OCR Text |
Show I I ' I 1 Al Hostak Justifies Reputation As Best Modem Middleweight Seattle Slovak Gets Early Lessons From Expert BY HARRY GRAYSON NT. A Hereto 8porU Editor CLEVELAND. Jan. 4 Albert Hostak U an old school fighter right down to tht turtle-neck iweater, cordu- sssssssffi r, wM mLOs4-- s . 457" HE CAN . V T.' VUi Punch By I VV VL"' ; ' AND 21 SECONDS, f V W V. I p roy pants and "see my manager." man-ager." The Seattle Slovak has the puncher's margin, mar-gin, which Is about 80 per cent the best of It. He Is the quick and devastating hitter of the old fight manager's dreams ... a loose In that respect re-spect a Dtszy Dean's tongue. Garcia In his first en gagement with Solly Krleger he . .demojulratcaLlhat he could take a good belt and a Tilling and go ' the route. I saw Al Hostak work out for Eric Seellg in Cleveland and watched him bat out the battered German refugee In on minute and 21 second. It was the 23-year-old Hostak' first start outside of the Pacific northwest and I want Iff go on record rec-ord as saying that If he never makes another the National Boxing association's middleweight champion cham-pion will be plenty pugilist. Eddie Marino, the old feather who manages Hostak, declares that his charge will appear In New York only as champion. Recognition Refused Hostak and Marino can't get over the fact that the New York commission com-mission refused to recognize the former as ruler when he placed a lily In Ferddie Steel's hand In round one. Fred Apostoll beat the ancient and honorable Young Corbett III tor the New York version of the title and the Manhattan moguls appeared correct In judging Hostak a cheese champion when the shopworn shop-worn Krieger put him In a hospital In lifting hi claim to the title In IS round In Seattle. But good fighter bounce back, so Hostak caught up with Krieger last June and blasted him out in four round. Meanwhile, Ceferlno Garclo tlattened Apostoll to be the New York pretender. Hostak could get sizable purses for boxing Garcia and Billy Conn In New York and Is eager to tackle them. But he started with Nate Drux-man, Drux-man, the Seattle promoter, and It Is with Druxman that he Intend to stick. Conn Get Offer Druxman offers Conn $25,000 to defend the light heavyweight leadership lead-ership against Hostak in Seattle and will give Garcia a richer reward re-ward than he ever before received. He Deneves mai unn ana nos-tek nos-tek would gross (150,000 in Seattle next spring, Hostak and Garcia halt that much. Hostak and Steele played to an $86,000 gate, which gives you a rough Idea why Hostak is in no hurry to crash Broadway. Broad-way. Druxman is willing to split matches with Mike Jacobs, the New York promoter who has Conn and Garcia tied up. It Conn will go to Seattle, Hostak will go to New York. Marino, who fought Abe Attell three times and tackled Benny Yanger. Eddie Santry, Kid Scaler and other good ones, taught Hostak to box by remote control. Marino did not hav time to watch th youngster working In the gymnasium in th rear of his Seattle- cigar store. So he told him to shout "Bang!" every time he threw a right hand. ttood Teaching Hostak banged away for weeks and then one day there was a long silence that brought Marino Into the gvmnaslum. "What's the malterT" asked th manager. "Have you quit throwing throw-ing right hands?" "No, Eddie, but I'm tired of yell-ing yell-ing 'Bang!'" replied Hostak. "Why do I have to yell 'Bang!' when I throw a right hand?" "Well, now that you've asked me, I'll tell you," Marino advised the kid. "It is because a right la a sucker punch." Outside of the first Krieger battle, bat-tle, Hoslak has not thrown a right that was a sucker punch since. That was Seelig's mistake. He thrrw a right at Hostak and as a receipt got a left hook from a left-hooker left-hooker lrom Lefthookersvllle. Marino schooled his fighter In fundamentals and polished him up. While the Eric Seellg fight proved little more than that Hostak can punch, the trim Seattle youth has all the appearances of the finest fin-est middleweight since Mickey Walker. Indeed, It may be true, aa they claim In the big salmon country, that he Is the best since Stanley Kelchel. Thirty-six knockouts in 58 fights isn't half bad. Al Hostak has a lot of stuff . . . Including the power of the poke. |