Sport: Hot Pastrano

Teen-agers on the streets of New Orleans’ Vieux Carré can still remember when their pal Willie Pastrano was a fat little five-foot butterball, the butt of all their jokes. Lately they have stopped laughing. Stretched out to his full growth (5 ft. 11 in., 181¾ lbs.), Willie, at 19, has toughened into one of the most promising heavyweight fist fighters since laughing Billy Conn came within a couple of rounds of whipping Joe Louis in 1941.

But prizefight promoters still look on Willie as not quite big enough to take care of himself; he has to get his mother’s consent before every fight. Last week, before he was permitted to tangle with Philadel phia Toughie Joe Rowan in Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden, New York boxing commissioners studied his record care fully, reminded themselves that he had beaten such rough customers as Joey Maxim, Paddy Young and Chuck Spieser, and decided to overlook their rule against boys under 20 going ten rounds.

There was no need to worry about Wil lie. He demonstrated the flashy footwork ‘ and sharp punching of an old pro. He moved too fast ever to get set for a solid blow, but his left jab kept Rowan off bal ance all through the fight. At the end, he barreled in to demonstrate that he can hold his own in a close-in roughhouse and absorb some solid swipes without slowing up. His night’s work earned him a unanimous decision, and gave the matchmakers something new to think about in their search for a heavyweight-title contender.