The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-09-07
FOUL BLOWS MAR KNOCKOUT WIN
 BY BILLY CONN
Jacobs Starts Talk for Louis Bout = Pastor Is
 Ahead in Early Rounds
BY HARRY FERGUSON United Press Sports Edit0r)


 hot news in Leatherfist Lane today is that Billy Conn, the punchless wonder, finally knocked out 8 man.
 How and why he did it is some thing we will take up later, but the record books will show that Bob Pastor was knocked out in the 18th round at Madison Square Garden last night. The referee counted ten over him as he lay on the canvas, pushing hard with elbows and knees in a brave attempt to get up and take some more.
 This afternoon Promoter Mike Jacobs opens discussions that may lead to & match between Conn and Joe Louis. If the public feels the same way about it as Louis does, there won't be enough interest to justify it. The Brown Bomber sat in the second row last night and saw nothing that kept him from snatching forty winks now and then.
 Pastor was fouled. The issue is whether the low punches weakened him so much that Conn finally was able to put across the knockout punch. Officially, the records show that Conn threw low blows in the eighth and 18th rounds. Referee Billy Kavanagh, acting in accord ance with the rules of the New York state boxing commission, took the eighth and 18th rounds away from Conn and gave them to Pastor. But to this observer it seemed that the fouling started in the seventh round when Conn hooked left that landed below the belt. The referee didn't call that one foul, but once Pastor had taken that punch he never got going again.
 Good Start
 Up to then he had been winning the fight. He took the first three rounds with ease, forced the fight ing all the way and tied Conn up with 6 cute hop, skip and jump every time Billy tried to start a rally.
 Conn always has been a late starter. Last night he got going in the fifth, stabbed with his left and hooked nicely to the head. But in the sixth Pastor came back, forcing the fighting, and wading through lefts and rights to the head to bull Billy onto the ropes and win the round.
 So they went into the seventh with Pastor leading on points and then he caught the low one. A spasm of pain raced across his face and for the rest of the tfree-min- utes he did nothing except hang on and try to stay out of trouble. Conn came racing out in the eighth and started shooting 'em low. Two left hooks definitely were low and a third one was questionable. But the low ones softened Pastor up plenty for what was to come. He never got back into the fight.
 The first knockdown occurred in the ninth. Conn, getting stronger all the time, spared neatly and set Pastor up for another left hook to the stomach. That one seemed to be in legal territory and it landed with considerable steam behind it. Pastor went dwon, grabbing at the canvas with his gloves, and the count started. It got to eight when the bell rang ending the round and Pastor wobbled to his corner.
 Low in Twelfth
 Through the tenth and eleventh Pastor just hung on. Conn hit him with lefts and rights, jabs, hooks and uppercuts and still couldn't put him away. The fight ended in the 18th, but the 18th really was the pay-of. Conn threw another left hoko low and doubled Pastor up like a jack-knife. Bob stayed of the floor, however, and tried to throw punch. Conn measured him like a mathematician doing trigonometry problem and let him have a right to the jaw. Pastor reeled through the ropes and came Slamming down on the apron of the ring. He stay ed there for count of nine and then crawled back and weathered the round. The end in the 18th was inevitable. Conn slammed away for two minutes and then caught Pas tor on the chin with a left hook. Bob went down, slowly and with rubbery knees. He still was trying to get up when the count of 10 ar- rived and he still was in pain 10 minutes later in his dressing room.
 Conn's light heavyweight cham pionShip was not at stake in this over-the-weight match, but Billy still has to prove that he has the stuff to go in there against Louis, who will outweigh him by 25 pounds.