Schmeling Returns

Outside Madison Square Garden one night this week, pickets paraded up and down, beseeching Manhattanites not to spend money that might go to Nazi Germany. Inside, 17,000 boxing fans were clamorously awaiting another chance to see in action the famed right fist that had once felled Heavyweight Champion Joe

Louis. The possessor of that fist, Germany's beetle-browed Max Schmeling, presumably was warming up for an opportunity to win the title next summer from Champion Louis. After he had knocked out Louis, Schmeling thought he was to meet Jim Braddock for the championship, but Braddock believed he could make more money fighting Louis. Schmeling's opponent this week, a burly blond named Harry Thomas, was a comparative unknown, a college graduate who had been a professional baseball player and railroad engineer, had knocked out 44 of his 56 opponents in five years of professional boxing, had never been knocked down.

There was a great roar as Max Schmeling and Harry Thomas clambered through the thick maroon ropes that enclose the smoky, brightly-lit boxing ring. Referee Arthur Donovan mumbled orders in the centre of the ring, the fighters moved back to their corners, and the bell clanged. Both came out in a crouch, eyed each other for a moment. Then Thomas cracked Schmeling with a tentative left, first blow of an uncommonly bloody fight.

From the first round it was obvious that an 18-month layoff had rusted Schmeling. He usually is a slow starter, but his timing was unusually poor as Thomas, flailing awkwardly with his right hand sometimes ahead of his left, tapped him at will and won the round. In the second, Thomas landed a low blow and was penalized the round, but it did not belong to him anyway. Schmeling had cut his nose and lip.

Schmeling continued to fight in his cool, planned style, moving faster and landing oftener in each successive round. In the fifth, Schmeling was behind on points and finally let loose his right. It caught Thomas clean on the chin, and Schmeling blinked. Thomas did not go down. He sailed in, hitting Schmeling with left hooks that purpled his face and body. Schmeling stepped his pace up a notch.

In the sixth round Schmeling started smashing Thomas oftener. Thomas' face dripped blood, but he fought back hard. At the end of the round he was groggy. In the seventh Thomas grew weaker under the pounding. Just before the bell, for the first time in his career, he finally dropped to the canvas. For the eighth round, Thomas walked into the ring bleary-eyed. Schmeling hit him with a right and he went down again. Schmeling confidently turned to a neutral corner, but at the count of "One," Thomas was up after him. Schmeling slugged him again, and again he arose at "One." Four more times he went down under Max Schmeling's famed "Sunday punch," and each time rose ready to fight. The crowd, sickened by the sight, screamed "Stop it, stop it." Referee Donovan stepped between the two and beckoned Schmeling to a neutral corner.

Panted Victor Schmeling: "I hope now I will be entitled to a fight for the championship against Joe Louis."

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