Mr. Devoto,

In the recent past, you had some interviews with Mr. Rick ZumWalt. I am an armwrestling enthusiast and competed years ago in the Great Lakes Championships, Northern States Championships, State of Maine Championships, etc...

The one and only person that I give credit for my inspiration in the armwrestling sport as I am promoting and conducting tournaments in North West Florida, is my brother Apache Dan, a World Champion Armwrestler. I mailed copies of Rick's interviews to my brother and to help set the record straight I would appreciate it if you could put this on the internet. The following is Apache Dan's response to Rick ZumWalt:

Rick ZumWalt,

My brother sent info that was sent out on the web site and a puller named Sol. I thought it was cool that I was mentioned with the legends you mentioned, Virgil, Brzenk, etc...but, a few things you said are not so cool.

First of all, you address me as Apache Dan, not the Lil Injun. Throughout my stint in the armwrestling world, I made it a point to honor my ancestry to embody and honor the spirit of the Apache Nation. I’m also Irish; but, I choose to walk the Red path in my adult life. To this day, we are the only race that is used as mascots and degraded in caricature figures, such as the clown faced Chief Wahoo of the Cleveland Indians. I have been at to many protests of this type of degradation and injustice, I’m ready to give my life for this cause. If you want to fight with me, this will do it.

The other part, the adjective "little", little to what? In my prime I stood 6’2, 296 lbs, with 22 1/2 inch arms and I think I was around 270 lbs when we met (I was still building up as a super heavy weight, beating them at my lower weight as I peaked at 296 lbs). My story is well documented, a few years before I met you, I fell 72 ft from a scaffle, a beam broke my back in 3 places, crushed my face and I lost a lung to a blood clot. I spent 8 months in a body cast and went down to 155 lbs, they wrote me off; but, 2 yrs, 3 months later, I beat Jim Esley to win my first world title at 242 lbs--no drugs either! Just old fashion pumping iron. Would you like the adjective FAT ... to describe yourself? You were awfully big; but, I pulled on the East coast with guys like Jim Williams, Tiny Williamson, Denny Dase, Joe Carbetta, and Chuck Rader, all were as big and bigger than yourself.

The cry baby stuff, what’s up with that? They wrote about our match on the front page of the Las Vegas Sun, they loved the match, it was the highlight of the tournament. The referee was Jack Rogers, a West coast referee, and I was the only East coast heavy weight there. You were the only one crying to the crowd and the referee, I pulled you back from the dead zone, my arm was shot after that. My only beef was Tony Celeste, he lied to me about the table, but that was another story. You wrote that you beat me but you know that was crap! In fact you ran into my partner from American Gladiators and you sent your picture with him and mentioned that you still wanted a rematch. I had good memories of our match; but, as you have stated you have a big mouth and I agree.

I expect a retraction on the same web site to your fake win over me and an apology on the Injun stuff. The little and the cry baby are apparently your opinion of me, so be it, I can live with that. The Arrow is broken, whatchya gonna do?

APACHE DAN

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ARMWRESTLING.COM- Dave Devoto (707) 537-7373