Slants on Sports

We watched Barney Ross go through the last stages of his intensive training grind at Grossinger’s this morning and we must say that we have never seen the light weight king in better form. Bronzed by the sun to a healthy tan and in the very pink of condition, the champ revealed a more effective left jab than he did in the first Canzoneri fight some time ago.

Benny Leonard, the veteran battle-scarred ring master of a few years ago, is also here planning the strategic moves of the coming battle against Baby Face Jimmy McLarnin.

It is said in this sector of the battle front that Jimmy will be facing two men when he steps into the ring at the Madison Square Gardon Bowl on May 28. He will have to contend against the young and hard-hitting Ross and at the same time he will have to fight with the ghost of Benny Leonard whose spirit and cunning will be helping the Jewish champ in this resined arena.

“INTRODUCING-“

“Ladies and gentlemen! For the welterweight championship of the world, introducing in this corner at 138 pounds, the lightweight champion, the Jewish idol, the Chicago lad, Barney Ross.”

After the tremendous burst of applause, cheers and boos that will follow this announcement, the veteran Joe Humphreys will continue, “In this corner, at 147 pounds, the welterweight title-holder of the world, ‘Poison’ Jimmy McLarnin.”

Immediately after these words the referee will read the riot act to the boys, the managers will inspect their gloves and the ring will be cleared.

However, what the fans, who are at the ringside, won’t have to be told is that the fight is being held for the benefit of the Milk Fund. And this is another reason why the Madison Square Garden Bowl will be jammed to the gills. The fans are sure that whenever a Milk Fund fight is on the bill the dish served isn’t baloney but pure pre-war caviar.

BARNEY FACES A GOOD MAN

Jimmy McLarnin may be a big soap bubble to Barney’s followers but nevertheless he is the chap who has proved to be poison to so many of the Jewish scrappers in the ring. It was his terrific punch which sent Al Singer, Sid Terris, Ruby Goldstein, and the great Benny Leonard to the land of ring oblivion.

What is most important, and we must not forget, is that all this happened years ago and Jimmy hasn’t grown any younger since then. But he still has his old pepper and his punch, even if his footwork may not be the same thing it was when he floored one of the greatest ring heroes of all times, our own Benny Leonard.

OUR MONEY ON ROSS

Looking facts in the face, we go to bat and say that Barney Ross will win the welterweight crown of the world from the Vancouver tiger. Barney has been fighting regularly in a barnstorming tour that swung him clear around the country. It is true that some of his scraps haven’t been up to scratch. But then, Barney had nothing to lose in these non-title bouts, save a little prestige. He lost plenty of popular appeal in some of his California bouts, yet after talking the matter over with one of the champ’s managers, we were told the reason.

It seems the lightweight king was guaranteed his purse before each of these fights. No matter whether he won or lost he still emerged from the battle a financial winner and the 135-pound champ. There was really no great incentive for him to tear in and rip his opponent apart. Even a great fighter must take an evening off once in a while.

We say that Ross will win. We’ll place our do-re-mi on the line to this effect. This is the reason why. …Barney has been in the ring. He has been sharpening his timing, his speed, his punch. Take that Frankie Klick bout, for instance, in the west. Barney loafed through the first six rounds and as a result the fight was all to Klick. Notwithstanding, Barney showed his true form in the next four rounds to merit a draw, which means that he can fight when he wants to.

MCLARNIN IN FINE METTLE ALSO

As for Poison Jimmy, he has fought only a couple of minutes in a couple of years. Look what happened to Jack Dempsey in the Tunney tussle after his layoff from the ring for a few years.

Jimmy is a good man and there’s no getting away from this fact but even at his best some of our own boys almost turned the trick. Benny Leonard, in his great comeback, was not the same man who had fought Mitchell and Dundee and Tendler. Benny was just a shadow of his champion self. Yet the night Benny met Jimmy McLarnin, the boy from the west coast had to use all his ring knowledge to finish up the onetime lightweight ace with a barrage of punches.

However, in all fairness we must say that Jimmy is still the wildcat of the ring. He has the finesse, the technique and he still has the punch that sent Singer and Goldstein to sleep. Still, as Barney Ross will remind you, “McLarnin isn’t getting any younger…and my speed will beat him.”

A FIGHT ALL THE WAY

Barney really believes he will be the first boxer in ring history to hold the welter and lightweight titles at the same time. Jimmy is convinced that he can beat Ross. Add the fact that when two such men get into action in the resined arena together you have punches shot with the rapidity of a Gatling Gun.

McLarnin is the hardest puncher, for his inches, in the fight game today. It’s going to be a tough job for Ross to take the title bout but Barney will do it. Ross has the youth advantage, what is more he is the cleverer of the two. He took Canzoneri twice, when the experts said he couldn’t do it. He beat Petrolle, and he realizes that if he can add the fighting Irishman to his list he will be “THE” Jewish Idol of all time.

MCLARNIN’S RECORD LIKE A HITLER SCRAP BOOK

Years ago, when Jimmy was running wild and taking on all comers he made an enviable record for himself. He K: O’d. Sid Terris in the first, Sangor in the third, and took Kid Kaplan in the eighth. He knocked out Goldstein in the second and sent Singer to sleep in the third. Leonard fell before his terrific onslaught in the seventh. Fields and Glick both were mowed under in the second rounds. Yet it is our belief that Ross will fare better. His fighting heart will carry him through to victory.

There is no doubt about this scrap. It comes as a spring tonic to the ailing fight game.

THE MERIT AWARD

The night Barney steps into the ring to face the welterweight king he will receive the “Merit Award.” This award, presented by Ring Magazine Publishing Company to the outstanding fighter of the year, will be given to Ross because he amassed the greatest number of votes in the annual sport editor’s poll. Ross received 665 votes and tied with Tony Canzoneri, whom he has beaten twice. Tommy Loughran followed with 650 votes.

This honor went to Barney for 1933 because in the estimation of experts throughout the country, the Jewish lad did more to help the fight game than any boxer in the United States for the same period.

COMES TO NEW YORK TODAY

Barney will be in New York today to appear before the boxing commission and will settle up the last details for Monday’s scrap. It will be his last visit to this city before the fight. Immediately after weighing in at the commish he will return to this training camp here at Grossingers in Ferndale, N. Y., to continue the final stages of the training sessions.

MILK FUND SPECIAL

It is not only the babies of this city who will benefit from the best ring battle since Tunney fought Dempsey in the rain out in Chicago. The fans who have been steamed up at the cards that have been offered by the boxing moguls in the last couple of months in Gotham are flocking to the box office to get their hands on a pair of ducats with the same alacrity as the old Tammany birds used to hop it to Fourteenth street when Boss Murphy was handing out jobs.

The fight starts at ten o’clock Monday, May 28, at the Madison Square Garden Bowl in Long Island City. Tickets, if there are any left, can be bought at the Garden’s box office. For further information call Mr. Walter St. Denis at the Garden’s offices. We predict a top well over three hundred thousand dollars.