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Show V J GAMfTLAND f j ...X. ACE J'jtMr.-J. "pONY ZALE, middleweight ruler, itarred in the best ring fight of 1946 with a dozen miles to spare. His fcurricane meeting with Rocky Graziano Grazi-ano happened to be one of those thrillers you won't see' twice in a lifetime. There was no other fight even close lo this one. I can't recall any other fighter who ever showed more intestinal intes-tinal fortitude than zale showed that September night, when he came out of a foggy dreamland dream-land to knock out Graziano. It so happens hap-pens that Zale is in the toughest divi- ,, . sion of them all. Tony Zale after bis middleweight crown you'll find Jake LaMotta, Marcel Cerdan, Geor-gie Geor-gie Abrams, Charley Burley and one or two others all tough. Graziano, the toughest of the lot, has had his license li-cense revoked In New York, but the National Boxing association has ruled that he can fight in any place under NBA's jurisdiction. This gives Rocky a lot of territory to swing his lethal fists in. Zale had been away from ring action so long when he met Graziano Grazi-ano that his handicap was known to be a heavy one. Various crowds bad seen too many baseball and football foot-ball players from the service show a startling lack of old-time form, including in-cluding speed and timing. Zale had been away longer than most, close to four years. So when Graziano knocked him down early in the fight and then had him dazed, bewildered and badly battered, his reign apparently was over. But Zale down the stretch proved several things. He proved that he was dead game and could take the hardest punch the hardhitting hard-hitting Graziano could throw. He also proved that he had a punch of his own. He proved that he knew how to fight and what to do in a storm. Faces Tough Competition With more time in which to get ready, it stands to reason that Zale should be a better fighter In 1047 than he was in 1946. His win over Graziano gave him greater confidence, confi-dence, for one thing. He is also sure to be in better all-around physical shape. Yet in this present middleweight middle-weight outfit no one is safe. Tony is surrounded by a pretty rough crew, the best in any other weight division, and he will have to be better than good to keep his crown. LaMotta is a rough and ready customer who won't be any soft mark. LaMotta is a hardy man to hurt and he also can hurt on his awn. Cerdan made a promising debut over here and he should be better bet-ter on his next visit, when he has a longer time to become acclimated and to get in better physical condition. condi-tion. There Is no Stanley Ketchel, Harry Greb or Mickey Walker hanging hang-ing around the premises, but there is more class in this section than the ring has known for many years. Just how the tangle will be unraveled is another guess. LaMotta must be given a chance and so must Cerdan H he can repeat his opening performance, perform-ance, or show improvement. In addition to the leaders named, Jersey Jones still insists that his man Burley can slash his way through the entire list. With the heavyweight bunch, outside out-side of Joe Louis, in such a sad Btate, it begins to look as if the mid-dleweights mid-dleweights must take over a big part of the show. But as good as many ol his challengers are, they will find Zale none too easy to shove around. Tivo West Coast Stars The west coast is keeping an alert eye on the coming actions of its two favorite baseball sons. Their names are Joe DiMagglo of San Francisco and Ted Williams of San Diego, both reporting from the extensive domain of California. DiMaggio, bothered by physical ailments, had an off year. Regarded Regard-ed as one of the great outfielders of all time, a brilliant artist, fielding, hitting and throwing, Joe finished with the worst season he has known in big league baseball. He fell back with many other big league stars who had been in war service. Williams, who looked as if he were on the verge of wrecking the entire American league without help up through mid-July, began to skid later lat-er and spent an unhappy fortnight during the 1946 World series. Despite De-spite this decline Williams batted well over .340, which left his all-time all-time average still over .350. Ulcers Stopped Joe Anyway Joe and Ted were not what they had been In their former seasons. Only Dom DiMaggio came along to repair part of the damage, as far as California was concerned. Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky were two west coast features from further north. Joe DiMaggio wasn't feeling any too well when he reported report-ed for spring training. A few stomach stom-ach ulcers didn't help him. After an early start at high speed. Joe began be-gan to fall away. |