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AT THE RINGSIDE By Barney Nagler This is a tale of two cities and the story of two hotel rooms It starts in New York at the Hotel Roosevelt and winds up in Chicago at the Conrad Hilton It is a story with a happy ending Well not completely happy but almost so All that is needed to surmount it in splen ¬ dor is a victory for Sugar Ray Robinson in the Chicago Stadium ring tomorrow night Months ago at a time when the International R n v i n or ClubS N6W York store was trying to get Robinson to buy a middleweight championship defense against Gene Fullmer the Harlemite was adamant in his refusal to make a purchase except on his own large terms He stub ¬ bornly refused to talk about the bout and so on a quiet afternoon he was asked to a conference at the Theodore Roosevelt on James Madison Avenue AvenueTruman Truman Gibson the latterday Republi ¬ can was on hand So was Joe Louis who has split his vote between Democrat and Republican at various times and as a con ¬ sequence of sundry blandishments So were a trio of Sugar Rays managers Joe Glaser George Gainford and Ernie Braca Killer Johnson missed the party 4 A A ALouis Louis was brought to the conference as a tig gun of the IBC from which he draws nn annual guaranteed wage of 20000 i Louis it was felt could convince Robinson that Sugar Rays own best interest would be served by a fight with Fullmer FullmerThe The meeting was friendly until Robinson challenged the veracity of a statement by Louis Others in the room attempted to turn off the burner lest the pot boil over overIt It did Robinson blew his top He hurled epithet and invective in Louis direction He invoked the gods of dismay and did everything but challenge his friend to fisti ¬ cuffs He disavowed Louis longstanding regard for him and said he never wanted to talk with Joe again againLouis Louis offered no rebuttal He sat on his dignity and permitted Robinson to blow off steam He was paternalistic and pacific He would not permit himself to indulge in the giveandtake of vile polemics He was Robinsons friend and he insisted on ac ¬ cepting his friends outrageous verbal assaults gracefully The meeting ended on a note of failure Robinson was not oing to fight Fullmer despite Louis intervention and that was that In time of course he changed his mind and last January 2 lost the middle ¬ weight championship to the muscular man from Utah It was a defeat for skill skillNow Now the scene shifts to Chicago Robin ¬ son is here awaiting the return with Full me Now or the fourth time in his uncommon career Sugar Ray is challeng ¬ ing for the world middleweight champion ¬ ship Now at the age of 36 or 37 he is a philosophical oldtimer trying to run uphill on the treadmill of time Now sitting in his quarters at the Conrad Hilton he heContinued Continued on Page FortyThree AT THE RINGSIDE RINGSIDEBy By BARNEY NAGLER Continued from Page Two Twosays says to a visitor Did I tell you that man Joe Louis hes real smart smartWhats Whats that mean meanJoe Joe knows as much about this boxing business as anybody I know Robinson says saysRight Right man youre right says Gain ford Listen that man just aint been around for nothing all these years Do like he tells you Ray and you got the title back backWhat What did Joe say the visitor asks asksAint Aint saying Gainford says but it wont hurt to throw them punches to Full mers body is what Joe thinks I agree agreeIll Ill go with Joe too Robinson says Hes real smart Sal here talking boxing with me the other day for hours I never knew how much he knows about the busi ¬ ness nessSo So the two greatest fighters of the past two decades are reconciled Sugar Ray and the Brown Bomber are talking once again The sorry scene played out in one hotel room 800 miles away is wiped out by a friendly reunion here herePerhaps Perhaps it ends happily because Louis has picked Sugar Ray to win back the middleweight championship Now all Rob ¬ inson has to do to make his friend look good is to beat Fullmer FullmerThe The thought is that he will
