Champ of the Welterweights

The pug-nosed Irishman crumpled, his legs doubled under him, his head against the ropes. Freddie ("Red") Cochrane neither knew nor cared that he was world welterweight champion no longer. The new champ (boxing's postwar first): baby-faced ex-Coast Guardsman Marty Servo, 26, one of the best in-fighters in the business.

Almost any first-rate 147-pounder might have flattened aging, 30-year-old Cochrane, defending his crown for the first time since he won it in 1941.* For Servo it was ridiculously easy. He softened up Cochrane for three rounds with Servo tactics: punishing, pistonlike blows at close range. In the fourth, with 17,378 customers peering through Madison Square Garden's cigaret-rnade fog, Servo stalked the groggy champion to a corner, cocked his left. It crunched against Cochrane's chin. That did it. The unspectacular Cochrane reign had reached a close.

How long Servo keeps the crown will depend on how well his piston punches work against "uncrowned welterweight champion" Sugar Ray Robinson in May. Servo rates at least a 50-50 break in the betting.

*The reason: three and a half years of naval service

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