Turk Won Easily

The Gazette – November 21, 1908

Defeated Yankee Rogers in Straight Falls at Sohmer Park Last Night.

NEVER FORCED TO LIMIT.

Without Effort He was Always Aggressor and Won as He Wished.

Yussiff Mahomout, the Turk, who is claimed to be one of the season’s wrestling wonders, had no difficulty in defeating Yankee Rogers at Sohmer Park last evening in two straight falls, 9 and 11 minutes respectively.

The Turk proved to be a pretty good all-around wrestler, but the match with Rogers did not furnish any conclusive proof as to whether he is a real or only a near-champion. He had Rogers measured up early in the match, and the Yankee never stood a ghost of a chance to win. In the first three minutes Rogers was put down fair and square for a fall, but he was a bit off the mat, and the pair were brought back to the centre. The Turk finished up this fall in good shape, and in the second also had much the better of the wrestling.

The Turk is of the build of Cazeaux, the French wrestler, who made a hit here last year. He is not as heavy as Cazeaux about the shoulders, but is more bulky about the hips and has a pair of very sturdy legs. He weighed in at 212 pounds last night, and in weight had an advantage of about five or six pounds over Rogers. The chief features of his wrestling last night were his strength and his ability to withstand the gruelling toe hold.

Antonio Pierri, the old Greek wrestler, was in Yusiff’s corner last evening, and a very excited man he was through the first few minutes of the wrestling. Later, when he found that the Turk was an easy master of the situation, Pierri took things more coolly. He expressed himself after the match as particularly pleased with the Turk’s success in resisting the toe hold. Yussiff wrestled in his bare feet, and when Rogers secured a really first-class grip on his ankle, the Turk, after a brief moment of struggling, walked out of the hold without showing the slightest signs of distress.

Rogers is not a champion, but he is equal to keeping most of the good heavyweights guessing for twenty minutes or so. He had his right wrist bandaged last night as a result of an injury received last winter and aggravated in some of his recent matches, but he really appeared to be in pretty fair form. Against the Turk, however, Rogers did not have a chance at any time. In the twenty minutes of the match Rogers was the aggressor for about four minutes; the rest of the time he was standing off the Turk. In the first five minutes Yankee was warned by the referee for using his fists. The Turk started in at once to rush things, and Rogers in a couple of sharp exchanges used his fists. The Turk himself wrestled fairly and was guilty of no fouling at any stage of the match.

The first fall was won in nine minutes on a pretty spectacular hold. From a reversed position Yussiff secured a crotch, with which he turned the Yankee clean over on his back. With Rogers stretched prone, the Turk shifted quickly, and securing a body scissors, simply forced Rogers to the mat.

In the second bout the pair were standing on the mat sparring for a good part of the time. After the minute-rest following the first ten minutes of wrestling the Turk instantly assumed the aggressive and rushed Rogers around, finally securing a waist hold from a front position, and then, with a heel lock, brought his man to the mat. In the brawny arms of the Turk, Rogers stood no chance and was forced to the mat for the second fall in 11 minutes.

After the match an effort was made to match the Turk with Raoul de Rouen, the French wrestler, who arrived at New York this week and will be in Montreal on Tuesday. Raoul has been wrestling in South America in the same tournament as Cazeaux, and is reported to be even a better man than the Bordelais. A Graeco-Roman match was suggested for the pair, but Pierri, the Turk’s manager, would only consent to a match at catch-as-catch-can style.

Pierri expressed himself as satisfied with the Turk’s work, while Dr. Gadbois, referee for the match, said that the Turk came far above his expectations.