Not-So-Simple Simon

When Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis embarked on his fight-a-month campaign last fall, Broadway wags dubbed his opponents the Bum-of-the-Month Club. Last week, in Detroit's Olympia Stadium, Louis took on his pushover for March: 255-lb., 26-year-old Abe Simon of Richmond Hill, Long Island.

Abe Simon, oversized son of a Jewish butter-&-egg salesman, was no more worthy a challenger than Gus Dorazio, Red Burman, Al McCoy or the half-dozen other second-raters who have served as punching bags for the Champ. Patterned on the lines of Primo Camera, Giant Simon, a stand-up boxer (6 ft. 4 in.), had nothing up his forearm but the longest reach (83 in.) and the largest mitts (14 1/2 in.) in the fight game.

A few weeks ago, in Baltimore, gentle Giant Simon had been licked by a third-rater named Jim Thompson. "Simple Simon," sneered the experts, and bet 4-to-1 that Louis would polish him off before the end of the fifth round.

But at the end of the fifth round Simon was still on his big feet. The 19,000 Detroiters in the arena could scarcely believe their eyes. Sure, Abe had been toppled in the first round, hit the canvas again in the third. But here was one pushover who refused to stay down. Back he came --jabbing, jabbing, jabbing with his giant left paw. His persistence raised a mouse under Joe Louis' left eye.

The fight was scheduled for 20 rounds. The fans began to wonder whether Simple Simon might last it out. Round after round Simon still stood on his feet, and the crowd went wild. How much punishment could this behemoth take? In the 13th round they had their answer. Dazed, dead-armed, after paralyzing rights to the jaw had floored him a third and a fourth time, the challenger suddenly turned his back on the champion, staggered over to the ropes. Louis, perplexed, stood stock-still, calmly watched the referee award him the fight on a technical knockout.

"That Simon is a lot better fighter than most people think," drawled the Cham pion. His fellow townsmen cheered the most exciting fight of the year, agreed that Simon should be expelled from the Bum-of-the-Month Club. Hardly had the crowd filed out of the arena when Promoter Mike Jacobs announced a return match between Simon and Louis -- in New York, May 16, with a $15 instead of a $5 top.

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