The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-04-01
ARMSTRONG INJURIES HAND
 IN DAY BOUT
Chicago Battler Stopped in 12th Round; Crowd
 "With" Loser
By HARRY FERGUSON United Press Sports Editor)

New York, April 1-(UP)-Henry Armstrong, the little brown buzz saw, still is welterweight cL ampion of the world, but when they stick his left hand under the X-ray today it may develop that 1t cost him $40,00C to beat Davey Day into a spongy mess in defense of his title.
 The indestructible, invincible Arm strong ran Into a tartar at Madison Square Garden last night, and al- though he won on technical knockout in the 18th round he got some souvenirs from Davey he is likely to carry for a couple of months. He got a gash over his left eye that required four stitches to close, and, more important, he injured his left hand in the fifth round and 1t may turn out to be fracture. If so, Armstrong will have to pass up 8 projected bout with Ernie Roredick in London--a fight he figured would earn him $40,000.
 Henry the Hammer, shooting for his $40000 in London, threw 'en from all points of the compass last night and some of 'em were so far south of the belt line that he lost two rounds because of foul blows. Except for those two rounds, he led all the way, swarming on top of his man, slamming home lefts and rights to the head and. finally, drop ping Day with right to the ribs that moved only about IA inches. Davey went to his knees on the can- vas, his head rolled crazily and Referee Billy Cavanaugh looked up into Armstrong's blood smeared face and said "That's all"
 It happened after two minutes and 49 seconds of the 18th round and 1t marked the sixth time in little more than four months that Henry the Hammer has successfully de- tended his welterweight champion ship. He also holds the lightweight title, but that was not at stake last night because Davey came in at 136 "a pound over the lightweight limit.
 Say this for both the brown man and the white man, their hearts were crammed with courage and both of them kept whaling away when nerves and muscle and brain must have been crying at them to quit. Armstrong, with pain shooting all the way up to his elbow, kept throw ing his left against Days head. Davey's right eye was gone-buried under an angry, purple swelling but he whistled his right uppercut through in a desperate attempt to connect from his blind side. Most of the time he missed by at least six inches and got 8 clubbing around the head in return which softened him up for the kill
 From the ninth round on, Arm- strong drank his own blood as 1t rolled down to his lips from the gas hover his sye, but he never stopped moving in with his odd, crab-like footwork, pulling Davey to the ropes and hitting him with everything except the water bottle.
 It was Armstrong's victory, but it was Davey's crowd. There were 10,028 persons peering through the smoke and 1t seemed that all of them were for Davey. They booed Armstrong when he hit low, and they cheered every blow Day struck even if most of them were powder puff punches flung by man who was licked but refused to admit it.
 Davey doesn't look like fighter because he is skinny and stoop shouldered, but the cold facts are that this is the first time he has ever been stopped. He can really take it, and his only mistake last night was that he thought flesh and bone had chance against a buzz-saw. And when he comes all the way back to consciousness today Che still was mumbling like a stumble 6 half hour after the fight was over) his biggest regret will be that he failed to avenge his stablemate and friend, Barney Ross.
 Barney. who was in Davey's corner last night, took terrible lacIng from Armstrong last May. And Davey said that he was going to square things with Armstrong last night; he was going to lick Henry the Hammer for his own sake and Barney's, too.
 Barney looked at Days bruised body in the dressing room, shook his head slowly an dsaid: Tt looks like he gave Davey q worse going over than he did me-"