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Angelo Mosca’s take on his fight with Joe Kapp (plus, video!)

andrew bucholtz

The septuagenarian fight between former CFL players Angelo Mosca and Joe Kapp Friday is still drawing plenty of attention across the country, and more details are starting to emerge. (Update: Also, TSN now has video, which you can watch here!) Hamilton Tiger-Cats' beat writer par excellence Drew Edwards has some of the best information out there straight from the horse's, er, defensive tackle's, mouth, thanks to landing an interview with Mosca (seen at right above with legendary boxer George Chuvalo in 2008). Here's what the big man had to say:

"They showed the Willie Fleming incident on the screen — it was like it was a set up," Mosca said. "He comes up to me with a flower in his hand taken from the table, one of the centrepieces, and he sticks the flower in my nose.Then he shoves it in my nose.
"I reacted with my cane and then he punched me and I went down. Then he kicked me."
Mosca said the place went into a shocked silence.
"I was stunned. I didn't think he had that much animosity towards me over something that happened almost 50 years ago," Mosca said. "I was dumbfounded."

If true, that certainly puts a lot of the blame in Kapp's corner, but it's well worth remembering that this is just one side of the story. No one's talked to Kapp yet from what I've seen, but here's what Allan Maki of The Globe and Mail passed along from Vancouver radio station Classic Rock 101 morning host Bro Jake, an eyewitness to the brawl.

"Angelo said, 'Joe hasn't looked my way once,'" Jake relayed on air. "Joe Kapp gets up and goes to get some flowers (to give to Mosca) and Angie says, 'Shove it up your ass' … (Kapp) popped him twice and as he's going down, Angelo has the cane and hits Joe Kapp in the head.

"Joe Kapp goes, 'What?' pops him twice and (Mosca) goes over on the chair, loses his 300-pound balance, goes through the curtain and disappears off the stage."

Regardless of who started it, this story is hilarious. It's not every day you see 70-plus-year-old guys fighting, especially over something that happened in 1963 (by the way, you can find some video of the controversial Mosca hit on Willie Fleming that supposedly started this grudge here at 0:26, via @acmesalesrep). In fact, some (like Cam Cole, Terry Jones and Damian Cox) are already painting this as the story of the weekend, and it just might be if Sunday's Grey Cup doesn't turn out to be a memorable one. It's another moment for the "only in the CFL" file, and one that will be remembered for a long while.