‘

By LESTER RODNEY

ae Archie Moore really got a

Hee to dethrone Rocky Marci-
and as heavyweight boxing cham-
Plon when they meet in Yankee

oan the night of September

eth a 38-year-old: light-heavy-
“ight veteran of 20 years of ring
heage stand off and beat the
“e, ‘but potent and unbeaten,

- ~ Year - old blockbuster from
ae Mass., a “strongman”
U>Dlown heavyweight with de-

M0lishing Power in either hand, a

Geetibbed chin © and fantastic
Stamina >

F oe One who, not long «ago, said
Bett Moore had no more chance
(aust Marciano than Bobo Olson
Ad against Moore.’
wa changed my mind. Rather,
of gy, hanged it for me the night
, Une 22 at the Polo Grounds.
oe Predicting that Archie will
+t but 1 certainly have a revised
te of his chances.

sa Stinst Olson. that night you
W what looked like’a man against
t ne & ludicrous match. (Before
tone there were lots of predic-
a *or the 12-vear-younger mid-
in . eht champion, who weighed
a a strong 170, only five less

*2 Moore),

Ng We saw was a master at

tig With a minimum of waste

Which Magnificent defense in

ok his hands were quicker than

Came 8, and when the moment
— wham!

That Moment was set up by two
: un rights in succession to
UP an a Which left Bobo shaken
ond, befuddled for a split sec-
5 ef Nd as he was groping blind-
iy a canvas and started to
do 9 the short left hook flash-
it “ae ‘and all of a sudden Bobo
Sall over.

’

ia aaa if television cap-
‘ '€ Whiplash quickness and
its oe of that short left, with
And ae eally applied leverage.
To A be went to the dressing
Were “ chat with the winner you
Croup ot the only one in the Polo
ttiguine With the immediate in-
st § thought of this same ring
ost 10 pounds heavier and
at his natural weight,
he Big Boy...

ne * oh G Pa
mae Came walking into the
there ensued the usual
Aion of deadline-pressed
Shting to get within ques-
“8e and earshot while cam-
Gut frantically and in-
“This way, Archie!”
dene Please just one more
hie Chie, hold up your head.”
> the smile again.” “Archie
4 break over here, this
hie, Archie, Archie .. .

hddy “asy, smiling centre of the
Y the ’ Pressed back to the wall
oe of reporters, with
« Ybody able to hear any-
bing Sd, suddenly stood on a
at Se le and took command
hedingt hee than a few right up

Too

8d ty a Could hear what he
_ Ris

f ;
"Xcent oe Was virtually unmarked

@ slight bruise of the

Here Archie Moore is seen giving his mother a victory hug.

as he did when he entered the ring
and chatted easily with each of the
fighters who was introduced.

You had a sudden strong sense
of his having known what he was
doing all along in this fight, in his
training camp, before the fight and
now, no change, no surprise, no
high-kicking elation. He was an old
pro who knew what he could do
and*he knew he could knock out
any middleweight, even a good one
like Olson.

And now the questions were
about Marciano “and Archie was
saying: ; ° ;

“Yes, ‘I believe 1
Rocky.” ;

He smiled with pursed lips for
a moment and added, “I believe
I can beat any fighter who lives,”
and if there was a touch of stage
grandeur in the words it fitted the
moment as he took off his heavy
gold-brocaded white bathrobe and
tossed it over the heads of the
writers to his trainer.

can beat

For this astounding athlete had
been challenging Marciano up and
down the land in vain, and when
he couldn’t get Rocky he went
through a weight-making ordeal to
accept Olson’s challenge. While
he had’ made it a- quick and easy
victory it hadn’t necessarily look-
ed that way before the fight.

Even if, like this scribe, you had
thought it too late in the day for
Moore to beat Marciano though he
deserved the shot, you now listen-
ed with respect to what Archie
had to say on that subject. You had
to have respect for what this man
said after what you had seen to-
night.

“J don’t want to sound as if I’m
blowing off,’ Archie continued.
“But T’ve got things left in here

€ looked just about!

I didn’t use tonight.”

~

“T think I can knock out any man
I can hit, and I can hit Marciano.
And I weakened myself for this
fight tonight.”

The questions continued. ‘The
weight — “I was 176 and a quar-
ter last night,” said Archie. “Walk-
ed and jogged three miles this
morning.” i

You didn’t seem weak, a report-
er laughed. He shrugged and said,
quietly, “It weakens you.”

For Marciano? —-“T’ll be at my
natural weight, 185 or 186.”

