In the Fifteenth Round

Twelve thousand fight fans sat dumfounded. Kinky-haired Henry Armstrong, world's welterweight champion, was down in the centre of the ring. Echoing from the rafters of Manhattan's Madison Square Garden wailed the voice of Announcer Harry Balogh: "Winnah and New Champeen -- Fritzie Ziv-ic."

Two years ago Henry Armstrong held the world's featherweight, lightweight and welterweight titles--a record unmatched by any other fighter, white or black. He renounced his featherweight crown, lost his lightweight crown to Lou Ambers. But he had kept his welterweight title against all comers--19 of them.

Last week Champion Armstrong climbed into the ring a 4-to-1 favorite. The wise money said that Fritzie Zivic, youngest of Pittsburgh's five "Fighting Zivics," was just another pushover. A hundred and fifty professional fights had given him nothing much but a cauliflower face. But for round after round Fritzie Zivic stayed right with the champion. In the 15th round he was still in there.

From the opening bell, young Zivic went after Armstrong's weak spots: his eyes and mouth, puckered with old scar tissue. By the tenth round, the champ was a bleeding blind man. While he stumbled and groped, mumbling "If I could only see--" Zivic slashed him with savage rights and lefts. Through five of the most brutal rounds ever seen in the Garden, Armstrong took his bloody punishment. In the 15th, more from a shove than a wallop, he toppled to the floor--just saved from a knockout by the final bell.

Sportswriters shoved their hats a little farther toward the back of their heads, and wrote: "He went down fighting."

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