A Foe for Joe

In all boxing, there weren't four heavyweights worth Joe Louis' time to lay them out. But last week, with much pomp & ceremony, four hopeful heavyweights climbed into prize rings to fight for the right to face the aging champ next June.

The spectacle in London's Harringay Arena made one loyal boxing fan shudder and say: "From now on, wrestling will be my hobby." In the third round, New Jersey's Lee Savold had popped glass-chinned Bruce Woodcock on his glass chin. Down went Brucie. In the fourth round, Savold popped him again with a low body blow. Woodcock, collapsing like a damp dishrag, lay moaning & groaning on the floor. Some of the sportwriters were reminded of a countryman of his, "Fainting Phil" Scott, who had made an art of collapsing, back in the late '203.

The referee disqualified Savold for fouling and declared Woodcock the winner. Wrote a London Daily Express reporter: "It was certainly a moral win for the American. And don't accuse me of being anti-British. For most of the 10,500 fans who booed Woodcock from the ring after his unhappy victory would support this judgment . . ."

Four nights later, a brawler from Pennsylvania's coal mines got his big chance in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden. Joe Baksi had shed a lot of blubber (from 257 Ibs. down to 210 1/2), but he was still 32 1/2 pounds heavier than his Negro opponent, Ezzard Charles of Cincinnati. For most of the ten rounds, Ezzard buzzed around Baksi like a bumblebee around a bull. He kept stinging Baksi with lefts & rights that didn't seem to hurt much--though he opened a bad cut above his left eye. At 2:33 of the eleventh round, his face a bloody mask, Baksi muttered: "I can't see. Stop it." The referee did.

That made 178-lb. Ezzard Charles, by default, the most probable candidate to fight Joe Louis. But after the fight, Ezz seemed hone too eager to claim his newly won privilege. "My goodness, not yet," he said. "I'd have to be a lot sharper if I fought the champ." Besides, who was he to give his hero the last shove? "He's still the greatest," said Ezz. "I want him to retire undefeated."

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