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Show I! AL YOUNG Ai CHRIS GEORGE j FIGHT TO A DRAW I A BATTLE OF GREAT MERIT 8 SHAKING HANDS BEFORE BATTLE I As predicted, the Al Young-Chris George boxing contest held at the armory Inst night, was the most gruelling mill staged by Promoter Eddie Ed-die Dallas this season. It resulted in a draw decision, being given by Referee Ref-eree Pete Visser, which was general-J general-J ly satisfactory to the fans. The ma- I Jority of the crowd, the biggest of ! the year, was with Young from the j start and they were much surprised when their favorite had to put up the best fight in him to break oven with the Greek. George proved the toughest and hardest hitting lightweight that has i yet performed before the local fans land forced Young to folloAV hfm up continuously to avoid being followed. Al was right there on the chase, however, how-ever, and his aggressiveness and superior su-perior ability to land clean blows had much to do with his escaping defeat. His wallops, though plenty hard enough to distress an ordinary opponent, oppo-nent, did not appear to greatly bother his hardy opponent, and he took the harder ones put over by George with never a backdown. It was a style of battle the red-blooded Ogden fans like and they applauded both battlers vociferously when Visser lifted up their hands at its close. George early demonstrated that he had had much ring experience. He was in perfect physical condition and, as the fight progressed, used the ropes at times to catapult himself onto his opponent. This tricky stuff was disapproved by the fans, but Young soon got wise to it and got out of the way when the Greek tried it. George surprised Young right at the start by playing the latter's own game and beating him to the first punch. Young got going shortly afterward aft-erward and evened up the score before be-fore the round ended. Al was ready at the start, in the next round, and met the Greek in the middle of the ring. Then occurred a kalediscopic mixup, me firBt of numerous ones before be-fore the fight ended and which got the fans up howling. Referee Visser worked them out of a clinch and following fol-lowing a few seconds of sparring, Young landed wo short swings on his opponent's jaw and ribs. George came back with a left to the jaw and Young stopped him with some more short swings. Young kept his advantage advan-tage and won the round. The third round also went to the Oklahoma youth, who followed the San Francisco fighter from the tap of the gong, giving him but little chance to return. They met in the middle with a rush at the opening of the fourth and, coming out of the mixup, George duplicated Young's activity ac-tivity in the third and landed harder blows. In the last few seconds Al landed a couple of times, but these were not sufficient to offset the Greek's margin. Young had a shade the best of the fifth, in which he raised a shanty over George's left eye, i but tho sixth and seventh were even, both fightorB landing frequently and taking their medicine without flinching. In the eighth, the Oklahoma fighter fight-er began to show the effect of his continuous aggressiveness, coupled with the hard wallops he had assimilated, assimi-lated, while George appeared to be getting stronger. The Greek took this round and the next, but Al's good defensive work kept him from being greatly damaged. To the Joy of his partisans. Young came back strong in the tenth and a whirlwind finish ensued, making nothing but a draw decision acceptable or fair. Opening Bouts. The semi-windup and curtain raising rais-ing bouts woro both disappointing, due to easy victories of Jack Downey over Grant Evans and Kid Lankey over Cyclone Louie. "Kid" Lankey proved to be a good find, stepping into in-to a much heavier opponent and trimming trim-ming him up decisively in less than three rounds. Evans also showed that he Is not in Downey's class, in weight, strength or ring ability, as he did not last two rounds. In the second, he took the count, after having hav-ing received some stiff wallops from his opponent. Harry Knowlden ref-ereed ref-ereed these two bouts. The most joyful announcement of the season was made to the fans last night when, following the personally made challenge of Young Azavedo to any 122-pound man in the stato, "Shorty" Toots steeped into tho ring and accepted the challenge In behalf of Jimmy Johns, Ogden's favorite featherweight. Johns, it was said, will come to Ogden in the near future to prepare for the bout. |