Evening star., 1925-05-31

Neither man was in danger of d
knockout at any point. Although
Berlenbach repeatedly forced the
titleholder against the ropes and
lunged at his body and chin desper-
ately with hard rights and 1efts, the
crafty McTigue slipped away from
him and lodged to cover.
Time after time McTigue made the
challenger miss his dangerous left
leads in the center of the ring, but
the Astoria man was not to be denied.
He kept boring in on the champion
and redeemed every miss with a solid
punch on the shifting McTigue until
he had finally opened cuts over his
eyes and mouth and bruised the flesh
at his sides.
Berlenbach, fighting the twenty
sixth bout of his professional career,
said after the match that he had
been unable to attain his best con-
dition for the fight, claiming that he
had been threatened with diphtheria
at the training camp. This compelled
him, he said, to discontinue his work
outs temporarily. He failed to show
lack of condition once he swung into
aston, however, and was far stronger
at every point of the match than was
the champion.
The crown transferred tonight to
the dark -thatched head of the former
Olympic wrestling champion had been
held for only two years by McTigue,
who had lifted the title from the con-
queror of Georges Carpentier-Bat-
Ting Sikh.
Only once before had McTigue step
ped into the ring with a challenger to
decision. In this fight he had boxed
to an unpopular draw verdict with
Young Stribling In Georgia. Later he
lost newspaper decisions to both
Stribling and the welterweight cham.
pion, Mickey Walker, at Newark,
N. J.
Berlenbach Starts Fast.
,Berlenbach opened his bid for the
championship tonight with a rush,
tearing in at McTigue with left runges
to body and head and working his
rights at close quarters as the cham
pion went to the ropes to cover with
both hands. For the first four rounds
of the fghtSsthe champion observed
a caution which permitted Berlenbach
to do all the forcing and leading.
McTigue appeared slow, and although
he stuck out feeble left at the chal-
| lenger as he rushed to close quarters,
he later fell back almost entirely on a
straight right as "a counter.
Frequently McTigue, retreating
SIedOlly DeIOT0 tH0 StuTuy kaStOlld
fighter, turned completely around and
danced away from the attack of his
opponent But, although he avoided
many of the challenger's leads, the
champion was unable to hold off Ber-
lenbach as they crashed into the ropes,
where Paul pumped both hands vigor-
ousfy to body and head.
The sixth, seventh and eighth were
the champions only good rounds. He
beat Berlenbach to the hunch with his
stiff right cross in these rounds. and
made the challenger miss often by
slipping under his left hooks and side
stepping his rights. In the last five
rounds of the battle, however, Berlen-
bach creashed home terrific wallops
to the head, and it finally became ap-
parent that the champion could only
retain his title in the closing rounds
by a Knockout.
McTigue's packers sent him out to
make final stand in the fifteenth,
after Berlenbach had pounded him
vigorously in the two preceding
rounds, and gamely the champion went
| to the task. He rushed at BerIenbach
and backed him into the ropes as he
piled solid rights and lefts, but the
latter soon indicated he was more than
iwilling to exchange with the passing
champion. The Astoria fighter Ieaped
back at his foe, and for the first time