get in a few hard wallops, but toward the end of the round Saylor staggered him with a shower of hard lefts and lights. Baylor went after him with a vengeance in the third and flattened him with a solid right on the jaw. He took a count of nine, but after he got to his feet Saylor dropped him again with the same blow. Once more Leach scrambled to hi? feet, only to be sent down a third time, .lust then the bell came to his rescue. Three times during the fourth round he found himself on the lloor, the result of hard blows on the chin, but managed to last the round out by clinching. "Cross was a sorry sight wdien he came out for the fifth. He was still groggy from the battering he received in the previous rounds, and Saylor, seeing his helpless condition, threw all caution to the winds and waded in. The first blow, a right hand swing, caught Cross on the jaw and he went down like a ton of bricks. The spectators were dumbfounded when the game Hebrow gathered his feet under him and got back in a standing position. He tried to'cover up, but Saylor got in a (dean blow on the chin and Leach fell in a heap. He reached a sitting position, when his seconds tossed the sponge into the ring. It was too late, for it was the opinion of everybody in the house that he could not get up before the full count, had been tolled off. While Savior's victory was a popular one, the entire audience stood up and cheered Cross as he was being led from the ring for his wonderful exhibiting of gameness." A little later Cross announced his definite retirement from the ring. Henceforth Pr Louis 0. Wallach—that is his real cognomen—will confine himself to removing teeth by orthodox methods.