The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-19
FRED APOST0LI WITH TUNNEY'S
 NAVY MITTMEN
Comeback Try of Former Champion to Aid Boys
 at Norfolk, Va, Base
(Reg, U. s. Pat, O6.l By HARRY FERGUSON fYTnfkad Wreee Rnmr.fe Edikorl

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 New York, Aug. l9-(UPl-Rule No. 6s-B in ports writing says that whenever 6 former champion an- novnces he Is going to try 9 come back you must prepare an essay telling him not ta do 1t. You are supposed to remind him that the fans prefer to remember him as he was in the days of his greatness, you must tell him that he is risking se- rious injury and you must remind hina of his duty to la) mother, (b) wide, and Co Riddles.
 Nuts on rule 65-B. Fred Apostoli is going to start 3 comeback cam paign this week and with 9 mighty shout that we hope will carry all the way to Norfolk, Va, where he Is in the navy, we say:
 Go to 1t, kid, and good luck"
 If he does come back-and there isn't any any apparent rdeasen why he shouldn't have some good fights left in hin1-it may clear up one of the baffling mysteries of the ring. Tn the space of one short year the former middleweight champion lost three fights and went down hill faster than any boxer of our time. He was young, strong, Q clean liver, a good boxer and good puncher. He had courage and he was smart But something in the complicated mechanism that makes up a fighter suddenly snapped and he dropped into ohscurity.
 He starts his comeback as a mem- Der of Lieut. Commander Gene Tupney's stable of navy boxers. He is said to be in. great shape and he is only 27 years old.
 No one who saw the start of his down-hill trip will forget that night in Madison Square Garden. Apos- toli came tearing out of hish corner, that angry scowl on his face, and raced across the ring and smashed three straight body punches into a tall, skinny, pale opponent. The The crowd holwed with glee. Why Apostoli was going to break the kid in two. He was the same old killer diller Fred who ate 'em alive.
 And then 1t began to happen. The pale, skinny kid slipped expertly along the ropes, circled Apostoli and then began to pepper him with the fastest left hand seen in these parts for many 8 year. The crowd yelled the kids name-Conn, Billy Conn from Pittsburgh. As Apestoli's star set that evening, Conn's rose. It was Q close, desperate fight and Conn got the decision, but there was a genuine demand for a return bout The crowd thought maybe Conn was nothing but 8 fancy Dan who hac had 8 lucky evening.
 The second fight also was close and Apostoli thinks to this day that he won 1t. So do lots of other per- sons, but the three men who count the referee and two judges-ruled otherwise. Conn moved up again or that trail that was to lead to bout with Joe Louis. Apostoli, whose title had not been at stake in either o1 the Conn bouts, agreed to lay the championship on the line against Ceferino Garcia, 8 hard punching Filipino who should have been ar easy dish for Fred.
 It was in that fight that Fred seemed to have lost the old zing Garcia, wide open as mining towr on Saturday night, drove in ant hammered body punches into Apos- toli and finally knocked him out ir the seventh round. The crowC couldn't understand it. Apostol didn't look like the same man whs i had waged two great battles against Conn. Apostoli doesn't understand 1t himself.
 It has been almest two years since he lost the title-two years in whitcf he has had time to get back hi. confidence and forget the lickingl that he so mysteriously took. w may see more of him and that would be a good break for him and for us for, win or lose, he always was 1T there trying.