The Power Shovel

Middleweight Champion Carl ("Bobo") Olson goes about his ring work in the methodical, workmanlike way of a power shovel moving a specified amount of earth. A power shovel lacks drama, but there are always sidewalk superintendents around to watch. Last week 16,543 superintendents, paying $107,660, flocked into San Francisco's Cow Palace--joining millions of free lookers on TV--to watch Bobo defend his title against France's Pierre Langlois.

Boxer Langlois, who was a substitute for Joey Giardello (who had a knee injury), was game but overmatched. In the sixth round, Olson opened a cut over Langlois' left eye. In the eleventh, another Olson punch knocked the dressing off and left the cut looking like a blackish mussel shell, gaping in the middle. After a conference with the ring doctor, the referee awarded the fight to Olson on a technical knockout. Television viewers, who could not plainly see the cut or the blood and wondered why the bout was halted in the middle of a round, felt cheated. But later photographs showed that the Frenchman's eye was in really bad shape. It was Olson's 18th straight victory. Although no Sugar Ray Robinson (his predecessor as middleweight champ), Olson is at least active, having defended his title three times this year. The week before the Langlois fight, boxing writers awarded Olson the Edward J. Neil Memorial Plaque as Fighter of the Year.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.