Evening star., 1939-01-25
ChampHasEdge
In All Except
Experience
Challenger Scorned
As Was SchmeIinq
Before Triumph
BY GAYLE TALBOT,
Associated Press Sports Writer,

Associated PreSS sports Writer.
NEW YORK, Jan. 25-As usual,
the odds in favor of Joe Louis re-
tanning his heavyweight champion
ship grow steadily longer as the
hour nears for the big Negro to
meet John Henry Lewis in Is rounds
tonight at Madison Square Garden.
A few days ago it looked as
though the widespread admiration
for the chsllengers boxing skill
would cut the odds down to a
respectable to by fight time,
but nothing came of it. The bet
ting commissioners, anxious to get
some action, have boosted the fig
ures up to l to 7, and there is
reason to believe they will be even
more liberal by tonight.
The fact is that few are anxious
to wager against Joe Louis at any
odds, hence the men who make
their living by guessing right on
sports events are forced to offer
outlandish inducements in order to
do any business when the Bomber
appears. 1t will pain them to do it,
but they probably will be betting
$40 against each 81 of Lewis money
by the time the two blacks CLIMB
through the ropes.
Odds Same Against Schmeling.
BY coincidence, that is substan-
tally the price they offered that
Louis would lick Max Schmeling
in their first meeting in 1886. When
the German battered Joe into dazed
submission the bookies bled from
every pore. If it happened to them
once 1t could happen again, for
boxing is the most uncertain game
of them all.
Louis. who has been called the
greatest fighter of history since his
shattering one-round knockout of
Schmeling in their second fight last
summer, will go into tonights en-
gagement with every advantage, ex-
cept that of experience. He will
pack difference" of close to
20 pounds in weight. and he punches
with a shocking force that John
Henry never had Further, he is
at the peak of his career. while
John Henry passed his Two or three
years ago and has lost some of the
dazzling speed that made him king
Of the light-heavies.
Still, it is silly to say that a fight
er as good as Lewis hasn't a chance
of sneaking victory over any man,
and the odds are crazy insofar as
they reflect the possibilities in to-
nights bout. Who does not recall
how sorry every one felt for old Jim
Braddock, the washed-up stevedore,
the night he met muscular Make
Baer for the latter's title-and
pinned Makes ears back? The odds
against Jim that night were about 10
to /, too.
Hundredth Fight for Lewis.
This will be the Tooth profess
sional fight for Lewis, who first be-
gan giving boxing exhibitions as a
kid of 5 at Phoenix, Ariz, and it is
the one big spot in his life, the goal
toward which he has been driving all
these years. He was incredulous
when his fat manager, Gus Greenlee,
told him he was going to get a shot
at Joe Louis.
From that moment he hasn't ex-
pressed a doubt Of his ability to lick
Joe. He is as confident as Schme-
ling was up at Speculator last sum-
mer. Maybe he will get his housing
caved IN like Schmeling did, but
again, maybe he won't. He has on
his side desperate determination to
outpoint Louis for Is rounds, and he
still has his cool fighting head and
all his defensive skill.
So, though Louis is the logical
winner (the average guess being that
Lewis will last five or six rounds)
it would not come as a devastating
shock to this observer if John Henry
should be erect at the finish. We
might even survive If John Henry
received the decision.
Considering that it is the first
heavyweight title fight between
Negroes ever held in this country,
the event promises to draw a fine
house. Promoter Mike Jacobs looks
for 1900 customers and 100000 in
the till. Louis never has drawn
under the latter figure in the Gar
den, so this does not mean necessari-
ly that the fans think Lewis will give
him a hard fight. They simply turn
out to see Joe Louis fight anybody.