The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-19
(Reg. U. S. Pat. Off.) By HARRY FERGUSON limited Preas Shorts EditOrl


 New York, Sept 1o.-(UP)-1t Is 6 terrible thing to t1trude 0 sordid thing like money into e great sport. ing event such as the gladatorial combat between Joe Louis and Lou Nova, but the boys who fix the bet- ting odds made up their minds to- day and no doubt you are interested from Q purely scientific standpoint, of course.
 If you want to bet that Louis wins, you have to put up $li against $5.
 If you want to get that Nova wins, you nave to put up S5 against $o.
 As you can see without getting e pencil and paper, there Is 8 slight divergence there and that Is what Is known aS the better commissions CTS margin. Tn other words, If he keeps his books balanced right he can't lose, but he extends no such guarantee to you.
 Once the money starts rolling in, of course, the amount that is bet will determine whether the odds go up, down or stand still. The aver- age betting commissioner, in reality, Is nothing but 6 fnutuel machine that walks, talks, eats steak and for gets the date of his wedding ali- niversary. The public make the price.
 Some Sytem
 The tickliEh point on Q thing like the LouiS-N Nova fight for the betting commissioner Is to decide what to quote as the opening odds so the money will start rolling. Some booklnakers get information from the training camps. Others appar- entity take LouiC weight, divide 1t by the number of rounds Johnny Pay chek lasted against the champion, add the last two digttS of Mike Jacobs social security number and subtract the phone number of the first blonde listed in the little red leather book. Then they announce the opening price.
 The trend right now Is for the price to get shorter, which means that there is support for Nova de- veloping. Part of that no doubt Is due to reports from Louis' camp at Greenwood Lake that the champion looks sluggish, that he hasn't got his old-time precision timing and that he has slowed down from being the killer-diller who annihilated Max Schmeling.
 Nova, on the other hand, has some of the superb confidence that Gene Tunney carried before his first fight with Dempsey. Apparently it never occurs to him that he can lose. He takes 1t for granted that he is going to win and his confidence has infected his whole camp. He could be wrong, of course. Other fighters have found out that con- fidence isn't much of 8 weapon once the Brown Bomber jabs you with his left and then comes through with that rock crusher which is called his right hand.
 Feeling pretty certain that you don't care, I now shall proceed to answer a question that has been asked me every hour on the even hour for the last two months: Has Louis slipped?"
 The answer is that yes, I think he has. At this moment I am going to wiggle out of trying to tell you whether he has slipped enough to make Nova the next champion. That question will be answered in due time after a little more data is in
 Reflexes
 think Louis hits just as hard as he ever did, but I don't think he punches as fast. It probably has something to do with the slowing down of his reiiexeS and let's moi go into that because I fiunked phy- siology two terms running.
 It takes Louis longer to set se1 for Q punch. It also takes him long, CT to get out of the way of one But he still has one priceless asxei -the ability to recuperate and come back strong in the fieeting minute Of rest between rounds. He vas q dazed, battered. almost helpless man at the end Of the i2th round of his light with Billy Conn.
 He ressed one minute, came out for the 18th and the party