On the Ropes

One night five months ago, after knocking out Jersey Joe Wolcott, Joe Louis mumbled into a mike through swollen lips, "For my mother--this is for her--tonight was my last fight." Since then, Joe had been thinking it over. He still kept on needing money, and voices kept reminding him that all he had to do was say the word and collect $500,000 or so. Last week, Joe said the word. He would defend his heavyweight title, for the 26th time, next June, probably against the least bad of three unpromising contenders--Lee Savold, Ezzard Charles or Joe Baksi.

Big Joe's return, at 34, was another piece of evidence that big-time boxing was on the ropes. In Manhattan, Sport Columnist Jimmy Cannon, an old fight fan, got so wrought up about it that he predicted: "The fight racket is perishing . . . and in our time will be an obsolete sport."

The shortage of good young fighters was certainly acute. In gyms and fight clubs the U.S. over, the hard-eyed operators who make boxing their business scratched heads and tried to figure out the reason. After World War I there had been no dearth of fighters: there were Dempsey, Paul Berlenbach, Jack Delaney, Young Stribling and a raft of others.

In Chicago, Matchmaker Jack Hurley had another idea; the trouble with boxers was the same thing that was ailing everybody: "They're living too soft, they're eating salads instead of meat an' potatoes --restaurants today cater to women. Kids who could go ten rounds, now barely get through four." The list of alibis grew: automobiles, high wages in factories, the G.I. Bill of Rights (which has lured some pugilistic prospects into colleges). Hard times, all low-spending promoters agree, have always spawned the best fighters.

In Seattle, Promoter Larry Scheer pointed a finger mysteriously at unnamed wartime generals and admirals. "Somebody big didn't like boxing, so they didn't build it up. There should have been a mob of good fighters come out of the Army and Navy, but they didn't. It was all basketball, this last war."

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