The Bismarck Tribune

OLYMPIC FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS
By "Spike" Webb
(United States Olympic Boxing Coach)

Annapolis, Md., May 9.-(A.P.)-
After witnessing the National A. A. U. boxing championships at Boston, where the winners and runners up will virtually comprise the United States Olympic team, there is no doubt but what the list of 16 contenders are the best that any Olympic competition has produced.

Starting from the flyweight class, all the way through the unlimited huskies who will battle the fighters of most every other nation in the world at Amsterdam in August it is plainly apparent that the personnel of this year's American Olympic ring team far surpasses any I have been commissioned to coach in the past eight years.

The excellent material which the Boston tournament uncovered makes the American Olympic boxing chances look brighter than they ever had been in the past. I was especially impressed by the growing number of college boxers who participated, representing institutions in all sections of the country, as well as the high type of non-college boxers who took part.

The Boston officials of the A. A. U., who staged the Olympic boxing tryouts, under the direction of William P. Kennedy, national A. A. U. boxing committee chairman, deserve no little credit for the manner in which the bout was conducted, and the kind of material they encouraged to participate.

Perhaps the foremost contender at the Boston meet was Tommy Lown, of New York, national champion for the past three years, who won in the welterweight class.

Lown outpointed Carmen Tuzzolino, of Los Angeles, in one of the most gruelling matches of the long tournament in which more than 150 fighters took part.

Lown has the Olympic style of fighting down pat. That is, he has an open, clean method of attack, not going into clinches if possible. In other words, he doesn't hold and hit-so usual to the American style of fighting. The Olympics demand the open style; for them it is the "manly art of self-defense"-not so much a slugging match.

Lown certainly is far superior to any welterweight I have taken to past Olympics-either in 1920 or 1924-and he is the type of fighter that will meet the favor of the foreign Olympic officials.

The bantamweight Olympic entry, John L. Daley, of Waltham, Mass., is much like Lown-in fact we called him the "pocket edition of Tommy Lown"-for he is blessed with height and reach. He is not only remarkably clever as a boxer, but he packs a tremendous wallop in either hand. Weighing only 118 pounds, it was a marvel to the spectators as to where Daley got his punching power.

Daley shades either Joe Lazarus, from New York, or Al Tripoli, also a New Yorker, who represented America in the bantamweight division in past Olympics. I like Daley's style, and unless my guess is far in the woods, the Waltham youngster ought to come back from Europe wearing a boxing crown.