The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-22

frame, stopping the bout-as he had wanted to do few seconds before, when Shank had taken the count of nine for the third time.
 Robinson's triumph over Shank was expected, but the manner of It's achievement came as complete surprise. Shank had gone into the ring with recently healed gashes over hiS right eye and at the corner of his mouth. In other words, the kid from Denver was busted up." Because of this, Robinson was ex- pected to win in five or six rounds.
 The flow of blood supposedly would cost Shank the fight.
 But there wasn't a fleck of blood on Shank when he hit the deck for the fourth time-he was merely belted out quickly by the most ex- plosive puncher the WelterWeight di- vision has known since the heydey of Jimmy McLarnin, almost dec ade ago. And we are quite certain that McLarlin was the hardest puncher in the history of the 147- pound division, since it was orig mated in 1892.
 But the 21-year-old Ray Robin son of today shapes up as a greater fighter than McLarnin ever was because he couples blinding speed afoot with just as much dynamite as McLarlin ever packed. And he's smart, deadly effective boxer. Me- Larlin was a good boxer, too. No doubt of that-but never did he have the panther like footWork of Robinson.
 Experts, most of whom live in the past and fail to appreciate present i greatness, will tell you that Robin son hasn't proved himself yet-that he is too young-that his career is too brief to indulge in superlatives. Maybe they're right, but we doubt 1t.
 You can't get away from the fact that young Robinson has hammered his way into the hall of fame If for no other reason than his all-time record of 123 victories as an amateur and a professional. He is unbeaten since he. first started tossing leather. Last night he scored his 18th knock out among 34 professional victories.
 We, personally, rate Robinson a greater all-round fighter than heavyweight champion Joe Louis, who never has had to face the op- position that Robinson already en- countered and who has virtually no footWork.
 Louis is a straightforward shuf fer who depends upon always being III position hit from 8 firm footed stance, regardless of the hand or bcdy feints he uses to make an op- ponent move so that he can coun- ter with deadly effectiveness. But the mortal sin of all shufflers is simply that they can't move their mid-section when dynamiting body puncher attacks. Louis has been singularly fortunate that he never met such body -puncher, al- though he was knocked out early ill his career by Washed-up Max Schmeling, who hit him with 52 right hands on the chin, largely be- cause he lacked the footWork to break out of his shuffle.
 Robinson, who twice overcame the menacing parrage of Marty Servos body barrage by virtue of his fly in. feet, and who licked lightweight champion Sammy Angott, decisioned former welterweight champion Frit- zie Ziyic the first time and stopped him the second time, has what it takes.
 Tough young Ruben Shank had just hit Robinson a round-house right on the chin when those flying feet responded and Robinson un- leased left hook that exploded or the westerner's chin and made Shank remark in the dressing room later:
 T could never shake off that first bunch"