Pete Sanstol (March 28, 1905 – March 13, 1982) was a Norwegian professional boxer who took the Canadian version of the World Bantamweight Championship in Montreal in 1931 against Archie Bell. He contended twice unsuccessfully for the NBA World Bantamweight Title, and was a class of 2000 World Boxing Hall of Fame inductee.
Lew Burston, Raoul Godbout, George Blake, and Bobby Diamond were his managers. His trainers were Jake Kravitz and Manny Seeman.
Early life and amateur career
Peder Olai Sanstøl was the youngest of five children born to Jonas Jonasen Sanstøl (1864–1942) and Elen Dortea Nilsdatter Lindland (1860–1946) in Moi, Lunde municipality, in Rogaland county in Norway. He moved to Stavanger with his parents as a child. Sanstol learned to box in the club Kristiana AK, after his family moved to Oslo. Boxing as an amateur, he came in fourth in the flyweight class championship in 1923 and won gold in the bantam class championship in 1925.
Early professional boxing career
Pete Sanstol embarked on a professional career in 1926. After winning his professional debut against the British boxing veteran Bert Gallard in Oslo, Sanstol was invited by Max Schmeling's manager to train in Berlin. After Sanstol left Norway in the mid-1920s, he only occasionally returned.
On July 13, 1926 Sanstol defeated Harry Stein, than the Flyweight Champion of Germany, in Berlin at Luna Park in a four-round newspaper decision. The source, BOX-SPORT reported that Sanstol won the decision decisively.
Bout with Andre Dedieu in Paris, January 1927
Winning all his bouts in Germany, Sanstol moved on to Paris where he fought at least through February 1927. On January 24, 1927, he met the well known Andre Dedieu at the Central Sporting Club in Paris, winning in a third-round technical knockout. Some observers in Paris compared him to French boxing champion, Georges Carpentier. Discovered in Paris by American manager Lew Burston (1896–1969), Sanstol was brought to New York around mid-1927, where he graduated from the club preliminaries to become the most sought after bantam in the eastern United States and Canada.
Bouts with Joey Scalfano, August, October 1930
On October 22, 1930, Sanstol fought a tough ten-round draw against Joey Scalfano at Madison Square Garden that was "nip and tuck for the entire ten rounds", and a great crowd pleaser. Sanstol later described it as one of his toughest fights. There were no knockdowns in the bout and the fighting was fast-paced and frenzied. Scalfaro's left eye was completed closed for the last two rounds and his blows often missed their mark. Sanstol had previously lost to Scalfaro on August 6, 1930 at Madison Square Garden in a ten-round points decision. Scalfaro was known as the only boxer to score a knock down of the Black Cuban champion Kid Chocolate in North America.
Taking the Canadian version of the World Bantamweight Championship
By late 1930, Sanstol had moved his headquarters from the Norwegian-American community of Bay Ridge, in Brooklyn, NY, to Montreal, Canada where he came under the management of Raoul Godbout (1894–1975).
On May 20, 1931, in his most important bout, Sanstol won the World Bantamweight Title in a ten-round unanimous decision against the great New York Jewish contender Archie Bell in Montreal. The title was recognized by the Montreal Athletic Commission and the Canadian Boxing Federation, so it had some limits in its scope. The fast bout had no knockdowns. For a championship bout, it received very limited coverage in American newspapers. Sanstol weighted 115 1/2, giving up only two pounds to Bell. Bell would later contend for but not take the British version of the World Bantamweight Title and contend twice for the California version of the World Featherweight Title.
First defense of the Canadian World Bantamweight Title, June 1931
Sanstol twice successfully defended his bantamweight title. On June 17, 1931, Sanstol defeated Art Giroux, also of Montreal, in the Canadian version of a World Bantamweight Title. Leading in the betting odds by 7 to 5, Sanstol won the fifteen round bout at the Forum in Montreal in a fifteen-round Unanimous Decision. Giroux was the Canadian Bantamweight Champion at the time. After the win, Sanstol was rated second in the world in the bantamweight division, behind only Panama Al Brown, according to the quarterly standings of the National Boxing Association (NBA).