Pete Sanstol vs. Jimmy Thomas

Believed to be from The Globe newspaper (Toronto)

Pete Sanstol 118 lbs beat Jimmy Thomas 121 lbs by PTS in round 10 of 10

• Date: 1932-06-13
• Location: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• This fight occurred in Toronto, although some earlier "official" records (e.g., FightFax) of Sanstol's fights state it occurred in Montreal.
• First bout of Comeback #2 for Sanstol, after almost a year layoff.
• Part of a bantamweight elimination tournament to find a challenger for Panama Al Brown. Toronto Daily Star
• PDF scan of a page from Sanstol's surviving scrapbooks (2009), regarding this bout.

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It was a full night of boxing before a sparse crowd. Lou Marsh, Sports Editor of The Star (Toronto), in his column entitled "With Pick and Shovel," included the following items:

Fight promoters in this town have been wondering just what it will take to bring the fans out in paying numbers. [BoxRec Note: Recall that the Great Depression was in full swing at this time.] And after last night's superb card they are still more befogged than ever.

Last night's card could not be excelled for all-round action and thrills -- and class, too. Yet it did not draw. Only 2,000 turned out.

That 2,000 spent the night in cheering -- just one jeer because Mike Barrett did not last longer against Frenchy Belanger -- and went home delighted. But the question is, will the next one draw any more to the box office.

They were shown four of the smartest bantams in the world -- in Emile "Spider" Pladner, probably the next world's champion -- in two sparkling fights. The card should have drawn at least 5,000 or 6,000, and in the old days would have drawn 9,000 or 10,000.

What is the answer? My guess is that the fans soured when they were handed big, slow, heavyweights after a diet of smart, fast, lighter men -- and disgusted when top-notchers were brought here to show against clowns and sparring partners. They did not want to see celebrities shadow boxing or boxing tankers. What they wanted was fierce, hard contests.

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The referees were Alex Sinclair for the first three bouts, and Lou. E. Marsh for the last two. Judges for all bouts were Fred Nobert, Elwood Hughes, and William Armstrong.

Here is an excerpt from Mr. Marsh's article about the Sanstol-Thomas fight (the Willie Davies-Emile Pladner bout description can be found here):

Last night's fight show was a show of sinkers and of shiners. The attendance was a "shine" -- and the promoters finished in the sink -- or pink -- or red.

And most of the boxers emerged with shiners -- and a couple of those who didn't emerge with shiners finished with sinkers -- and so there you are, if you follow me....

For once a main bout was the standout of the card. This card had two "main" bouts. Both were good, but one was too good. In fact, it was so full of sizzling action that it made the other bout -- really a very clever and interesting affair -- look like a game of paty-pat in a creche.

The standout of the night's show was the battle between Wee Willie Davies, Welsh-born lad from Charleroi, Pa., now grown to a high-class bantam, and Emile Pladner of France, the European bantam champion. They call Pladner "The Spider." If Pladner is a spider, according to French standards, then I would like to see what they call a hornet in action. He can certainly sting hard, fast, and often....

Plenty of Dynamite

The other semi-final brought out Pete Sanstol, the Norwegian who has been rated second and third best bantam in most "official" ratings for the class for some time [behind the world champ, "Panama" Al Brown], and Jimmy Thomas, a colored boy from Pittsburgh who is one of the best at the weight.

But they were both light hitters and head weavers, and fought close to the floor.

In fact most of the time they looked like a pair of fighting roosters -- heads down and pecking away at one another.

The first round looked like a necking party. All they did was to waltz and slap. At the end of the round both were warned to put something more on the ball or they would be invited to exit.

That did the trick. From then on they punched as hard as they could, which wasn't very hard, and gave the fans a smart fight. For the first four rounds the Smoky City brunette plastered Sanstol with jabs and jolts, and the Norse blond, bloody faced from the continual pecking, looked to be in for a pasting but he switched to Thomas' body, punched him weak, and on end was quite distinctly the better man.

Sanstol finished with a pip of a shiner -- the left. It too was cut and bleeding and half closed. He got the cut in the second round and from then on the colored boy concentrated on the damaged section but he could not make Sanstol stop.

Sanstol fought a very smart fight and would probably show much better against a boy like Pladner who stands up and fights.

But I don't think that he can whip the Frenchman who packs plenty of dynamite.