Crowd of 2500 Sees Hard-Fought Scuffle

Crowd of 2500 Sees Hard-Fought Scuffle Walcott and Ketchell Battle to 10-Round Draw in Feature Bout at Pennsauken Millville Slugger Suffers Cut Eye; 'Jersey Joe' Loses Round on Foul ALLEN BEATS TOOMEY By Frank Kopesky South Jersey fight fans still are at odds over the superiority of their two outstanding heavyweights. "Jersey Joe" Walcott, the Merchantville "Brown Bomber," and the veteran Billy Ketchell, of Millville, tangled at the Pennsauken Open Air Arena last night and engaged in a 10-round draw. A gathering of some 2500 attended the first presentation by the Atlas Boxing Club, and by all indications, professional fighting has regained a foothold in this city. Walcott and Ketchell, both of whom are regarded as powerhouse hitters, engaged in a bout that was hard-fought from start to finish. In the opinion of the writer, however, the Merchantville Negro merited the decision. Ketchell, who came in at 181, seven pounds lighter than his opponent, fought an inside fight throughout. He tied Walcott into a knot and then pummeled his ribs and stomach. Granted that the Millville veteran scored considerably by this method, but Walcott's long-range slugging, his aggressiveness, and his numerous damaging blows clearly, in our opinion, earned him better than a draw. Walcott Won Six Rounds The score card showed six rounds for Walcott, two for Ketchell, and two even. The Millville campaigner, whose ring career began as a lightweight years ago, won the sixth round by his telling body punches and the ninth on a foul. The fifth and seventh were even. The decision by Referee Bill Kutcher, of Atlantic City, appeared to satisfy many of the customers, but a good number was of the opinion that the nod should have gone to Walcott despite the fact that Ketchell made a fight of it. No knockdowns were scored and three furious exchanges in the first round gave the customers their biggest thrill. After that, the principals settled down and waged a careful fight throughout. The Merchantville knockout artist employed a left jab effectively in several instances and this helped in gaining him the first round. Neither connected with any damaging blows in the second session and they closed with a rush after hanging and sparring during the first two minutes. Walcott won by a shade. The stream-lined Negro staggered his adversary twice in the third round with gashouse rights to the jaw, and Ketchell pummeled Walcott's ribs. The long-range socks gave Walcott the round easily. Fight at Close Quarters They fought extremely close in the fourth round with neither landing any telling blows and it was the Merchantville slugger's round by a shade. The fifth was a repetition of the fourth except that Ketchell fought his opponent on even terms. It was in the sixth that Billy scored with telling body blows and Walcott slowed down somewhat and missed several times to forfeit the round. It was all infighting in the seventh and their scuffling at close quarters resulted in a nasty cut on Ketchell's right eye as a result of a "butt." This round also was even and Walcott won the next by a shade by virtue of his harder and more frequent hitting. In this chapter he returned a few of Ketchell's body blows. Walcott hit low in the ninth, but Ketchell took only one minute, 20 seconds rest and appeared none the worse for the blow. Walcott protested that the blow was not a foul, but it nevertheless lost him the round. In the tenth, the suburban scrapper again had the best of it. Because of threatening weather, the bout was third on the program of five fights. Allen Beats Toomey Doing considerable damage with a stinging right, Joey Allen, popular South Camden lightweight, punched out an eight-round decision over Johnny Toomey, of Newark, in the semi-windup. Toomey, who tipped the beam at 143, is a former Camden boxer, and sported an advantage of seven pounds. Allen staggered Toomey with powerful rights in the first and sixth heats. Toomey put up a good fight, but Allen was just a little too smart for the upstate scrapper. Joey won all but the second round, which was even. Freddy Lewis, 156½, of Maple Shade, and Joe Duca, 161, of Paulsboro, brought the rearranged show to a close by treating onlookers with a hard-fought eight-rounder. It was the third and "rubber" fight and Duca made it two victories by gaining the decision. They engaged in toe to toe slugging bees on several occasions and neither gave an inch throughout. Duca landed the most damaging blows, belaboring the Maple Shade youngster with telling right crosses and straight punches to the head. Easy for Straiges Billy Mariner, of Philadelphia, was absolutely no match for Joey Straiges, nimble footed Camden lightweight in the second bout slated for six sessions. Straiges, who fairly oozed class and ability, chopped up both Mariner's eyes before Referee John Loughrey intervened and halted the slaughter in the third round. The time was two minutes 39 seconds. Straiges came in at 136 pounds, holding an edge of one pound. Tommy Ricco, 125½, South Camden scrapper, outpointed Jimmy Russell, 128, of Beverly in the opening number of six rounds. After starting slowly with both doing considerable holding and wrestling, the bout developed into an exciting affair from the second session on. Russell scored with numerous body blows, but Ricco's aggressiveness and hard blows to the head throughout easily merited him the decision. Ricco particularly had much the better of it in the third and sixth rounds, staggering the Beverly youngster with a number of head blows.