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On Second Thought Perez Was Boy In Mans Trade . By BARNEY NAGLER NEW YORK, N. Y., June 26. Lulu Perez is a kid from Brooklyn, real tough in a street brawl because thats a way of sur vival in his neighborhood. Bet hed take a bat or a bottle to a rivals noggin by way of persuasion. They fight that way in the social sink in which he dwells. . In the ring, Perez is another kind of kid, real fancy and given to showing off his speed of foot and hand. His manner is incredible because, given his background, anybody would conclude that he would be a brawler in the ring. Friday night, in Madison Square Garden, Perez went in against Percy Bassett, a featherweight from Philadelphia who wears a gnomes countenance and conducts himself as. a flywheel in combat. Perez attempted to fend off his attacker with the toy pistol of guile. He should have taken a cannon in with him. It is always an unexpected turn when a kid like Perez, or Willie Pep before him, brings stealth instead of power into the ring with him. These are boys who grew up on the streets, in cement jungles, in Brooklyn or Hartford, Conn. It is logical to assume that they will come to battle possessed of bustle and bravado. Pep preferred craft and was most successful at its application. Perez isnt. The difference may be in the leadership each received. Peps manager, Lou Viscusi, was a shrewd operative who came into boxing under the tutorship of Al Weill, than whom there is none craftier. Viscusi knew how to move Pep. Willie was put in against soft touches at times, but when he was matched with a real pro, Viscusi knew just how far to go. By the time Pep was ready to move against the class of the 126-pound division, an old fellow named Chalky Wright, he was ready for the chore. Perez hasnt been as lucky. He has been living dangerously, in a sense, because the stewardship of the kid from Brooklyn has been something less than enlightened. He was put in with people he was reasonably sure of abusing. Not total cripples, mind you, but the kind of opponents who wouldnt squeal when their arms were twisted. They went along gladly, for the purse, and bul- warked the kids ego against the day when he would be required to put up or shut up. And so, when he came into the ring against Bassett, he was totally unprepared for the task. His basic training was a mere smattering of this and that. He had come to believe he was a hitter, and he isnt. He had come to believe he could use evasion to save his hide, and he cant. He had come to feel he was a latter-day Pep, and he isnt. Indeed, the unease he imposed on his supporters was the only punishment he handed out. Bassett punished the boy from Brooklyn in the manner of a dad working over his wayward lad in the barn. He trapped Perez at every turn, belaboring him with hands and head, with elbows and shoulder, with disregard and dismay. At any turn, Perez was expected to say okay, Im sorry, Ill never do it again. If he had broken down and wept the few folk in the arena would have taken it as a sign of hope. In the future, there might be rehabilitation. Simply, Perez was a boy in a mans trade. When he couldnt come out of his corner, at the end of the 11th round, it was well enough because he had learned his lesson by then. Stealth and guile without artillery will never do. In the total picture, Perez is out of focus. If he isnt any better than he was against Bassett, he will go down hill rapidly, winning a few, losing more, being abused by rugged men who. fight the way you would expect the boy from Brooklyns backwoods to fight. He needs to get tough to keep his health. Else, his managers will be in better shape than the kid theyve deluded into believing hes the fastest" thing since Willie Pep. . Really, he isnt.
