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Show 'TPONY ZALE, middleweight ruler. starred in the best ring fight of 1946 with dozen miles to spare. His lurrlcane meeting with Rocky Grazi-no Grazi-no happened to be one of those thrillers you won't see twice in a lifetime. There was no other fight even close to this one. I can't recall any other fighter who ever , showed more lntes- f tinal fortitude than I v'ir 'e showed that lf;f September night, 1rAVv A when he came out :'-';.ff of a foggy dream-V dream-V 1 land to knock out Mm Graziano. It so hop r rf ill Pen that Zale is in L.w '.umiAif m! the toughest divi- Tony Zale 8Aion of,hcm ff' Among those after bis middleweight crown you'll find Jake LaMotta, Marcel Cordon, 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 bos 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 I action so long when he met Graziano Grazi-ano that his handicap was known to be a heavy one. Various crowds had soon 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 1040. 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 own. 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 Krtrhel, Harry Greb or Mit-kry 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 if he ran repeat his opening performance, perform-ance, or show Improvement., In addition to the leaders named, Jersey Jones still insists that his man Burley can slosh his way through the entire list. With the heavyweight bunch, outside out-side of Joe Louis, in such a sad state, it begins to look as if the mid-dlewcights mid-dlewcights must take over a big part of the show. But as good as many of his challengers are, they will find Zale none too easy to shove around. Tu o West Const Stars The wert coast Is keeping on alert eye on Ihc coming actions of its two favorite baseball sons. Their names are Joe DiMagglo of Snn Francisco and Ted Williams of San Dirgo, both reporting from the extensive domain of California. DiMaggio, bothered by physical ailments, had on off year. Regarded Regard-ed as one of the greot 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 Americon league without help up through mid-July, began to skid lot-cr lot-cr and spent nn unhappy fortnight during the 1040 World series. De-spite 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 whot they had been in their former : seasons. Only Dom DiMagglo 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 fur spring training. A few stomach stom-ach ulcers didn't help him. After an early start at high speed, Joe be fan to fall away. |