The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-08-04

Into.
 Mike had couple of handicaps
 right on his neck from the start.
 He had an imagination and he had girl.
 A fighter doesn't need an imagi-
 nation. All he needs is pretty good judgment of distance, so he can wallop the fellow he's fighting
 with: a good muscle coordination so he can step inside an opponents punches or DICK them off in the air. And sock.
 He can even get along without
 the judgment of distance or CO.,
 ordination if he has the sock. But
 he's got to have the sock. How IS fighter going to 1iatten a guy if
 he hasn't got one? Besides, the
 customers like it. That's what
 people go to fights for-to see fighters fiattened.
 Mike had swell judgment of
 distance. He had perfect co-ordi- nation and he, had a sock. Boy, did he have the sock! In either fist.
 That's what made him so pretty to
 watch in the ring. He moved. around like we'll oiled machine He measured the boy in the ring with him. Then, whango! And the other boy was on his back. If these three were all he had, it would have been no time at all
 until you'd have seen him three
 sheeted on the billboards, slated for Madison Square. You'd have seen him on the sport pages. giv- ing the sport writers an interview on who wrote Shakespeare and why. You'd have gotten a load of him posing down in Miami with d champion lady swimmer, neither of them wearing more than the law demanded. But he had to go and have an imagination.
 HIS IDOL IS YOUNG BIFFO,
 THE GUY YOU CAN'T HIT The funny thing about it was that in the beginning it was his imagination that helped him. He was just growing out of the fall down -over-a suggestion age when he got a pass to the Pathfinder Athletic club and saw Young Bif- fo giving an exhibition which had been billed as a fight.
 Remember Young Biffo? He was the guy that could grab a fly out of the air with his thumb and fore finger. He was the guy that would stand still with his arms hanging down at his sides and give you five bucks if you hit him in the face. You'd swing till you threw your arm out of joint and just before your fist lighted his head wasn't there. Young Biffo was the clever est boxer that ever stepped in n ring.
 We'll, Mike got load of him fighting and that Iatlian soul of his was unified by Young Biffo's work. Not by the fact, you under
 stand, that when Young Biffo got
 tired toying with the punk who was
 in the ring with him he just moved his right about six inches and the punk hit the canvas and laid there till the referee could have counted | up to thousand, but by the sheer | artistry of the man, the smooth
 easy motion of him, the rhythm of his beautiful muscles working like Young Biffo was a master musician and they were an instrument.
 Listen" said young Mike Gam
 brenni to the kid he was with, you know what I'm gonna be? I'm gonna be a fighter like Young Bif- fo. I'm gonna be the next guy after him that they can't hit. May be it will take me five years and by that time Young Biffo will be re-
 tired. And I'll be packin them in like he did tonight. And I'll be makin' a monkey outta the guys that fight me just like he did,
 Mike" said the kid, you're
 nuts!"
 "Yeh?" said Mike. "All right. Wait till you see.' sure. right down in his heart, that
 Mike was nuts, because Mike was
 pretty good with his fists right | then. He'd been fighting up and
 down Bleecker street for seven- | teen years, and whenever he fin
 ished a fight sthe other fellow was either on the ground or gone away
 from there. What he knew was