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Show uiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiimmiimmimmmu I 1 Speaking ajj 1! II?SnpII ! I By ROBERT McSHANE ; : S talOHd by lr Ncnpopw Union i j niiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir: ! I A LIBRARY full of deathless prose has been written about 1 Billy the Kid Conn since his gallant t stand against Heavyweight Cham-, j pion Joe Louis. Billy, vao drew the loser's end of the purse, got a -1 much bigger sendoff than did the ! champ. j In fact, from the publicity g'.ven ! Conn one would have a hard time; determining that Louis had man-' aged to dust off his eighteenth title j seeker. Joe seemed incidental toj the main story, which was of Billy's! confidence, courage, ability and 1 ; fighting heart. Almost every author, however, was kind enough to admit that Louis won the fight in the thirteenth thir-teenth round. This is no reflection on Billy ihe '. Kki. He did a great job and cer-j tainly far exceed-; a3v?V e( 6cnera' cxpec-1 I tations- He was a i k t .; good little man in j sf- tprtfi tnere with a good i : f I ' b i g m a n. As H :p.i 8ua. the big H'' man "na"v wore ; ' ! the little man down. Williamj : David, as he wasi ? christened, is a ' . -,. fighter for every! Billy Conn one oi his 174 j pounds. He demonstrated dem-onstrated clearly that night why he formerly ruled the light heavyweight class and why he never has been knocked out by any fighter of his own weight. Champion s Guns But Louis carried too many big caliber guns. Just about the time that Billy figured it was all right to mix things up with the champ, he stepped into a murderous right that foreshadowed the end. The 13 long, grueling rounds brought mixed feelings feel-ings to the many loyal followers of both men. Conn's backers were proud of his courageous showing and despondent over his failure to keep away from the champ just when it looked as though the victory had come within with-in his grasp. Louis' followers were jubilant over his victory, yet fearful that he isn't the vicious, hard slugging fighter he used to be. There is good reason to believe that Joe isn't the keen, devastating brawler he was a couple of years ago. He has gone to the wars too often and the killer urge has lost its sharpness. During the last eight months he's only had about two weeks at any one stretch when he wasn't in training for a title fight. He has defended the crown seven times since January. It's no easy task to stay in perfect fighting condition con-dition for many months when bouts follow each other with clocklike regularity. Joe's showing in his past couple of fights has given new courage to the hopefuls who would like to wear the crown. Ray Carlen, manager of Lou Nova, is quite definite in stating that his boy will cancel Joe Louis in no more than two or three rounds. And Nova himself is of the same opinion. The Louis-Nova bout Is scheduled for September. We're willing to go on record as believing Lou will be as tough or tougher than Conn and j that he has a good chance to win the title. He will win it if Louis isn't better in September than he was In June. i The Cosmic Kid ' In spite of his eccentricities. Nova 1 is a dangerous battler. Though no one has labeled him a crackpot, he does manage to depart from the humdrum normalcy. Right now he ; is slated to be developing his "cos-' mic punch" somewhere in the Maine woorls. The cosmic punch is a blow that he expects will bring the world championship to him. Not long Rgo Nova exhibited the cosmic punch at a public demonstration. demonstra-tion. Most spectators agreed that i it locked like a short, straight right 1 In the jaw, but Lou complicated matters whi n he i-ang in the law of gravity and the spin of the sphere on its axis. They definitely p!ay n all-important part In the effectiveness effective-ness of this extra special Sutulay i wallop. Lou, incidentally, is no straiiRer in the realm of mysticism. For quite a while he subscribed to the , theory of yoRi and spent hours go- j ing through obnoxious-looking exercises. exer-cises. But Yogi was abandoned when Tony Galento nailed Swam' Nova. There's only one fault with the cosmic punch. Joe Louis, not understanding under-standing it, may choose to ignore it completely. And that might prove embarrassing to Nova. SPORT SHOUTS C Chick Mechan. former football ! coach, is head of the newly formed j Brooklyn Boxing association, which ' will promote fight shows in Ebbets ! field, home of the Dodgers. C Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox slugger, credits much of his batting '. ability to help from Lefty O'Doul, j manager of the San Francisco Seals. C The seven night games played by ' '.he Cleveland Indians this year are expected to draw approximately 350.000 fans. i |