The Daily Express

NEW YORK, Oct. 30 (INS)--Joe Louis reluctantly recognizes a sad fact which has been apparent to everybody else for a long, long time. He is washed up, finished, through and almost defenseless as a prize-fighter.

If in the months to come he decides on still another comeback, the people around him should go to any extreme to keep him out of the ring. He has reached the point at 37 where he is going to get seriously hurt or wind up stumbling around on the backs of his heels unless he stays out of the ring for good.

All this has been said before in this department and by many others, but Louis alone persisted in the notion that he still could fight because he managed to outfumble and sometimes stop comeback foes who had so pitifully little to offer.

Will it be necessary to convince him all over again sometime in the future after what happened to him Friday night at Madison Square Garden?

The punches that Rocky Marciano landed to knock him down and then knock him through the ropes for a blazing eighth round finish should be remembered by Louis whenever that urge to fight again overtakes him. If he forgets, his handlers should remember.

If Louis and the people around him lose sight of what can happen to this defenseless hulk of a once super-champion, the boxing commissions should step in and bar him.

He has squeezed all the money out of boxing as an active fighter--that there is in it for him. This he must know by now.

However, as the weeks roll along he will get that urge again and again to go in there and take one more fling. He will see fighters winning without half the equipment that once was at his command.

And while he watches he will tell himself that surely he can win a few more easy dollars. What he will have a hard time selling to himself is that the crudities so apparent among most of the heavyweights still will give them an edge over what is left of him.

To recognize this lack of class among fighters is one thing. To get in the ring and take advantage of it when your reflexes and speed and coordination are gone is still another.

Louis and some of his well-wishers were trapped into the belief that he had regained a measure of his greatness when he knocked out Lee Savold. He was pointed straight for another shot at the title via Marciano after that.

Marciano looked good in a crude sort of way beating the former champion and undoubtedly will win the heavyweight title when he gets around to it. He takes a punch as though built of rock and steel, he punches hard and he is game.

That's about all you need now, and he may yet improve into a reasonably good fighter with the confidence that comes of winning an important match.