San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-11

slcKenlngly not.
In the exact center of the place
was a raised platform, a 24-foot
squared ring. Above this bcat
down a score of glaring electric
lights bringing out into sharp re
lief three human figures.
OF this trio, one was sweating
and red-faced man in shirt sleeve:
and baggy trousers. The arc
lights made his bald head shine
like a halo. He was Honest
Tim Constantin; and he was re.
fereeing one of the most spectacu-
lar and best advertised fights the
Cestus Athletic Club had staged
for a year.
The rings two other occupants
were Spike Kennedy and Merle
Renton.
Stripped to trunks and socks
and canvas shoes, they faced each
other, painting through set teeth
their faces engorged and blood
smeared; their hairy chests and
white torso-sides spattered with
reddish-blue blotches where bruis-
ing blows had landed.
1t was Merle Renton's fight. The
wise ones had seen that from the
end Of the first round, in spite of
Kennelly's savage work. And they
had seen it increasingly in every
one of the six rounds that had
followed.
Kennedy was a born fighter.
crafty, ferocious, apelike in his
dynamic strength. But Renton
was besting him. Steadily, with
no gallery plays and with no atom
of lost motion, Merle had tackled
his job. Bit by bit he was wear
ing down his taller and Shower OPP
ponent.
For the most part, the crowd
was glad. For Merle Renton, well
terweight champion of the East,
was popular. Every fight-fan knew
him to be square and clean.
From the Antipodes mad come
Spike Kennedy, New Zealand's
welterweight champion. Across
the continent he had fought his
way, from the West travelling East,
winning victory after victory
sometimes in a way that did not
add to his popularity or to his
fame for craftsmanship. And at
last he had challenged Merle Rem
ton.
Nobody in the Cestus arena,
that night, knew better than did
Spike Kennedy, that the New Zea-
lander's unbroken line of victories
was in danger just them, of sud-
den curtailment. Ruse after ruse
he tried-ruses which earned MIN
curt warnings from Constantin
and an occasional ringside hiss.
The men came up for the eighth
round. Merle advanced to the CEN
ter in a business-like fashion.
Spike came out Of his corner
with a rush. The men crashed
together in mid-ring in a volley
of short-arm jabs which culmi-
mated almost instantly in a clinch.
AS they clinched, Spike brought
up one arm awkardly as if to hit
his antagonist on the forehead.
The referees eye followed the sill
iy maneuvers as Kennedy had in
tended it should, And, in the same
instant, Spike brought down his
seel, with all his strength and the
Gull weight of his hundred and
forty-odd pounds on Merle's in
step.
The instep is one of the body's
most cogent nerve centers. The
stamp of Kennelly's heel, for all its
soft rubber sheathing, sent a tor.
rent of anguish surging through
Renton's whole body. For the frs!
time in his five-year experience as
a fighter, Merle hung On" in the
clinch-hung on despairingly, lest
he topple to the ground.
Snow, then, boysw the referee
was informing, Break clean, here
Act nice! Break away. I'm tell
ing you! Break Renton.
Still half dazed with pain, Merle
obeyed. He did not make com
plant. 1t was not his way t.
squeal to the referee.
At once, Kennedy was at Rem
ton, like raging tiger. AS h,
charged, he aimed a mighty lief
swing for the jaw.
Merle saw the swing coming. H,
threw up his guard, at the sam
time jerking his head to one sid
and stepping backward.