The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-09-27
Midwest Cash
 Backs Chomp Tothe Hit
BY JACK CUDDY United PreSs Shorts Writer

AfSW VI ht SSRNs 1t-AO OG CJC4 an Tony 1ale, blond rib-erushel from the Gary Steel Mills, will risl his world middleWeight champion. ship tonight against Thomas (Rocky) Graziano, New York's row. | dy young headbasher.
 Prospects of reughhouse braw at Yankee Stadium, plus the fore cast of excellent weather, apparent ly were paving the way for 8 record middleweight crowd and gate of pos sibly 50,000 fans and $450,000
 Optimistic Mike Jacobs said, It'll do Inere'n five hundred grand"
 Graziane, the rings eccentric but explosive golden boy" was favored at ' l-2 to 5 to Wrest the 160- pound crown from the 32-year -eld cham pien, who was making his first de- fense of the undisputed title.
 The betting was Ia to that 24-year- Graziane would regis ter knockout over the Indiana veteran who won the National Box ing Associations version of the ti- tie from Al Hestak in 1940, and who became undisputed world king a year later by outpeinting Geergie Abrams The price was S-1 against Zale scoring kaye.
 Champ We'll Backed
 These prices were expected to shorten before the tive principals climb into the ring at about 10 P. M. (EDT. zale has been well sup ported in extremely heavy betting; and fresh bundles" were reported coming in today from midwestern plungers who recall what a great fighter the champion was before he entered the Navy.
 Griaziane is favored mainly be- cause of his youth, his punch and his impressive recent record; where as the aging champion has been ab- sent from serious competition for four years and seven months. Zale registered six tune-up kayoS against Paloeka opponents this year; but he hasn't had real fight since Feb. 13, 1942, when he lost non-title de- cisien to heavyweight Billy Conn.
 Six K. 0.
 GraZiane of the shaggy, brown haiF-a square should muscular eastsiae Italian-has smashed cut six kneekeuts in seven straight vie- tories since the night of March g, 1945. That was the night in which Rocky rose from the canvas, shock off the threat of benig knocked out for the first time, and belted out brown skinned Billy Arnold in the third round. "The Rock" became a gold nugget-the hottest attraction in boxing, except for Joe Louis. Fans swafmed by the thousands into the garden to watch this young ring ruffian go brutally berserk - to watch him use strangling tactics or thrust referees aside and bludgeon opponents when they were trying to rise from the canvas.
 His rough tactics and his piano punch caused admirers to acclaim him as another KetcheP' or "an- other Dempsey And for those sev- en bouts he drew $684, ,659 into the Garden. In his last Garden appear ance, on March 2e, the 19,o88 fans paid $173,163 to watch him knock out Marty Servo in the second round.
 Servo was welterweight champion then; and Graziano's critics make much of the fact that Rocky's other five knockouts were scored over vel terweights - 147-pounders. Iney emphasize that the swashbuck1ng, dead-end guy did ont knock out Son ny Horne, the oay middlewelght to face Rocky since he became proml- nent. In this connection, the zale admirers emphasize that the cham pion will have a weight advantage of about 159 pounds to 1b4 over Rocky tonight. Also that zale is taller and probably tougher; al- though Tony was knocked out twice early in his career.
 Rough Stuff?
 Zale's managers have warned the Graziano entourase that if Rocky makes one illegal move in the ring tonight, Irony will toss the rule book into the bucket and give him the works"
 If tonight's crowd and gate ap- proach the expected 50,O0O persons and $450, ,O00, they will set new mid dleweight records by exceeding the 10000 paid fans and the $339, ,O4O drawn by the Harry Greb-Mickey Walker middleweight title fight at the Polo Grounds on July 3, 1925. Tonight's bout originally was sched- uled for July 25. It was postponed because of Zales illness. The de- lay helped the gate.
 New York Sept. 27-(UP)-Here's the tale of the tape on tonight's Tony Zale- Rocky Graziano middleweight title fignt; YALE GHALiANo