The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-24
CHAMP HAS SURPRISINGLY EASY TIME IN DEFEATING
 SOUTHPAW CHALLENGER
Benny At Best, Tender At Worst-Thafs The Tale Of Veteran Champs Victory

YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK, July 2S.-(By Associated Press.)- Benny Leonard, king of the light weights for the past six years, dem onstrated conclusively tonight his undisputed title to the throne by trouncing Lew Tendler, his Philadel- phia challenger, in a slashing, bitter ly fought 15-round match at the Yan- kee Stadium.
 Before a crowd of more than 65,000 that paid a half-milllon dollars to see the match, setting new high mark for championships outside the heavyw ight class Leonard out generated, outboxed and outpunched his foremost rival. He held the up- per hand, had Tender on the verge of a knockout at the close and the judges verdict in his favor at the finish was merely formality.
 Spectacular as was the fight, it lacked the thrill, the suspense and evenness of their memorable battle a year ago at Boyles' Thirty Acres where Leonard, hanging on at one stage, was barely able to gain a mar gin of victory.
 Icopard Very Si1iiIfui.
 Leonard fought with consummate skill A master of ring tactics, he had his rugged southpaw challenger haffled d by the speed and precision of his attack, while he made futile most of Tenders attempts on the offen- sive The champion landed three blows to one in nearly every round.
 Tender seemed slow, lethargic by comparison to the title holder. Blocked in his favorite method of at tack, for which Leonard apparently had perfected a remarkable defense, the challenger. was left with no ef- Tf fi.Hx. T edly, and though he stood up gamely under a terrific battering in several rounds, he seemed in much poorer form than when he gave Leonard a slaSh1ne struggle year ago
 Leonard evidently had learned the lesson of his last fight with Tender. Instead of permitting his rival to get the 5ump, the site holder took the aggressive in the second round and quickly piled up a decisive margin on points. He jumped in and around the challenger. blocking, ducking and sparring, while he shot jolting upper cuts and hooks to the head and body. Tender, trying gamely to stem the tide, tried rushing. but the champion beat him at his own game. For 12 rounds the champion held the upper hand with ease. Then in the thir- teenth he cut loose with a savage drive that soon had Tender in dis tress.
 Tend,er On The Run.
 The crowd jumped to it's feet as Leonard. swinging rights and lefts to the head. with terrific force, drove Tender about the ring. Once, from a right to the jaw, Tender slipped to his knees and it seemed he would take a count, but he jumped back to his feet, only to be met by another whitening attack. E.7
 Vainly the challenger tried to stab with his left but Leonard was too quick and the round closed with the challenger in full retreat.
 Two hard shots to the jaw had Tender again in distress in the four teenth. He weathered this storm only to face another smashing attack in the final round. Leonard, trying hard for knockout, had his opponent reeling and bloody with smashing hooks and uppercuts to the head, but they lacked the power to bring down Tender, who fought back gamely but ineffectively, to the. close.
 Benny Won II Rounds.
 A majority of ringside experts gave Leonard every round except the first, which went to Tendler' by a small margin. Some gave the chal- lenger an even break in the seventh but the fact remained that at no time did he appear to have a chance.
 Leonard bore few marks of the battle when he left the ring. to be lifted to the shoulders of a throng of admirers, while Tender had cuts under his left eye and on his nose and mouth.
 "Tendler is the greatest southpaw and one of the greatest lightweights I have ever seen" said the champion later He put up stiff battle and even in the final rounds, when l hit him the hardest, l wasn't able to put him down, although tried hard"
 Leonard is a great champion" de- clared Tendler, in paying tribute to his conqueror. T did the best l could, but it wasn't good enough. Benny is a master ring general" Ready For Anyone Now.
 Billy Gibson, the title holders man ager declared the fight would go down in history as one of the great est of Lightweight battles.
 We're ready for any one now" he added. The crowd, massed in every nook and corner of the big stadium. was one of the most picturesque in fight history. Though Promoter Johnstons estimate was 15,000 less than the announced capacity of S0, GOO. it appeared that every spot was filled, except possibly some of the far reaches of the bleachers. Both the attendance and estimated receipts clipped the former record for light weight championship set at 60,000 and