1910-04-01 Abe Attell ND10 Owen Moran [Fairmont Athletic Club, Bronx, NY, USA]

1910-04-02 The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, NY) (page 8)

MORAN IS OUTPOINTED BY CLEVER ABE ATTELL
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Featherweight Champion Is the Class in Excellent Exhibition of Scientific Boxing.
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Abe Attell earned a clean cut decision over Owen Moran at the Fairmont Athletic Club last night in one of the prettiest exhibitions of scientific boxing that local sports have had the pleasure of watching in a long time. There was nothing of the sensational about the bout, as the boys were too well schooled to each other's style to admit of the slightest possibility of either inflicting damage. Both were in fine physical condition, Attell, especially, looking better than at any time he has appeared in New York before, and seemingly keyed up to the last notch of perfection.

Moran had the advantage of the weights by seven pounds, his weight being announced as 129, while that of Attell was only 122 pounds. This seeming handicap, however, counted for little once the boys started to work. Abe showed at once that he was the class. He stepped in with a stiff left to Owen's face and easily escaped the swing with which Moran tried to counter. That was about what the bout amounted to throughout. A stiff left lead to the face, with an occasional left to the body and right swing to the head made up the category of Abe's attempts.

His footwork was the best part of his performance. He was in and out like an eel and had Moran swinging like a gate. On several occasions the little English fighter almost fell on his face from the force of his own blows. A right to the body hurt Moran more than any other blow Attell used. When he found the opening he wanted Abe sent the best he had into this punch, and Moran was clearly distressed on more than one occasion.

Moran was clever, but he did not seem to have the confidence of the champion. He used his left well and repeatedly reached Abe's face with good jabs. Twice he rocked Attell with right hand swings to the head, but the blows did not land with the force he put into them because Attell was going away when they were sent. There was not a knockdown in the bout, although on two occasions each hit the floor, but on Abe's part it resulted through a wrestle, while Owen slipped when he missed.

Neither boy was badly marked. In the last round Moran succeeded in opening an old cut over Abe's left eye, and earlier in the bout Attell drew the claret from Owen's nose with his stiff jabs. The largest crowd that ever attended the bouts at the Bronx club filled every nook and corner of the big building, and long before the main attraction was put on the doors had to be shut on several hundred unfortunates who clamored for admission.

After the contest Moran almost begged Attell to give him a chance over the Marathon distance at 124 pounds. Attell would not give him a decided answer. He was willing to clinch a match at the featherweight limit, but Moran would not come within two pounds of the weight.


1910-04-02 The Evening Telegram (New York, NY) (page 8)

ATTELL SHADES MORAN ON POINTS, BUT IS BATTERED OVER RING IN LAST ROUND
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Champion Has Only Slight Margin in His Favor in Bout at Fairmont A. C.
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Briton Fights Fiercely at Finish--Result May Have Been Different if Go Longer.
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"Abe" Attell, on points, won the decision over Owen Moran in a ten round bout last night at the Fairmont Athletic Club. It was, however, not a decisive, clean cut victory by any means. The chances are that if a vote of the 3,700 fight fans, who filled every inch of space in the auditorium, were taken, Moran would be declared the victor. That was because of the aggressiveness of the little Englishman and his whirlwind finish.

In the tenth and final round he rushed the shifty Attell all around the ring, both arms flaying his opponent, opening up an ugly gash over his left eye and giving him a general gruelling. Furthermore, the sympathy of the crowd was with Moran. It was conceded by all that had the fight gone twenty or even fifteen rounds the chunky little Englishman would have been the victor.

With the exception of the last round it was not a fight to arouse enthusiasm. More than once the expectant crowd jeered the fighters for their failure to mix it. From a real scrappy standpoint the bout was a disappointment. Both men repeatedly stalled and failed to take advantage of openings which a novice would have seized with the avidity of a miser clutching a coin. Each was fresh at the finish, and the chief anxiety of both seemed to be a sporting writer's decision which was to settle a small side bet they had wagered on the result.

