Ant v. Mosquito

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 719, 19 July 1929, Page 12

Ant v. Mosquito

How Kid Chocolate Beat Fidel La Barba NEGRO'S 365 SUITS One of these days, Johnny Leckie may be meeting a young man with the picturesque name of Kid Chocolate. He is a negro, and his Sunday-go-meeting name is Eligio Sardinias. lie it was who created a mild sensation in the United States recently by taking a much-disputed decision from Fidel la Barba. Apropos of this bout, the American journal, ' Time,” has the following entertaining story: A title at stake is usually necessary nowadays to make a prize-fight notable. Weight and power are usually necessary to make a fight exciting. Yet Eastern ring- watchers felt they had had a good evening last week after observing the earnest efforts of two little untitled men to knock each other out in ten rounds of fighting which looked, from the rim of tbe Bronx coliseum in which it took place, like a black ant and a dark-haired mosquito battering at each other. The ant, who was declared the winner by a close decision, was Eligio Sardinias, a young Cuban-born negro with big round eyes, long arms, an antlike waist and the inadequate nicknameyof Kid Chocolate. Kid Liquorice would suit him better. When he entered the U.S. a few months ago, he had no fame, although in Havana be had won 100 amateur bouts and knocked out 46 of his spidery opponents.

In Manhattan his first professional rewards were coffee and frijoles given to him by informal fighting clubs in out of the way places. Now he has more silk shirts than he can count, and his suits of clothes are said to number 365, all of them eminently visible of cut and shade. Even in his training camp he likes to change his clothes several times a day. IJe has never lost a light, nor learned to speak English. He fought at 1211 b. Had he weighed three pounds less he might have been declared bantam-weight champion of the. world, a title at present unassignod. As it is, he is about three fights away from the featherweight title. The mosquito was Fidel La Barba, one-time flv-weight (1121 b or under) champion of the world. A student at Stanford, he wants to go into real estate business. Among books he has read and liked are “The Outline of History” by H. G. Wells, “Round Up” by Ring Lardner. Among magazines he likes and reads is “Variety.”