Sheik's Crown

By a narrow margin the world's light-weight (135 pound limit) title remained last week with soulful-eyed Sammy Mandell, smart-looking "Rockford (Ill.) Sheik."

A roaring crowd at the new crimson- seated Chicago Stadium saw a notable fight. Tired by last minute weight-making tortures,* for two rounds Champion Mandell barely kept his feet as Brooklyn's Tony Canzoneri, tough challenger, rushed and slashed, came close to rocking Rockford's sheik to sleep. Then class told and Tony Canzoneri found himself taking many a left jab, many a deft hook, on the chin, on flattened nose, in his lean torso. Baffled but vicious, the Italian continued his savage rushes. To "Long Count" Dave Barry, referee, they looked convincing. But not so convincing to the ringside judges. So, after ten hard rounds, by vote of 2 to 1, Sammy Mandell kept his seldom-risked crown, was very glad the struggle was no 15-rounder.

Attendance: 24,500. Receipts: $165,000.

Much more curdling was this bout than last fortnight's fiasco in Detroit when the welterweight (147 lb.) championship changed hands. In the second round Challenger Jackie Fields (1924 Olympic amateur featherweight winner) jarred the big jaw and midsection of Champion Joe Dundee, who lurched to his hands and knees. He was scarcely up at the count of "nine!" when the fast Fields deposited him again on the canvas. Dundee crawled across the ring. Then he reared swiftly and, as Fields jumped forward, discharged a long right-handed foul which sent the challenger writhing to the floor and automatically made him champion. In his dressing room Fields regained speech but not memory. Said he: "How did it happen? What happened? How did he flatten me? How did I win?" About 30,000 people paid $125,000 to see the foul.

*Such as drinking no water for many hours, undergoing fierce rubdowns, long-continued.