Pete Sanstol vs. Alex Burlie

Pete Sanstol 116 lbs beat Alex Burlie 116 lbs by TKO in round 4 of 6

• Date: 1928-04-25
• Location: Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Sanstol's Canadian debut. Burlie substituted for Joe Villeneuve, who had been badly cut in Quebec City the week before. Montreal Herald

The following bout account is from the day-after Montreal Gazette:

Sanstol Made Good Impression


Sanstol Dominated

Outstanding in the night's entertainment was the performance of Sanstol, a Norwegian flyweight, who scored a technical knockout over Alex Burlie, the Toronto boxer. Sanstol made many friends by his clever exhibition and, in the opinion of the majority who witnessed him in action last night, can defeat better boxers than his Toronto opponent. Sanstol, by defeating Burlie, scored his twenty-first victory since coming from Norway just over a year ago. He is one of the cleverest boxers uncovered in Montreal in a number of seasons, being a hard hitter who shows good use of both hands.

From the commencement of the bout, which was the second of the preliminaries, Sanstol set in to finish up his opponent. He battled him around the ring and landed almost at will. That round was the downfall of Burlie and he was subjected to so great punishment that he came back in a weakened condition. In the second and third rounds Sanstol continued to administer punishment and had Burlie in a bad way. In the early stages of the fourth round Willie Morris, manager of Burlie, tossed a towel into the ring, conceding the victory to the Norwegian, giving him a technical knockout over the man who had defeated Frenchy Belanger on two occasions.

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In the pre-fight publicity for Sanstol's August 7, 1935, world title challenge against Sixto Escobar, Montreal Daily Gazette Sports Editor Elmer W. Ferguson wrote:


Sanstol first flashed on the Montreal fistic horizon half a dozen years ago. This writer recollects him knocking out Aleck Burlie in April of 1928, over seven years ago at the Forum. In those days Sanstol was a bewildering bundle of speed and energy. His slim, tireless legs carried him around the ring at bounding, blinding speed. He threw his endless energy to the winds with complete abandon. He was a profligate spendthrift of energy and strength, of nerve force. He had all the carelessness of youth about vitality as expended in the ring. He had a seemingly endless supply. For ten or twelve rounds he could dance, bounce, leap and dash about the ring on those steel legs, and meanwhile his speeding fists could keep on throwing stinging punches at bewildering speed, punches from all angles. For not only did Sanstol bound about the ring. He ducked like lightning, weaved, bobbed, always going at top speed, a master-boxer in his own fashion, a fashion founded on speed and stamina. The fighting heart that blazes from his ice-cold eyes still sends him on. But fistic age has tempered the pace, has developed a new ring cunning, and a tendency to accomplish by polished skill what he once achieved by youthful energy that disdained to save itself, that was gladly thrown to the winds.

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YouTube video of Sanstol sparring in 1935, demonstrating his ducking, bobbing and weaving defense style, at the very end of his boxing career: [1]