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Show jimiiimiiiiiiimiimiiimiiiiiiriiiiiiH Speaking I I By ROBERT McSHANE Z ll0Md by Wttltrn Nawipopw Unloa 7iiiillilliliiiliiiiiiiliiiiliililllllliillllre THOSE cash customers who managed man-aged to stay awake long enough to see Billy Soose plod his way to a 15-round middleweight "championship" "cham-pionship" victory over Ken Overlin recently had a two-fold cause for complaint First, the fight was a dull, dreary affair with Soose, who didn't deserve de-serve It, getting the nod from both judges and the referee. Second, the world's middleweight or muddlewelght championship was not at stake. A lad by the name of Tony Zale, hailing from Gary, Ind., has much better claim to that honor than either of the fore-mentioned fore-mentioned gentlemen. Back to complaint No. 1. Unquestionably Unques-tionably the bout was one of the most uninteresting spectacles ever perpetrated upon a long suffering public. Soose was a favorite from the day the match was made. When the boys climbed Into the ring the night of the fight, the lobby odds were 2V4 to 1 on him. The "champ" wasn't given much of a chance. The Press Doesn't Agree But when the fight was aver the newspaper men at the ringside voted 2 to 1 for Overlin. They were I far from enthusiastic about the fight, but they did think Overlin won. Not so the officials. Referee Arthur Donovan and Judges Marty Monroe and Billy Healy reported unanimously for Soose. Donovan's card gave Soose eight rounds and Overlin seven. Monroe scored the fight similarly. Healy BILLY SOOSE didn't think it was that close. He gave Soose nine rounds, Overlin five, and called one even. The Associated Press scorecard gave Overlin 11 rounds and Soose four. This variance in opinion might Indicate In-dicate that the fight was a thrilling encounter between two brawlers who gave everything they had in a brave, strong effort to whale their opponent. Sadly enough, that picture pic-ture couldn't be more untrue. A barroom brawl would have been more exciting and twice as dangerous. dan-gerous. It was a tiresome performance, perform-ance, and the fans who saw it won't be numbered among those who "demand" "de-mand" a repeat match. Championship Dynasty Complaint No. 2, the more serious charge, demands a bit of recent historical his-torical evidence. Tony Zale owns the middleweight championship by right of conquest. He whipped Seattle AI Hostak, the former legitimate legiti-mate champion. Al, In his turn, had won the title from Freddy Steele. Steele won the crown through victory over the champion who preceded him. This whole chain, built entirely of championship champion-ship links, can be stretched back ad Infinitum. Zale's title Is as clear cut as Soose'a is phoney. Yet, Soose was described as "the winnah and the new champeen" in an inspired announcement at the end of the fight. Why? Because Mike Jacobs and the favorably inclined New York boxing box-ing commission, controllers of boxing box-ing in the East, decided by edict that Soose Is the champion. Neither Zale nor Hostak are controlled con-trolled by the all-powerful Jacobs. They are not "company" men. Therefore Soose would never get permission to fight them. It was necessary, therefore, that the "title" be at stake in this fight Then the "outlaw" fighters would be eliminated without benefit of fists. Jacobs has declared that Soose is champion, so that's that. Zale's claim is very conveniently ignored in favor of one of his own boys. And Uncle Mike, with a stranglehold strangle-hold on the fight game, is powerful power-ful enough to wear down the opposition oppo-sition and make his claim stick. New York has a peculiar claim to possession of the 165-pound title. The state boxing commission, whose authority ends at the state's borders, bor-ders, developed a pronounced dislike dis-like for Hostak a few years ago. Hostak was ruled out of the championship. cham-pionship. The board was stuck for a while, but somewhere they heard that one Ceferino Garcia had the right weight qualifications and that he had done a bit of boxing. Here, of course, was the ideal candidate. Promptly, and to that gentleman's astonishment, they made him king f the middleweight division. |