Old Breed

Archibald Lee Moore, light-heavyweight champion of the world, kept the transcontinental call properly terse. "You wanna fight Willi Besmanoff in Louisville the night before the Derby?" asked Archie's manager in New York. "How much?" asked Archie in San Diego. "Ten thousand." Said Archie: "I'll be there."

One of the old breed of journeyman fighters, proud of his trade, Old Archie (41 going on 44) is always in shape, always ready to throw punches for pay. So last week he simply packed his bag, flew to Louisville and on Derby Eve treated a race-wise crowd to a professional demonstration of ring-wise skill. Archie's snappy little imperial stayed trim as a movie star's toupee while he gave young (25) Besmanoff a painful ten-round boxing lesson. He won the decision handily.

But if the fans were satisfied, Archie was disappointed. A knockout would have given the old battler a lifetime total of 127 K.O.s, would have made him boxing's undisputed K.O. champ. It is a title he deserves. Young Stribling, a heavyweight who also claimed 126 knockouts, swelled his total by touring tank towns in the '20a and flattening the local champions. Archie has taken on all comers at all weights, from Europe to Australia.

Archie cannot even think of the names of all the men he still has plans to fight. "I got to leave for Vancouver in the morning to get ready for whatsisname--that German," he announced. "I'm taking off weight so I can fight either Patterson for the heavyweight championship or Ray Robinson for my title. I'll get that knockout record soon. And I'm going to run it up so high that no one will ever beat it."

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