The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-15
(Reg. U. s. Pat. Off.) BY HARRY FERGUSON (TJnited Press Shorts EditOr)

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 New York, Aug. 15.-lUP)-He threw a green bathrobe off his shoulders, shook hands with couple of sports writers and got down to business.
 "I'm going out slugging," he said. "If Louis wants to slug with me, okay. I'll take one from him to land one and I'll keep it up as long as he wants to play that way"
 It was Lou Nova talking In the dingy hot Pioneer gymnasium where he had come to start getting ready for the most important evening in his lfe-the evening of Sept. 19 when he crawlS into ring in Yar1- kee stadium and takes his shot at the heavyweight championship of the world.
 "Why don't you fight out of crouch like Godoy and Galento did??" somebody asked.
 "I don't have to-" Nova said. T can take a punch better than he can, and I can Nand it out almost as hard as he can. I want to get in theer and knock hi mout quick"
 Then, as all interviews with Nova are bound to sooner of later, the discussion turned to the strange theories that come spinning out of the mind of this strangest of heavy weight boxers his theory about the "cosmic punch: his idea that he has learned to punch with gr@T- ity instead of against 1t; his su- preme confidence that no man who ever lived can hit him hard enough to send his senses reeling and send him to the canvas.
 He talked about his theories seri- ously and eagerly, he politely asked the sports writers not to ridicule them until he had a chance to test them in the heat of batle.. And, so help me, as yo ulisened to the big guy standing there among the punching bags and exercise bars you began to get a hunch that here might be the one who would turn the trick at which so many others have failed.
 You tried to argue yourself out Of 1t, tried to tell yourself that any man who went out to punch with Louis was committing suicide. A picture of Nova lying on the canvas with Lo,iis-dead-panned but alert standing over hi mflashed through your mind. It Is 8 picture you have seen so many times in so many rings.
 But always your attention was brought back to the bronzed giant who stood theer talking so quietly and so confidently:
 T really think that I'm in per- feet condition for the first time in my life. I've been up in Maine, you know, and I never had this feeling about my condition before. I weigh about 210 now, and ], think I'll go into the ring weighing about 2O2."
 Another heavyweight with what people called screwy ideas talked that way one time. That was Gene Tunney just before he tackled Jack Dempsey the firStt ime. He said he was going to walk out when the bell rang and nail Dempsey on the jaw. And he did, and the great Manassa Mauler never rec cred from it. Tunney, too, went into the woods and came out brown, tough and lean.
 Don't get me wrong. At this dis tance and at this time I'm not say- ing that Nova is going to beat Louis. I'm just trying to get into words the hunch that kept coming back yesterday as Nova talked and shadow-boxed in the Pioneer.
 Lady Luck likes these guys who fear nothing. She likes 'eni to be willing to take q punch to land one. And I, for one, will not be too surprised if. on the evening of Sept. ie she takes that last, long walk from dressing room to ring with Nova and then. just before he goes up into that hot square of light, grasps one of his big. brown paws and says:
 ''keep punching. kid, this is your night to howl"