Apparently this guy was pretty lethal. From what I've read Nat Fleisher thought highly of him. He had some good wins including: W 10 Steve Belloise, KO 1 Freedie Steele, TKO 4 Solly Krieger. Unfortunately Tony Zale was meaner, tougher, and hit harder and beat him three times by W 15, KO 13, and KO 2. Can anyone give me some more details on the guy?
I may have said this already, but the most impressive thing about Al as far as im concerned is Zale, in every post career interview always said Al was by far the best he fought. Its a hellva comment!
It's Al Holstak and I had the privilege of meeting him twice in the late, great Georgetown Tavern in South Seattle, Washington. He was old and tired but he was the freaking ex-middleweight champ of the world! And he was a lethal freaking puncher in an underrated era along with a monster named Freddie Steele who hailed from down the road in Tacoma.
great story:good for what it's worth i believe jack dempsey called holstak the most tenacious puncher he's ever seen after referreeing the steele fight
Great stuff guys! For what's its worth Steele was pretty amazing in his own right. I've recently been getting curious about that unheralded era in the middleweight division, including Hosak, Steele, Georgie Abrams, and Ken Overlin.
HA! Goddamn wide thumbs with these tiny keyboards. There were a few pictures of him around the tavern which I think he worked at later in life, after being a paratrooper in WWII. I must say, to Freddie Steele's defense, he had a broken sternum before he fought Hostak, an injury from which he never really recovered. Here's Al's Obit in the Seattle Times... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/obituaries/2003197087_boxingobit14.html
I actually don't think Zale was any of those things. What he was, was quicker on his feet and more versatile. Here is footage of the first fight (non-title) between Zale and Hostak: [yt]32QWbKIptRc[/yt] (Hostak is the more upright fighter, Zale the one who bounces on his toes.) Hostak reminds me a bit of a Gerald McClellan or Kelly Pavlik-type fighter - a tall, lanky puncher with a big right hand, who could also take a punch, but was also somewhat limited and outboxable. Hostak was considered something of an enigma even in his own day. He skyrocketed to stardom when he ripped the MW title from Freddie Steele with an absolutely shocking 1st round, upset KO, but then just as quickly his stock plummeted when he was himself upset and soundly beaten by Solly Kreiger, who was thought of as just a "good journeyman" entering the fight. (The loss to Kreiger earned Hostak consideration as one of the "Disappointments of the Year" by a poll of sportswriters.) Just as quickly, Hostak came back to blitz Kreiger and take back the title, only to see his stock take another hit after being upset by another "good journeyman" in Zale (in the fight shown above). Of course, at that time, no one knew that Zale was an ATG-in-the-making. Hostak also took some flack from sportswriters (particularly along the east coast) for his reluctance to risk his title outside of his homestate, and for his perceived "ducking" of MW co-titlist Ceferino Garcia, who had won his version of the title from the supposed "real" champion in Fred Apostoli.