* * *

‘So... what do you think? Of
course, Rocky is a much different’
proposition than Bobo. It works in
reverse. Rocky can knock out any-
one he can hit. And he hits just
as hard late in the fight as early.

Still — the heavy champ is ng
superman. He is crude. _ Ezzard
Charles gave him 14 troublesome
rounds in their first fight. Old Joe

Walcott gave him a time in Philly
the first fight.

Has Rocky ever tangled with‘

someone like Moore, who probably
knows more: about the game than
any active fighter, can box, defend,
and still punch with KO power?

If you think Archie can’t, and
that he only “knocked out a mid-
dleweight,” the fact is that the

Olson knockout was Archie’s 82nd

KO win in 120 victories and most
of those were heavyweights!

And yet — Archie is 38, and
Rocky is not to be underrated as
a destructive punching heavy
champ who, despite his crudities,
catches up to his victims with his
boundless stamina and _ endless
punching ... ‘

If I had to say. it right now I’d
still say Rocky. ‘But with less cer-
tainty than before .the night of
June 22... quite a bft less,

Gert Whyte's

SPOR

(Bert Whyte is on vacation and
this week’s guest column is con-
tributed by Tom McEwen).

Wity profuse apologies to Bert

Whyte’s fans, and a warning
that this week’s “sport column”
may be a shade unorthodox, here
we go.

By virtue of the labors of my
son Normie, the McEwen house-
hold recently acquired a TV. On
the installment plan of course,
which is probably one of the
greatest sporting features of this

age.

. With the aid of this TV I have
been ‘brgught closer to the sport-
ing world, or to be more precise
I should say sport has been
brought closer to me. Either way,
I find I am becoming a confirmed
addict of one particular TV week-
ly feature, wrestling. At least
that’s what they call it.

Each Saturday night I find my-
self seated and awaiting “The
Main Event’ of “Wrestling in
Hollywood.” The Missus heads
for the kitchen or somewhere out
of TV range, while the rest of the
family move cautiously around as
if in fear of running foul of one
of Ali Pasha’s deadly “cobras”!

The Hollywood “grunt - and -
groan’* boys put on a superlative
sadistic show at murdering each
other. Gouging, ear pulling, hair
pulling, kicks in the stomach or
other vulnerable areas of the hu-
man anatomy, head-butting like
mountain rams at rutting time,
everything goes. In fact nothing
of a mayhem nature seems to be
barred, although at times the re-
feree daes hand out a decision on
“a foul” while- he nimbly skips
eround his grappling opponents.

In my youthfui days when the
Russian Hackenschmidt used to
visit Scotland for a bout or two
with the finest in the Govan and

TLIGHT

e

Aberdeen police (Cumberland
style), one saw a tourney of mag-
nificent’ strength and skill in the
art of putting an opponent’s
shoulders on the mat.

In Hollywood it would seem
that wrestling, like the virtues,
is not restricted by cohventional
rules, and if there are rules they
go through the ropes with the
first “flying backbreaker.” ©

The elaborate robes, hair-dos,
scowls and other essentials worn
by the Hollywood “professional”
wrestlers indicate that the rough-
house show technique is much
more in demand than an up-and-
up contest of strength and skill.

The characters themselves and
the names they have adopted un-
derline the main purpose of their
profession — to put on a show
rather than a wrestling bout, and
to make it appear sufficiently
brutal and bloodthirsty so that

the fans will feel they’ve had
their money’s worth.

Sometimes one gets a close-up
Inok at some of the audience
while the “Bonecrusher from
Texas” seems to be having his
neck dislocated, with a stout lady
shouting above the din to “moider
the bum.” It all adds spice to this
Hollywood version of wrestling.
At other times a contestant and a
‘portion of the audience howl at
each other like witches over a
cauldron of devil’s brew while
the referee helplessly looks on.
It all adds up to ‘a fine noisy
rough-and-tumble show labelled
“wrestling.”

Despite all that, if the TV
hasn’t blown a tube come Satur-
day, I'll be back rooting for Ali
Pasha and Bonecrusher MacDon-
aid! And I hope for the sake
of the PT sport fans Bert Whyte
will be back on his sport beat.

Czech sports Agursh

In People’s Czechoslovakia today there are 2,320 light athletic

clubs as compared to 128 in pre-war Czechoslovakia.

Recently

these clubs came together inthe country’s first national Sparka-
kiade in which no less than 300,000 athletes marched through the

streets of Prague.

Participants.

This charming young lady was one of the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 22, 1955 — PAGE 11