Imperial Valley press., 1939-12-22
Conn Achievement Rated
Outstanding in Boxing
Billy the Kid
Rises to Title
In SinoIe Year


ured boxing during 1899, year of
great activity on most fronts dur
ing which titles changed hands in
| five of the eight divisions.
Out of Pittsburgh came hand
some young Conn to captivate the
world of wallop with his personality
ring artistry and love of battle. He
resurrected the light heavyweight
division. of which he is now cham
pion. and revived Irish fighting
prestige.
Billy the Kid was just another
middleweight when he first invaded
New York on Jan. to register a
surprise victory over Fred Apostoli
of San Francisco in a non-title 10
round bout. Apostoli then was rec
ognized as middleweight champion
by the New YORK commission. In an
other non-title l5 round bout on
Feb. 10, Conn whipped Apostoli
even more impressively.
Bettina Bows
Earlier in February, Melio Bettina
of Bacon, N. Y. became light heavy
weight champion by knocking out
Tiger Jack Fox, Spokane Negro, in
the final of an elimination to deter
mine the successor to John Henry
Lewis vacated crown. Conn chal-
lenged Bettina and Wrested the It's
pound title from him on July 13.
Billy gave Bettina chance to get it
back in Pittsburgh in September,
and again gave Melio sound Is
round trouncing.
Then came a challenge from Gus
Lesnevich of New Jersey, who had
knocked out formidable Dave Clark
in one round. Conn gave Lesnevich
a 15 round boxing lesson in Novem-
ber Ambitious for other fields to
conquer, Billy then turned to the
heavyweight division and will start
his campaign in this class on Jan.
10 when he meets the tough veteran
Steve Dudas of New Jersey.
Heavyweight King Louis retained
his crown against four challengers.
The Brown Bomber kayoed John
Henry Lewis at New York in Janu-
ary, Jack Roper at Los Angeles in
April, Tony Galento at New York
in June and Bob Pastor at Detroit
in September. Arturo Godoy of
Chile is now at Summit, N. j.,
training to fight Louis on Feb. 9.
Galento. Surprises =;
The most electrifying seconds of
the boxing year came on that June
night when Galerto staggered Louis
in the first round and floored the
champion in the third. But an
avalanche of red leather beat Gal
ento into bloody helplessness in the
fourth.
Galento provided the major upset
of the year in September when he
launched comeback by stopping
Young Lou Nova of California in the
14th round at Philadelphia
Other comebacks were staged by
Ceferino Garcia, Al Hostak, Lou
AmberS and Simon Chavez. %
Garcia of the Philippines waged
a successful middleWeight campaign
that was climaXed by knockout
victory over Fred Apostoli in Oc-
tober, giving Garcia New York
States recognition as world cham
pion. Hostak of Seattle regained
National Boxing association recog-
milton as titleholder by knocking
out Solly Kreiger of Brooklyn in
their return bout at Seattle in June.
Thus far attempts to match Garcia
and HoStak to clear the title have
been futile.
Garcia is making his first defense
this week against Glen Lee at Mani
la, where Jack Dempsey has flown
to referee. Hostak made his first
venture east of the Rockies this
month and knocked out Eric Seelig
in the first round at Cleveland.
Ambers Wins
Lou AmberS of Herkimer N. Y,
regained the lightweight champion
ship from Henry Armstrong in their
return bout at New York in August.
after Armstrong lost five rounds on
fouls for low blows. Armstrong still
holds the welterweight crown, which
he successfully defended against
Baby Arizmendi, Bobby Pacho, Da-
vey Day, Ernie Roderick and a few
others. AmberS and Armstrong were
matched for a third bout on Dec. /,
in which Armstrong was to defend
the Welter diadem. But illness pre-
vented hammering Henry from
keeping the engagement. He recov-
cred sufficiently to knock out Jimmy
Garrison at Cleveland last week,
although not in good shape for the
bout
Simon Chavez of Caracas, Vene-
zuela, made a notable comeback,
beating a half dozen opponents in
Guiding Featherweight Champion
joey Archibald and the outstanding
United States challenger, Petey
Cpalzn