The Wilmington Morning Star

MONDAY, MAY 31, 1943

The Sports Trail
By Whitney Martin

NEW YORK, May 30. (P) -There are some fight fans hereabouts who say they wouldn't pay a dime to see Sammy Angott fight the war of 1812, in technicolor, so just to be consistent they'll pay up to $11.50 or so to see him fight Henry Armstrong at Madison Square Garden June 11.

This may be due partly to the fact that Armstrong never has turned in a bad fight here, even when losing, and that Angott's cutie won't be able to break the habit.

Another reason is that they have a sneaking idea it might be a whale of a scrap.

We asked Harry Markson about this. Harry is Mike Jacobs' publicity man and as such might be expected to be quite impartial when discussing the merits of one of Mike Jacobs' fights. However, we've found him exceedingly frank. That is, he doesn't try to convince you that every fight is the battle of the century.

"I'll tell you," he says, "the boxing men - the men who know boxing - think the Angott-Armstrong fight will be one whale of a battle."

Recalling Angott's showing in his bout with Willie Pep not so long ago, we were a little skeptical. Angott won that one, using a half-nelson and headlock. That is to say, he used more holds than Jim Londos. The guy really is good in a clutch.

"He won't be able to do that against Armstrong, "Markson explained. "Armstrong likes the in-close fighting, and when Angott starts taking some of that body punishment he won't be so anxious to rassle. Besides, he can't tie up Armstrong. Henry is busy all the time. His muscles jump, and you can't hold him in a clinch.

"You know, the day after Armstrong fought Beau Jack some of the fans mentioned they never noticed the referee, which is unusual, particularly as the referee was Arthur Donovan, who usually is very much in evidence. The reason was that until the 12th round Donovan never had to step in between the men.

"Angott can tie up a fast, clever sharpshooter such as Pep. but he can't tie up Armstrong, and he won't be able to make Armstrong look bad. I've seen Armstrong about 25 times, I'd say, and against all styles of fighters, including Angott's style. He looks good against all of them.

"As for Angott's style, he wins. doesn't he? That's what he's in there to do. He was rusty in the Pep fight. He'd been out of action about six months. Now he won't be so rusty, and he'll really be shooting for something.

"So will Armstrong, for that matter. Henry lost to Beau Jack. If he should lose to Angott now, he'd be just about through."

We mentioned that we wondered if Armstrong could change his style if necessary to offset Angott's unorthodox mannerisms. We had never seen him fight any way but shimmying and hunching his shoulders and boring in.

"You forget he started out as a boxer," Harry said. "He fought a guy named Davey Abad on the coast. Armstrong won, but he saw that Abad's perpetual motion style was what pleased the crowd, so he adopted it. Sure he can box. After Ceferino Garcia clipped him on the mouth in the 12th round of their fight he gave one of the cleverest boxing exhibitions you ever saw the rest of the way."

Which should be a warning to Angott. Don't clip Henry on the mouth.