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Moran Loses by Wildness.

Moran lost by his wildness. Blow after blow failed to touch the nimble Attell, who also surprised many of his long time followers by his frequent inability to make connections. The Englishman had an unhappy faculty of running into "Abe's" swings that caused his backers to groan with anguish.

The tameness of the fight can be understood when it is realized that neither boxer was marked before the fifth round. Then Attell, following a rousing three seconds of hard infighting, landed several vicious jabs on "Owney's" nose. Attell escaped marked damage until the final round, when Moran, with a terrific right swing, cut a gash over "Abe's" left eye. It opened the wound made by "Johnnie" Marto last week.

In weight Moran had seven pounds advantage, according to "Billy" Gibson, who stated that at the ringside Attell tipped the beam at 122, while the scale gave Moran 129 pounds. Moran alleged that he was a pound lighter. But the Englishman's advantage in weight was more than discounted by Attell's height and reach. Both men were fit as a fiddle. There was no question about that. The betting--there was little of it, as Moran's supporters wanted slight odds--was even.

An Unsatisfactory Bout.

Last night's bout gave no satisfaction to the followers of either man. The question of superiority can only be demonstrated in a finish fight and rumor has it that both have visions of a golden purse on the Pacific Coast with this end in view. Moran can't best Attell in a ten-round bout. "Abe's: generalship in the ring, his keen knowledge of rings tactics and his trickiness enables him to outpoint almost any man of his weight in a bout of last night's limit.

But Moran's followers will dispute this. They will tell you that had he started to mix it with the champion earlier in the game that he would have won out. That is a question. Surprise was exhibited by "Abe's" friends because of the absence of his famous vicious jabs. They were not overmuch in evidence last night. He tried the infighting methods of Moran about as frequently as did the latter, and seemed to be partial to a left swing and hook.

The storied animosity between the fighters was not noticed during the scrap. The contrary seemed to be true, and when one scored a smashing point the other nodded in smiling acknowledgement. At the end they shook hands and displayed an Alphonse and Gaston attitude.

It was half-past ten o'clock when the fighters made their appearance. Attell, with a gray sweater over his trunks, his lean physique being in marked contrast to the rounded, muscular limbs of the compactly built Moran, who followed at his feels. Both were loudly cheered. In the champion's corner were "Johnny" Marto, "Kid" Griffo and "Joe" Ferguson. Moran's interests were looked after by "Jim" Plunket, "Jimmy" Johnson and "Charley" Harvey, his manager.

There was little time lost in the preliminaries. "Billy" Joh, the referee, called both to the centre of the ring and gave them brief instructions. A second later the gong sounded and the big crowd settled back for what was acknowledged to be the premier contest of the present season in little old New York.

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Briton Lands First Blow.

After feeling each other out for a moment, Attell swung two lefts for the face, in the first round, each falling short. Moran sent a hard right to the wind and Attell responded with two jolts to the face. Attell outpointed his man in the remainder of the round, which was clearly his. The second was a mild affair and the honors were even.

Moran became the aggressor in the third and put over some hard blows, winning the round by a fair margin. The little Englishman kept up his pace and with vicious head blows carried off the honors in the next, too. "Abe," however, picked up in the fifth and scored first blood with hard left to the nose.

Moran's wildness lost him the sixth, Attell scoring frequently with right and left swings. Honors were more even in the eighth, but Attell had a shade the better of it. There was good action in the ninth round. Moran rushed things from the start and landed at will on Attell, who clinched often to avoid punishment. It was Moran's round.

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Attell Battered in Tenth.

In the tenth the crowd was brought to its feet with enthusiasm. Moran seemed at last to have got his eye on distance and after some rough in-fighting sent left and right to Attell's face and in the mix-up both fell to the floor, Attell underneath.

Moran extended a helping hand. "Thank you," said "Abe" with a bow. "Don't mention it, 'Abe,'" said Moran, with a vicious swing which opened "Abe's" right eye, following it with a cracking left on the nose. "Abe's" face was now a bright crimson. He fought back, but missed a bad left, and Moran peppered him with three rights to head and stomach. It was a whirlwind finish.

