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, , — AT THE RINGSIDE + + By Barney Naglerl NEW YORK, N. Y., June 24.— The little man coming through the turnstile at Belmont Park, shading his eyes as he walked , , out out of of sunlight, sunlight, was was Al ai out out of of sunlight, sunlight, was was Al ai Weill, the fight manager. Remember him? Hes the one who owned and really operated Rocky Marciano until the retired unde-f e a t e d heavyweight champion backed out of the business because of a sore back and a solid unwillingness to to give up the remainder der oi of his his youth youtn to to the tne — der oi of his his youth youtn to to the tne rigors of training. Weill had not been around for a spell, hiding out in his commercial suite in Lexington Avenue. He was always a telephone man, using the Don Ameche to book his fighters. These days, with Marciano out of action, Weill has to scrounge around with lesser fighters, a lightweight and an English heavyweight named Rent, who doesnt pay it. The last few weeks there had been talk that Weill and Marciano were not even talking to each other. It was reported they were seeing their lawyers, Weill in defense and Marciano in assault on his erstwhile manager. The quondam champion insisted he no longer wanted any part of Weill, including the scrambled syntax. AAA It developed that Weill and Marciano had a contract registered with the New • York State Athletic Commission which had a few weeks to run. There was another on file with the Illinois board. This one had a longer life. Weill was_ trying _to use_ this one to cut in on" Marcianos non-fistic earnings. Then, jusl; the. other day, word came down that Weill and Marciano had agreed to a settlement of their differences: Al could have his contract and Marciano could retain his good name. They were at the parting of the ties. Now, at Belmont, Weill was on hand to be asked face-blank whether he and Rocky were through. "Are you?" a man ad-libbed. "Sort of," Weill said. "We got it in the works. Everythings gonna be all right." "You mean youll be split out, Rocky from you?" AAA "Everythings gonna be all right. Thats what I mean.. We aint gonna be together, but we aint gonna be mad at each other." "Then you have leisure time now to come here and wager a few on the races?" "I came here to meet a guy. A guy who is an old friend. I got a bungalow for my wife up in the country. Shes up there, so what I got to do but come out here?. It aint like the time I had to work to get fights for fighters. Nowadays you got good fighters, you cant get too much work because there aint enough boxing to go around." Weill wanted to talk about Floyd Pattersons heavyweight championship defense against Hurricane Jackson in July. "Itll be the same as it was the first time," he insisted. "You mean Pattersons too much for the wild man?" "A fellows as good as Patterson and as young dont go back. Look the way he was against Moore, knocking him out and all that, why shouldnt he be as good against a guy he beat in 12 rounds?" "Because you never know how good Jackson will be," the other one said. "Thats what you got to figure on," said Continued on Page Forty AT THE RINGSIDE I By BARNEY NAGLER Continued from Page Two Weill. "You got to figure that if all things are like equal, Pattersons got to win it. What Im thinking about here is a two-dollar bet." "Dont tell me you know as much about horses as about fighters?" "I aint been around them ibng enough," Weill said.. "Boxing, it was 35, 40 years with me, but this is new. I tell -you I come here to meet a friend." "You look good." Weill smiled openly. His face was tanned and he was neatly arrayed, and he appeared in better shape than when he was hustling Marciano for a deep bite of lush purses. "Whats a guy gonna do but relax these days," he said. "The way boxing is its the only thing to do."
