Evening star., 1938-07-18
SIMILARITY NOTED
|NBOX|NC STYLES
Lightweight King Is Fast,
Elusive Like Henry, but
Shows No Punch.
By GRANTLAND RICE,

Shows No Punch.
BY GRANTLAND RICE,
Special Correspondent of The Star.
NEW YORK, July l8.-Henry Arm
strong and Lou Ambers are about to
start training, and the prediction is
that, when they climb through the
ropes, Armstrong will be 3-to-1
favorite to add the lightweight title
to his collection. now consisting Of
the featherweight and welterweight
titles. Yet, even If Armstrong wins.
this may be his hardest fight, since
Ambers is fast, elusive and hard to
hurt and throws a lot of punches him.
self
The probable odds of to / are
based, first, on Armstrong; great rec
ord in the last couple of years, and
secondly, on the fact that even when
Ambers wins. he frequently is an un-
impressive performer. In his second
fight with Pedro Montanez, for in
stance, he gave the Puerto Rican
severe beating and completely elm
mated him from the lightweight pic
ture, but few who saw the fight liked
it. It was hard. savage-and dull
That has been true of many of Lou's
fights. The little Herkimer Italian
isn't great fighter by any means.
But he is a better fighter than very
often he appears to be.
One item that lessons his attrac-
tiveness to the fans is that he has
no punch. Or maybe it would be
better to say he doesn't stop to punch.
Probably, if he planted himself firmly
once in a while and then threw a
punch. he could knock somebody out
with it. But he jigs ceaselessly about
the ring. hurls his punches from all
angles. beats up his foes and piles up
decisions.
Rarely Impresses Fans.
This is the way he fought himself
up from nowhere to the lightweight
championship of the world, but too
frequently the crowds that have gone
to see him have come away unim-
pressed. Before the crowd can be-
come excited about a fighter it likes
to see the other fellow on the floor.
Armstrong, on the other hand, leaves
little to be desired in the way of
show any time he comes down the
aisle from his dressing room Even
entering the ring he is picture of
dusky ferocity-his head bobbing, his
shoulders twitching. his feet scuffing,
his fists moving in short. stabbing
punches at phantom foe. He usually
shadow-boXes couple of rounds in
his dressing room-he did five rounds
before he went out to fight Barney
Ross-so that. by the time he gets
to the ring. he is loosened UP and
ready to start firing at top speed as
soon as the bell rings.
When the fight starts, he whips his
punches to his opponents head and
body in steady stream-and with
something behind them He cuts or
bruises and hurts every time he lands.
He isn't one-punch knocker out, but
few have been able to withstand the
cumulative effect of his punches for
more than a few rounds, and those
who have managed to 20 the distance
with him have been horribly punished.
Armstrong; Power Debatable.
Whether he could have knocked out
Ross Is matter that ringwise veterans
have discussed with positive opinions
on both sides. One group believes
Henry had punched himself out by the
end of the tenth round and had moth
ing left with which to finish Barney
of in the last five rounds: the other.
that Henry didn't want to knock out
a game opponent who had taken a bad
beating for 10 rounds and obviously
had come to the end of his fighting
career.
These say that. if Armstrong really
had wanted to knock Ross out, he
would have stepped back once in a
while, carefully measured Barney and
then belted him about the head, which
would have been an easy thing for him
to do. since Ross had reached a point
where he couldn't defend himself.
Actually, Armstrong simply continued
to crowd Ross, throwing short punches
to the body most of the time. What
ever Henry had in mind, he gave Ross
terrific beating. Barney might just
as well have been hammered about the
head and body with a rubber hose for
IS minutes.
1t is conceivable that Ambers will
give Armstrong a much harder fight
than Ross did. Ross was made to
order for the little Negro His style
and his propensity for fighting only
minute or so of each round were
right down Henry's alley. So was
the fact that Barney had been at the
top for five years and had little or no
incentive to remain in the ring.
Ambers Hustling Fighter.
Ambers is much more like Arm
strong himself than he is like Ross. He,
too, is hustling fighter, on the move
through three minutes of every round.
He is young and, while he has been
champion for couple of years, he has
made little money out of the title
He wants the money and the added
fame for which Armstrong is striving
things which Ross has had for some
time and that had helped to soften
him up
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