Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-31
SAM FINDS IT TASK
TO MAKE POUNDAGE
Title Scrap With Canzoneri
May Be Clever Boxers
Last in Class.
BY BENNY LEONARD,
Retired indicated Lightweight Champion Of
the World.

Retired uncefeated Lightweight Champion Of
the World.
THIs fight with Tony Canzoneri
in the Chicago Stadium next
Friday night may be Sammy
Il Mandell'S last in defense of the
lightweight championship.
Sammy is growing, and because 1t
is becoming more difficult for him TO
make the weight limit Of 1875 the cham
pion is casting his eyes toward the
welterweight throne.
Nowadays it seems the thing for
fighters TO climb out of their class into
higher division as soon as they clinch
a boxing title. Tommy Eoughran is eager
to get among the heavyweightS, here We
have Canzoneri leaving the feather
weights and hobnobbing with the light
weights, Kid Chocolate leaves the ban
tamS fiat and mingles with the feathers,
and so on.
Proving q Handicap.
Mandell still is a youngster. He is
only 25. but he has been fighting nine
years and his increasing weight makes
it always harder to trim down to the
lightweight limit.
This Is a disadvantage Mandell will
have against Canzoneri. Tony will come
into the ring weighing about 1873, his
best natural weight, and he will have
had no worries about matchmaking
and drying out. In other words, where
Canzoneri will be at his strongest, Man
dell Is bound to have suffered some
sapping of strength because of the or
deal of training down to weight
Now there's another thing about Man
dell that weighs against him. not only
In this fight, but in any fight. Sammy
is rather brittle and frequently suffers
broken bones, from a variety of causes.
In several of his fights a cracked rib
was his big handicap In the last fight,
with Jimmy Goodrich, at Flint, Mich.
Sammy got a crack on the collar-bone,
and snap the bone was broken, cost
ing Sammy the fight. 1t was an over
the-weight affair or Goodrich would
have been champion again.
Is Exceptionally Clever
On the other hand, Mandell is SO
exceptionally clever a boxer, such a
coed ring general, so crafty and fast
in the ring, that he has managed to
conceal injuries from his opponents and
carry on to victory.
Notwithstanding early reports from
his training camp that Sammy was hav-
ing no. easy job making the weight,
do not believe he has become so heavy
or so settled that he will be unable to
get down to the proper notch. Not only
W L I1llklk lac Will yet W Tic Weight, Out
I believe he will do it without seriously
curtailing his strength or-speed. Most
of the talk about difficulty in making
the weight, when it comes from a train
ing camp, is for propaganda purposes.
Even at his best Mandell never was
great puncher. He is more the fencer
type, the cutter and slasher. He can rip
and cut an opponents face, and he can
make a hardy slugger terribly foolish by
getting him TO swing at him and miss.
1t takes the heart out of his man, thus
making it easier for himself to breeze
on to victory by decision.
Also, Mandell has one Of the best
educated and most annoying left-hand
jabs in the business. This probably is
the most ueful blow in the entire lot.
Not that it is particularly dangerous,
but 1t is damaging, and it not only is
an offensive weapon when properly
used, but also a great defensive one.
Summed up. Mandell not particularly
sturdy. is game, hard to hit and i'm
mensely clever.
(Copyright, 1929. by North American News
paper AllianceD