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Show RIVERS WINS I" CLEVER FIGHT Beats Leach Cross in Twenty-round Twenty-round Contest New Yorker Completely Outclassed. Los Anpeles. Nov 27 "Viva la Rivera'" shouted tho lmtle-Bs Mexicans Mexi-cans In the bleacher tier. Ami from the pallery rail to the rtngplt the white men took up this call and tried tc imitate it. Brown Joe "came back" with 11,000 spectators packed lneldo the big pine PftVllion to hies, shriek and cheer al aim; "came back" with a brtlMnnt display of the panther-Ilk aggressiveness aggres-siveness that made of htm at one time the most feared of all tho lightweights; light-weights; "came back" with as clean-cut clean-cut a victory as ever rewarded :i boxer. Rivers whipped Leach Cross in twenty rounds; beat and humbled the 'ew York boy until he could only sit In his chair and sob, trying In vain to find an explanation for his utter i rout. They began boxing In the soft sunlight sun-light of the late afternoon and finished fin-ished under the "spit" of the four great arcs over tho Vernon ring, a finish that found Cross backed weakly weak-ly against tho ropes, everything gone hut his fighting Instinct, whllo dart ing about him one two sides was the yellow skinned Califnmian trying to send one last punch through the beaten beat-en boy guard, a punch that would haf brought the "K. O." honor Doubts Are Vanished. Vanished are all doubts as to the question of supremacy between the old rivals. To those of us who pre-dicted pre-dicted an evenly balanced match, the ' result was disappointing In seven-I seven-I teen of the twenty rounds Rivers ko far outelaFst-d Cross that the Broadway Broad-way star looked like a beginner. One round was even. Cross had two rounds on points Twice was Cross floored, lean knock-down punches that kept Leach on tho canvas for the full count of tlmp. A short left chop on the rhln dropped in the fourth In the twelfth it was a right and left on the jaw, dflisered but the traction of a second apart, lhat sent Cross sprawling and brought, his brother ani Wallach, up cut of the corner with a face as white as the towel he carrir.l Upon no less than five occasions Riven had bis opponent staggering, and his failure to stop Leach iraa explained by Toe with a claim that he broke the thumb of hla right band In the eighth round Tho glove had to be cut from the injured hand, and Rivers left the ring suffering great pain Later it was announced that the hand was not broken, but that a bone bad been badly bruiser. The one bright mark to CrOBB' credit cred-it was his gameness. Pnmmeled with a deadly straight left on the face and body, blows that doubled him up, I Leach was forced to fight an uphill i I battle throughout the sixty minutes of one-sided milling. Both knock dow ns j weakened him, leaving the boy limp and dazed, but. desperately he made his forlorn bid for victory, and his i 1 11 i i : 1 1 round spun w .i one th.it brought the great crowd to Its feet Ifl expectation of seeing the Mexican crumple before the dying onslaught of the New Yorker. One right-hand punch crashed on the point of the chin, and for the j first and only time Joe appeared to be seriously hurt After him came I tho craftier Cross, swinging jabbing. and chopping, cutting loose with ev- ery punch he could remember, and I at the bell he was given an ovation .that sent new life through his veins But In the twentieth Rivers beat CrOBB to both thought and action I Leach had no chance to make a final I spurt Blinded and dazed by the i rain of straight lefts on the face and an occasional ripping right, each i backed In faltering style about the ring, and at the final bell was cow , rinc in a neutral corner with Rivers I trying to send in a decisive punch. Cross Commends Rivers. Vhen Referee George Blake hoisted hoist-ed Rlvem' arm In token of victory. Cross slouched to his corner and I dropped to a chair His first word - was that his New York bout with Ritchie and his coast training had left i him stale, but later he issued this ; statement. "The Rivers of today Is the best ! lightweight I ever met. He can hit i harder that Ritchie, Brown or Mur-j Mur-j phy Joe deserves another chance at the champ'on but If he doesn't j get It I would like one more go at I Rivers 1 think I can make a better showing " Rivers' only talk was of his In-1 In-1 ability to stop Cross on account of the injury to his hand, but after a , dresnlng room confab with his box er manager, Joe Levy made this statement : "Rhers thumb kept him from win j ning with a knock-out, but w-p want j to give Cross credit for his gameness I and stamina. After being beaten to a I standstill, he hit Joe so hard in the nineteenth that the blow was a big scare to use men in the corner Pew boxers would have weathered the ourth round knock-down. Cross has nothing to fed aRhamed of." |