Evening star., 1953-02-13
Utah S|ugger
Dares Rival
10 Open Up
LuStorzu, Fuvorite
At 7 to 5. Moy Drop
Cuution in V Fiqht
BY the Assoeioisd Press

=
NEW YORK, Feb. 13.-Urged
by Rex Layne 'to come out and
fight" Roland LaStarza was ex-
pected to throw some Of his
caution aside tonight in a bold
bid to knock out the Utah heavy
weight and earn a title crack this
summer.
The 24-year-old Layne, No. 2
heavyweight contender from
Lewiston, Utah, and the 25-year-
old La Starza, ranked No. 4,
meet at Madison Square Garden
in a 10-round bout at 10 pm.
The fight will be telecast coast
to coast by NBC. The program
will be carried by Washington's
WNBW. channel 4.
La Starza is rated a 7-to-5
choice in a scrap that has the
experts guessing. There is no
one-sided opinion for this one
as there was for the Kid Gavi-
lan-Chuck Davey affair in Chi
cago.
Gate Under $25,OOO.
And there won't be anything
like the crowd that watched the
welterweights. The International
Boxing Club will be surprised if
the crowd and gate come to 5000
and $4,000.
This may be an important
heavyweight tussle but blase
New Workers have become ac-
customed to watching fights at
home for free. Each fighter will
collect the usual $500 radio
TV fee plus a share of the gate.
The winner of this battle is
almost a cinch to earn a shot
at the winner of the April 10
title bout between Champion
Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe
Walcott.
Dared to Open Up.
Layne and his manager, Mary
JenSon, won't want to take any
chances on getting sidetracked.
Jenson dared LaStarza ito open
up and make it spectacular
Let's not stink up the place. If
the fight is good the winner will
have to get the next chance at
the title"
Layne has declared: "I'm
going to knock him out. This is
my big chance"
LaStarza. an expert counter
puncher with a good wallop in
his right hand. won't have any
excuses for not mixing it up to-
night. He likes to have an
opponent take the offensive. and
that's the only way stocky Rex
knows how to fight.
Layne's Left Improved.
The pride Of the Rockies moves
in on a straight line, pinning his
hopes on his explosive right. His
left was nothing to write home
about before, but he appears to
have learned to use 1t adequately
in the last year or so.
"I'm ready for him." said La
Starza, who has worked harder
for this fight than any other in
his career. "I'm going to try for
a knockout. I've been too careful
before but know what this fight
means"
Both have been beaten by
Marciano. The heavyweight king
won controversial split decision
over Rollie on March "a, 1850.
That was the fight that started
Rocky on the way to the top
while LaStarza has floundered
around ever since.
Layne was knocked out in six
rounds by Marciano in an ex-
plosive battle in the Garden on
July IL, 1851. That was Rex's
last showing in New York.
Two Other Losses Avenged.
Since his loss to Marciano-
the first of his career-LaStarza
has been beaten by Dan Bucce-
roni and Rocky Jones. He
avenged both defeats in later
fights. His record is 52-3 with
"a kayos. He's never been
stopped.
Layne's record is 40-5-2. He
has % kayos to his credit and
has been stopped twice. Ezzard
Charles TKO'd him in II rounds
right after the Marciano mas
sacre. Rex evened matters with
Ezzy by outpointing the former
heavyweight champion at Og-
den. Utah, last August Before
the Charles return. Layne drop
ped decisions to Willie James in
Boston and Harry (Kid) Mat
thews in Portland, Greg.
Scoring in New York is by the
round system with the referee