Fights

P: In San Francisco, onetime Heavyweight Champion Gene Tunney, on his way home from a world tour, boxed two playful rounds with his 210-lb. friend Herbert Fleishhacker Jr.. onetime Stanford footballer. Result of the bout: a puffed nose for Footballer Fleishhacker. Said Fisticuffer Tunney: ''Herbie's wind is not so good, and I did not get a black eye as reported. In fact, you might say I haven't been hit yet. It would be a pretty pass if, after boxing 20 years and being champion, I should let myself get hit by an amateur. Perhaps Herb got a bit enthusiastic and let fly a few good ones. ... I jabbed a bit too strenuously with my left. . . ."

P: In Asbury Park, Heavyweight Champion Max Baer, rehearsing for a radio skit while training for his June 13 fight with James J. Braddock, contrived to shoot himself in the chest with a revolver loaded with a blank cartridge. He was hospitalized for powder burns.

P: In Manhattan last week, a crowd of 18,000 jammed Madison Square Garden to watch two hard-hitting little lightweights scuffle for the world championship which Champion Barney Ross last month decided he had grown too heavy to defend. One was stocky, frog-faced Tony Canzoneri, who held the title for three years before losing it to Ross two years ago. The other was Lou Ambers of Herkimer, N. Y., a tough, courageous little boxer who was" Canzoneri's sparring partner in 1933. Said Canzoneri: "You've got what it takes to become a champion."

When Canzoneri and Ambers climbed into the ring last week Ambers was a 3-to-1 favorite, partly on the superstition that a champion who loses his title rarely wins it back, partly because Canzoneri, eight years older than his opponent, has indubitably lost some of his old enthusiasm for absorbing punches. When they climbed out, after 15 busy rounds, Canzoneri had knocked Ambers down three times, had become the first lightweight pugilist in history to win the championship after being defeated in defense of it. Said he: "I think Ambers remembered the sparring partner days and that affected him psychologically. . . . I'll fight any challenger the Commission wants me to." Observers expected him to hold the title until Barney Ross, scheduled for a title bout with Welterweight Champion Jimmy McLarnin next week, considers it worth while to train down to the weight (135 lb.), take it away again.

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