Ross v. McLarnin

The difference between the limit for welterweights (147 Ib.) and the limit for lightweights (135 Ib.) is not large but it is important. Lightweight champions had fought for the welterweight championship three times in the history of U. S. pugilism, when in New York last week a crowd of 65,000 paid $225,000 to see a fourth meeting of the same sort. In Madison

Square Garden's outdoor bowl Welterweight Jimmy McLarnin entered the ring first, laced up his gloves. Small Barney Ross, who won the lightweight championship from Tony Canzoneri last year, ducked into his corner a moment later and the two men shook hands.

It was a good fight but not quite as exciting as the crowd had hoped. McLarnin, with neither prestige nor a title to gain by winning, had not fought for more than a year. Planning to retire after a few more bouts, he boxed skillfully but without enthusiasm. Ross, protecting his chin with his right shoulder, pecked at

McLarnin's face with his right hand. In the fifth round the crowed booed McLarnin for hitting low. In the ninth McLarnin caught Ross off balance with a right to the chin and knocked him down. Just before the bell, Ross floored McLarnin with a left to the jaw. After the 15th, at the end of a close, clever, almost even fight, McLarnin trotted to his corner, prepared to execute the handspring with which he customarily celebrates a victory. Referee Eddie Forbes walked across the ring to the opposite corner, raised Ross's hand. First lightweight champion in history to win the welterweight championship as well. Barney Ross (Bernard Rossofsky) had his first fist fight when he was eight years old, grew up on Chicago's West Side where his father ran a delicatessen, has two managers, wears silk pajamas, fancies himself a songwriter.

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