Freddie Steele vs. Al Hostak

Al Hostak 159 lbs beat Freddie Steele 159 lbs by KO at 1:43 in round 1 of 15

• Date: 1938-07-26
• Location: Civic Stadium, Seattle, Washington, USA
• Referee: Jack Dempsey

National Boxing Association World Middleweight Title

This title bout was held at Civic Stadium, which became Memorial Stadium, in where is now called the Seattle Center. The crowd of 35,000 saw Steele knocked down four times. Steele was counted out at by former World Champion referee Jack Dempsey. Some ringside observers accused Steele of coming out against Hostak with his hands down, thus getting KO'd in the first round. But Steele had been hampered by a cracked breastbone, which prevented him from lifting his gloves high to where they belonged--according to his chief sparring partner, Davey Ward.

Photo #2: [1]; Photo #3: [2], Photo #4
August 25, 2010 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Blog post: [3]