The first frame of the semi-final was Mania, P.L, Nov. 13.
If Ceferino Garcia can jar the world's welterweight crown off Henry Armstrong's curly head in New York on November 25 he will become a national hero comparable only io the late Pancho Villa, the flyweight champion whose death after a bout has become a sports sagayin the Philippine Islands.
The 15-round fight in Madison Square Garden has almost replaced the results of the national elections as a topic of conversation in this archipelago, where politics and prize-fighting have been popular since the American occupation.
From the hemp plantations of Mindanao to the congested Tondo district of Manila where Garcia grew up, the questions were:
"Will Ceferino be another Filipino champion? Will his greater experience and 10 or 12 pounds advantage be enough to overcome that Henry's homicide the newspapers tell about? Can that bolo punch' hack out a world title where the blows of Lou Ambers and Barney Ross failed?"
Anyone with money to bet on Armstrong could find a dozen takers in a single block here. Wasn't "Garcia the only fighter who knocked Ross off his feet when Barney was champion? Even Armstrong couldn't do that, could he?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.