Evening star., 1939-07-02
Hostak, 0ver|in Clash
For Middle Crown
Is Suggested
Conversations With Mike
Jacobs Break Ground
For Major Bout
By LEWIS F. ATCHISON.

by LEWIS r. AlCHlSON.
A championship bout for WASH
ington may be closer than most of
us suspect, for Heinie Miller, secre-
tary of the District Boxing Commits
sion. has rolled up his sleeves and
gone to work on the project. His
immediate goal is bout that will
produce enough revenue to enable
Promoter Joe Turner to skim a
grand or so off the top to help foot
the tariff for the forthcoming Ma
tional Boxing Association Conven-
tion which will elect Miller its presi-
dent for the ensuing year.
1t is possible that Al Hostak, who
recently regained his N. B. A. mid
dleweight title by scoring a techni-
cal knockout over Solly Krieger at
Seattle, may agree to box some suit
able opponent here for the cham
pionship. Ken Overlin. who is max
ing Washington his headquarters
has been suggested as possible op-
ponent, and it would be a good
match. George Abrams was in line
for the bout, but his defeat last
week in New York erased him from
the list of candidates.
Finds Australia Good Pickings.
Overlin, you will recall, went to
the coast little over a year age
with all good intentions of boxing
Freddy Steele for the title, but there
was hitch in the details, Ken al
legedly was smitten with yellow
jaundice and the arrangements
were Cancelled Overlin, a reformed
tar, did the next best thing-sailed
to Australia, made a nice poke for
himself and sailed home again. He S
still winning, and inasmuch as Fred
Apostoli and Ceferina Garcia will be
busy fighting for the New York
copyright on the middleweight
championship in September, Overlin
is the logical contender.
Walter Woods, the only other
fighter ranked above him, aside
from those already mentioned, was
belted out recently by Garcia while
Ken has been winning consistently
of late. This match, in our humble
opinion, would draw well in Wash
ington, and would be a pleasing
fight. We'd like to see it made.
But if Hostak is unavailable,
Miller may land light Heavyweight
scrap for the city between the win
ner of the forthcoming Conn-Bettina
argument, and Gus Lesnevich. The
latter showed the only other con-
tender for the title out of the pic
ture when he busted off Dave
Clarke, Joe Louis Negro Sparring
partner, in one round, and would be
worthy opponent for either Conn
or Bettina. Bettina is recognized
as champion only in New York, but
the second affair will be for the
undisputed championship of the
world 1t would be a prize bit of
matchmaking if this fight could be
brought here.
Jacobs No Philanthropist.
Mike Jacobs, of course, is not
spending his spare moments sprink-
ling dollar bills among the populace.
Uncle Miguel full we'll realizes the
box-offlce appeal of either middle
weight or light-heavyweight title
fght-so much so, that when he
has no genuine title on the line he
phenagles the New York commission
into designating one as for the
championship. But Jacobs has had
several conversations with Miller
lately concerning ratings and such,
and the ground has been broken for
bringing big match to Washington.
Why couldn't Jacobs and Joe
Turner promote a match together?
We don't want to see Turner left
high and dry and wouldn't sit by
silently while some one tried to
muscle in on his territory. But Joe
has the ring lease on the ball park,
where any important fight must be
staged, and it seems to us that he
and Jacobs might do business to the
profit of all Washington fans de-
serve break. The game itself
needs a break 1t is apparent that
the local fistic firm of itself can
not get an important match, so it
certainly couldn't lose by declaring
Jacobs in for share of the profits
for releasing fighter for one bout
AS We said before, Miller is work.
Ing on this angle, and diplomat
that he is may be able to show all
hands the benefits to be derived from
working together
Pete Herman Sympathiz
Pete Herman, one-time bantam
weight titleholder, left George
Abrams with a pearl of advice when
the latter was worrying about his
recent loss in New York. i,
Forget it, kid" advised the vet
eran with friendly pat on the back.
Il lost six or seven fights and was
even stopped before I won the
championship. You need at least
five years to find out what it's all
about, and couple of defeats while
you're learning won't hurt. A good
fighter learns from defeat-he never
makes the same mistakes second
time. and you're a good fighter"
Pete later was telling an attentive
audience of his efforts to get ex-
cused from bout with Lew Tender
when he discovered Lew was a
southpaW. He described himself in
bed, moaning and pretending to pe
In agony while doctor diagnosed
his "ailment" as a complicated back
sprain. 1t looked as though he
would make clean getaway, until
the promoter agreed to call off the
fight, and postpone it week.
That was no good" Pete recalled.
I figured if I had to box him I
might as well get it over with, so I
made miraculous recovery in about
Is minutes and the match was on.
shook hands with Tender at the
beginning of the bout and again be-
fore the start of the last round, and
they were the only times I touched
him. You know I've never liked a
left-hander since"
Busebo|I's S Big Six