MONTGOMERY WINS AFTER HOT MIX

(Los Angeles Times, February 14, 1945)
By Paul Lowry

In one of the wildest and roughest fights staged at the Olympic in months, Bob
(Bobcat) Montgomery, world's lightweight champion (New York version) slashed
his way to a unanimous 10-round decision over Cecil Hudson last night.

Thanks to two legitimate knockdowns -- one for a brief count in the eighth and
another for a four-count in the ninth -- Montgomery gained the votes of
Referee Abe roth and two judges, but in victory he walked off with more boos
than he did cheers.

A crowd of 10,000 that packed the Olympic to the rafters gave the Bobcat, now
Soldier Bob of Luke Field, the Bronx cheer for flooring Hudson after the
fourth-round bell. The punch possibly took a lot of steam out of Hudson.

The incident climaxed a display of bad blood that started with a punching orgy
after the bell ending the second inning, and was repeated at the end of the
third. This time Roth had to pull Montgomery off Hudson while one of the
latter's seconds pried his man away.

When the bell rang the finish of the fourth the fighters were near the ropes.
Before Roth could jump between them Montgomery lashed out with a whistling
right, the same type of blow that later floored his rival twice, and Hudson
fell to the floor.

The boos broke loose in a great volume, but Roth said the punch came so soon
after the belol that it would have been a hairline decision to rule it foul.

This ended the after-bell punching soirees, but both boys were guilty of rough
work in the clinches with head, elbows and gloves.

In back-alley parlance, it was a wicked brawl.

In making his western debut, Montgomery, a wiry-legged, tireless punching
fighter who has been out of action for six months, proved he can take it as
well as dish it out. He absorbed a lot of tantalizing left jabs and hard
rights from Hudson early in the battle, and still came on with a pace that
wore Hudson down to a frazzle. Bobcat was a bit rusty in his timing, but when
he got the range he hit effectively.

Hudson put up one of his best local fights, and as far as points were
concerned was ahead of the lightweight king at the end of the seventh round.
He outweighed Montgomery, 146 1/2 to 139 3/4.

Roth called the fight 60 to 50 in Montgomery's favor; Judge George Goodman, 59
to 51; Judge Mushy Callahan, 56 1/2 to 53 1/2; The Times, 57 to 53. Roth gave
Montgomery seven rounds to three.

Rudy Campa, 146, defeated Wilford Scott, 140, in the six-round semi-windup,
while in the preliminaries Johnny Brisco, 201, proved too rugged for balding
Steve Ludman, 192, in six rounds; Willie Collins, 160 1/2, won from Al Morey,
158, and Russ Long, 147, captured the curtain raiser from Benny Black, 147.
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