Sport: Natural

In the patois of pugilism, “natural” is a noun. It means a fight between two popular, able plug-uglies with a definite issue at stake. The natural in the lightweight division has been for some time a match between cocky little Tony Canzoneri, whose puffy mouth stretches all the way across his broad, flat face, and saturnine, hammer-handed Billy Petrolle, “The Fargo Express,” with Canzoneri defending his title. It was scheduled for last summer, postponed when Petrolle hurt his arm in training, finally fought out last week before a capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden.

The bout was no natural for Petrolle: he normally fights at 140 lb., had to take off eight pounds in eleven days to make the limit (135 lb.). Canzoneri soon discovered the result. Cool and chipper, an 8-to-5 favorite, he brushed away Petrolle’s usually lethal right, danced briskly around the ring peppering quick little punches at Petrolle’s head. As Petrolle weakened with fatigue, Canzoneri exhibited bravado. He dropped his hands and stuck out his jaw, moving it just in time to make his opponent miss. Petrolle won the seventh round and shook Canzoneri with a desperate right in the 15th. Then he wrapped himself in his Indian blanket while waiting for three judges to vote the decision, naturally and unanimously, to Canzoneri.