[BigBoyBrackey]

Billy Miske (7) W12 Luis Firpo (23): Miske outboxes Firpo from the opening bell, peppering him with jabs and right crosses, causing his stalking foe’s right eye to swell from the fight’s midway point.

After getting blanked in the early going, Firpo seems to be closing the gap in rounds six and seven, driving Miske into the ropes with an overhand right in the latter round. But Billy merely speeds up his bicycle, quickly regaining control with his vastly superior quickness.

Firpo lands a few desperation shots late in the 11th to win that round, but Miske prevails by scores of 116-112 and 117-111, twice. He also out-lands the Argentinian by better than a 2-1 ratio, while landing 51 percent of his punches, compared to 20 percent for Firpo.

Miske showers quickly and returns to ringside to watch the Tunney-Carnera main event, knowing that he will face the winner in the quarterfinals.

Gene Tunney (2) TKO9 Primo Carnera (18): The crowd of 44,293 at Forbes Field is eerily quiet as the fighters are introduced, perhaps expecting a replay of Miske-Firpo, with the superior boxer efficiently, if unexcitingly, mastering the crude brawler.

Unlike Firpo, though, who let Miske set the pace from the opening bell, Carnera comes out heaving bombs. A right cross blasts past Tunney’s high guard, with a follow-up left hook to the body doubling The Fighting Marine over.

Carnera continues throwing at a surprised, and possibly overwhelmed, Tunney, drilling home a couple more right crosses and another hard hook to the body.

Not surprisingly, The Ambling Alp then gets careless, and Tunney lands a left hook to the solar plexus that severs the neural connection between Carnera’s legs and his brain. He falls to his knees, then to his elbows, gasping for breath.

Carnera makes it to his feet before referee Jorge Alonso’s count reaches four, with the bell ringing as the fighters are waved back together.

Undeterred, Carnera continues firing in the second, landing heavier shots, while Tunney tries to jab and move.

In the third, Tunney’s game plan works to perfection, as he lands jabs at will and follows up with clean rights to the jaw when the mood strikes him. At least, that is, until late in the round, when Carnera belts him in the jaw with his best right thus far.

Unable to keep Carnera at bay early in the fourth, Tunney stands his ground and launches a left hook that rips a gash over Carnera’s right eye. By the end of the round, Alonso briefly stops the fight to look the cut over with the ring doctor. Carnera angrily talks throughout the examination, with an Italian reporter translating his comments to the referee as “watch his &%$#ing elbows, will ya?”

Carnera keeps plodding forward and a pair of big rights to the face earn him the sixth round, with the second causing Tunney’s left eye to swell noticeably.

A hard Tunney jab early in the sixth reopens the cut over Carnera’s eye. Again, the feel of his own blood seems to invigorate Da Preem, who forces Tunney into a toe-to-toe battle until the bell.

Things slow down in the seventh until the final 30 seconds, when Carnera’s ponderous jab slices open Tunney’s eyebrow. The eighth is a re-run of the sixth, with a Carnera hook to the beltline and another to the temple giving him the edge after three minutes of pure attrition.

Exhausted and bleeding, the fighters clinch for most of the first 40 seconds of round nine. On a break, Tunney delivers a lightning-quick left hook that tears Carnera’s cut even further, veering south through his eyebrow and into his eyelid.

This time, Alonso has no choice but to stop the fight and declare Tunney the winner by TKO at 0:53 of the ninth. Despite the see-saw action, the judges saw Tunney clearly in control by scores of 78-73, 77-74 and 79-72.