In the preliminaries "Sailor" Condon bested Howard Smith in six rounds. "Tommy" Ginty knocked out "Mike" Eagan in the second round of what was to have been a six round "go." Neal Regan, "Charley" Harvey's latest find, was outclassed by Nathan Erlich. The latter is a comer. Peter Powers was so outclassed by "Tommy" Hinch in a special four round bout that Referee Joh stopped the "go" in the second round.


1910-04-02 The New York Times (New York, NY) (page 9)

ATTELL OUTPOINTS MORAN SLIGHTLY
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English Boxer Makes a Strong Showing Toward End of Bout at Fairmont A. C.
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There was nothing to alarm the most timid in the ten-round bout between Abe Attell, featherweight champion, and Owen Moran, the English boxer, held last night at the Fairmont Athletic Club. As a sparring competition pure and simple it was remarkably good. But as a fight it was distinctly not a success, and each man fought so cautiously and feared so very palpably to take a chance that the 3,000 members present voted that they had had a poor run for their money.

What advantage there was lay slightly in Attell's favor at the close of the final session, but it was solely a point advantage. Neither did damage enough to have harmed an infant, and, except for Attell's eye--which was damaged in his recent bout with Johnny Marto and from which Moran knocked the plaster in the ninth round--there was no sign of blood or injury.

Both were in the pink of condition when they entered the ring, Attell being the first to appear. It was announced that the featherweight champion had weighed in at 122 pounds an hour before, and that Moran tipped the scales at 129, although the Englishman said that 128 was the true figure. There was a long wrangle between the two men when they weighed in, and for a time it was doubtful whether the bout would go on. They did not, so far as hard hitting was concerned, carry their animosity into the ring with them.

ROUND 1--Each missed a left swing, and Moran followed up his failure to land with two more, turning himself completely around from the force of his blows, while Attell laughed at him from across the ring. They kept to long-range tactics.

ROUND 2--After much sparring Attell tried several right swings and missed with them all. Moran put a light left to the jaw. They clinched, and on the break Attell shot a left hook to the head. Thereupon they rushed into frequent clinches.

ROUND 3--Careful fiddling marked this round. Attell missed a left swing for the head, but landed a hard left to the neck. Moran jabbed Attell twice to the jaw, which made the smaller man a trifle wild in his attempted return. Attell missed twice with left and right swings, and then sent over a left hook that knocked Moran against the ropes.

ROUND 4--Following a period of long-range boxing, they rushed into a clinch. Attell sent a right hook to the body, and Moran put a short left on the jaw. Attell responded with a left swing to the stomach, and Moran jabbed in return. The Englishman ran right into a hard left hook to the stomach, but he kept on boring in and finally sent a left to the head and two rights to the neck.

ROUND 5--Attell started things with a left to the body, and then they stayed away from each other for a while. Moran landed a left jab on Attell's nose. He caught a hard left to the jaw in return. Moran's lip was scratched open by a light left jab, and Attell put two more to the mouth without return. Moran rushed and got a hard left to the face which made him clinch.

The crowd showed its disapproval of the encounter during the next four rounds, but managed to get some little satisfaction in the tenth, which went along about as follows:

Neither cut loose much at the bell. Attell got a left jab on the jaw and landed a similar blow on Moran's face. Attell let Moran rush past him wildly into the ropes, and then hit him lightly in the back of the head. As Moran turned around and rushed Attell, the latter slipped to the floor, and Moran went down with him. They exchanged light lefts when they arose, and then clinches. They were in a tight embrace at the bell.

Neil Regan, a clever Irish fighter who arrived but a fortnight ago, fought Nathan Erlich of Philadelphia in the eight-round semi-final, and lost the decision, although he was by far the more popular of the two. Elrich did considerable roughing and hitting when holding with one hand, and proved himself a rather unclean fighter.