ITCHING FOR ACTION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 184, 21 August 1937, Page 18

ITCHING FOR ACTION

111 BRADDOCK READY BIG FIGURE IN DEFEAT / ~ * * ' ' ' ' CREAT RESPECT FOR LOUIS "THAT FELLOW CAN PUNCH" a bigger figure in defeat than ever he was during Jiis two-year reign as heavyweight champion, Jim Braddock is quietly going about the business of mldtogtfte broken thread oftormg career, comments a writer m the Syd*%u?ofthe Louis ordeal he brought three things: An awesome respect for the merit of the man whobeat hun, a firm belief that with a tough fight under his helt he is now in better fighting shape than he was a m°nth ego; and thousands of new friends. Bhysically he is unchanged, save for the T-shaped scar thakgrows up from •the left side of jhis upper hp. almost to his nostril. * - - „ , yfe had dinner with him and found him not unwilling to talk about it. I never saw that knock-out punch. Never even felt it. All 1 knew was. . . iwell. . • X was swinging my arms, and then a kind of darkness. The last thing I xemember was when I swung a left hook at Joe's face. It missed, like a lotta others I threw at him. _ Y _see, I was still figuring, in the eighth, that if I could straighten up his heao with a left hook I could cross oyer. with my right and nail him. "Well, I missed with that left, and it inust'have thrown me off ballance, because I was half leaning toward ihirri when he nailed me." Braddock rubbed the left side of his head xeflectively. "Didn't hit me on the chin. Hit me kinda np in hexe," and ihe pointed to a spot just under his left ear. 'The fellow. can punch. ^jreah—PlentylM SaW Jim We wondered, as the ex-.champion impaled a potato on his fork, if he had found. Louis better than he had ex^"TTedh. • . Plenty. I din't think he could getaway from me like he did. He looked like a bum when he tried to get away from some of those guys he had in his camp. " But that night ha was fast and smarter than I thought he was. The fella's learned a lot." How: about that knockdown in the ftrst?. . , T "I didn't hit him very hard. I couldn't. Y'see," and Jim dropped his fork and squared off against us, sitting down, "he came at me pretty hard and got me back against the ropes. We banged away there. for a while, "then X saw that his hands were straight out, and his head was down, like a man doing a dead man's boat. I couldn't draw my xight back far, on account of the ropes, so I , hit him With a short right hook. That's all. "He got up so quick I guess X was surprised, for he was over in the comer by the time I took after him. And right there's where I lost the fight, I guess. I swung as.- hard as I could for his chin, but the punch went by his head. Gee, I missed a lot. X stepped back and tried *it again, but X hit hhn on the chest'pr something." Qountess and Poolroom Eddie •The hardest punch I got-in was in the fourth, but it landed on his shoulder. He was cute, that Louis was. He was hard to hit when I thought he'd be easy, and I was missing. He'll moider Schmelling, if they meet. I'd like to see them fight. It would gimme a chance to fight Farr. There's a guy I'd like to get a crack at. I'd even like to fight louis again. I'd fight him a little different this time, Maybe lead a little more." How Jim could lead any more than he did in the Louis fight is beyond your agent's comprehension. He came out of his corner in the first with a barroom right, and in the eighth xound he was still advancing, one eye sightless and his arms twin buckets of lead, when he ran into the most .crushing right I've ever seen. - And out of the gore and misery came a new respect for the battler's tremendous courage. He got thousands of messages ranging from one from a baroness -to Poolroom Eddie. "Your courage was incomparable. We were in your corner and will stay there forever," Lou and Eleanor Gehrig wired. "You're still New Jersey's world champion," Governor Hoffman telegraphed. "You gave us a run for our money, pal," wired Jimmy Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Frank McHugh, and' old Lionel Barrymore wired, 'You have the heart of a lion, Jim, and no man lives who wouldn't be proud to shake your hand." Proud to be Called Your Friend Many of his new-found admirers wired that their admiration was steadfast, even though they lost money on Jim. At least a hundred of the telegrams said, "You're still champ to me." Mrs. James J. Corbett's was characteristically kind and thoughtful. J. Ed'gar Hoover, in a beautiful letter, wrote, "I just wanted to tell you how proud I am to be called your friend." Ten pounds heavier, a new seam in his war-scarred and friendly pan, the veteran warrior again has come out of his cave. He has licked his wounds, and they are healed. And in his knuckles, kindly during the man's armistiees, there is once again an itch for action.