I read somewhere that the man is measured by his liking. Well then, Don Polo Acosta y Acosta was not man of only one liking. His extraordinary vitality and incomparable imagination made him lose the head by one good/great yoke of coarse cows. Well know is  he between the old ox drivers of the island. The haladas, or drags weights with corsa-wood device in triangle form on which are put  sand coats to be dragged by the bovines ones- were and continue being their weakness, and the coach in romerías (popular celebrations), due in them is possible to be appreciated which is the best yoke of cows or bulls, and which one is the best cowherd, and Polo Acosta, indeed, was not of the worse ones. The possession of the best goats was another one of his liking, "Similar maybe, but better... I doubt" said me Don Polo Acosta. The horses, although in those years were a luxury almost for rich, occupied part of his life, "and of course that I rode" proud Don Polo. And Don Polo played the Palo (stick). Today the native thing is fashionable, but when in this islands the people was not governed  by fashions, when the automobile began to roll by the world, the citizen went by foot to all places, and some times with horse, the today Don Polo Acosta went by the life with a stick in the hand, stick that took by its utility, and to give it to someone in the ribs if  it was required by the circumstances. Thus, then, Polo Acosta y Acosta played the palo in the short whiles of break with his friends, and he arrived at the present days playing the palo.
   And the Lucha Canaria (canary wrestle). Don Polo Acosta was not less in this canarian sport. He knew about canary wrestle due in part that was his life. Don Polo, according to what he told me, founded the wrestle team  El Tinguaro, that lasted eleven years, and the Calana, that lasted three years. These two teams left great wrestlers, like Nino Morales of the South.

 Don Polo Acosta -in his youth, due to his exuberante enthusiasm, was called the crazy- was champion of dogs of presa, and took his liking everywhere, and defied when it was necessary, and if his dog were inferior to the one of X, he solved  this buying  another one able to overcome it.
   Thus he bought and he sold dogs. Today he had this one and tomorrow another  one, that he  trained to be champion. Between the many dogs that he had, are worthy of mention El Valiente, El Nilo, El Turco, El Cambao, El Chumbo, El Corbato, El Boliche, El Cuidao that bought  to MáximoBenítez , El Porqué, brought from Las Palmas, El Quebrao, and El Marruecos, the champion of champions. This dog was brought to Tenerife from La Palma by Juan El Marchante as a great dog, but soon Juan El Marchante lost the liking of him. Two times he fought it and two times it lost the fight. But Polo Acosta, that knew to distinguish the caste of a dog just  watching  it, bought it in twenty duros (hundred pesetas) and a puppy, of presa, of course.

   Known is that every master has his book, and Polo Acosta was not an exception. Took Marruecos to his home and began to please and to train him, and when  seemed him that the dog was already in good conditions, began with the challenges. The fights were preceded of a whole ritual. The owners of the dogs agreed themselves if they were going to remain in complete silence or not while the dogs fought -this condition, absolute silence, were respected scrupulously when Don Polo fought some dog- and the amplitude of the circle was respected where fought the dogs, and no spectator could touch  the dogs in combat, and if the dogs left the circle the spectators were forced to leave the field free. Polo Acosta was in favor "that the dogs must understood themselves, and the one that overcome, was winner". And it was always avoided, as far as possible, that the dogs were damaged in excess, and ussually were not deaths.

In the hands of Polo Acosta, Marruecos gained fight after fight.  It  arrived to be so popular between the fans of dog´s fighting in the islands and such was his prestige that arrived a moment that nobody wanted to fight with him. This dog did not die fighting, died old, tied to the trunk of an old walnut in a property that Don Polo had in the Guillén road, in the jurisdiction of La Esperanza.

 Other dogs of Don Polo "who gave flame" were some of  the already mentioned. El Corbato, El Quebrao, El Cuidao, El Porqué, and el Nilo, a croseed of  black Great Dane that fought with El Mocho of Cho Domingo Palma in Las Raíces, in the exit of La Esperanza direction of Las Cañadas del Teide.

 In those years of dog´s fightings there were also breeders of presa dogs that sold them to the fans. One of the most named was Barreto El Viejo, of La Laguna.

In the Wood Hut, in Santa Cruz, near the Municipal Slaughter house, there was what they called a block of dogs where there was dogs of different breeds from different owners (Bulldog, Bullterrier, Great Dane, Majorero dog, Presa of the land, Spanish Mastiff, etc.) to cross thinking in the fights. The crossings with Great Dane did not give the desired result and the fans finished rejecting it.
   It has been much gossip about  the bets in the dog´s  fights, but, according to Don Polo Acosta and other fans that were interviewed by me, these were so sporadic that not even they are possible to be considered. And at no moment existed the organized fights like sport or something like that. "That story was invented after the fights were banned", comments me Don Polo, "and does not fit the smaller doubt that  those stories  inventors never were present at one fight"
    Some described the fights as bloodthirsty, consequence of the cruelty of the owners of the dogs, the others, most devout, they dare to say that "The Presa Canario Dog is so intelligent, and so polite, that when sees that his opponent shout,  loosen it immediately and  licks him the wounds". The Presa Canario Dog was always a dog docile and extremely intelligent, easy to dominate, but like dog of presa frightful with other dogs, and in the fight it did not stop until being tired.
    Don Polo Acosta thinks that the liking to the fights of dogs is brought to Tenerife from Gran Canaria time ago, and from Gran Canaria came the dogs, that  mean that they did not breed it in Tenerife. In Gran Canaria, old fans said me, several years ago, that the liking had been born there, and that from Tenerife went to buy very frequently dogs for the fight, thing that did not happen in opposite sense. And the dogs that gained fame fighting in Tenerife had been brought from Gran Canaria, with the exception of Marruecos. León was brought by Juan El Marchante from Gran Canaria, the Sultán was brought from there by Juan Hormiga, and El Porqué, that soon was of Pole Acosta, and El Chumbo, that also went to stop to his hands.
   In Gran Canaria the champion of the dogs, according to Polo Acosta , was El Cubano. This man had an obviously invincible dog, in view of what Andrés El Peninsular-then he lived in Las Palmas, later he moved to Tenerife -went to Tenerife to buy León of Juan El Marchante, with the purpose of throwing it to fight with the dog of El Cubano. León was taken to Las Palmas, his native land, but, we don´t  know why, both dogs did not get to face, and León  returned  to Tenerife.
   In Las Palmas, according to Don Polo, other outstanding fans of the fights of dogs were Paco Santana Santana, Salvadorito, Parrilla, Juan Martín, Zenón, and Patarrasa. But there was another fan of the Presa Canario without being the fighter, and this one was the farmer. The canary farmer, just like the farmers of other land, always walked surrounded by dogs, less obese and healthy dogs that followed them to all sites, dogs, by the way, more educated and more useful than most of which they grow up today in the cities. And is not necessary to say that the most appreciated of the dogs was the one of the land, the one that, aside for fighting, responded to the necessities of the farmer. Good guardian, good defender, nothing nervous nor bustler, brave, loving of the company of the owner that lived with him, and the most important thing for the man of the country who raises animals, enemy of all the dogs who like the plundering. Owners of Presas Canarios had told me, among them Don Polo Acosta, that more of a marauder dog left the life in other people's property. This reality caused more of a misfortune to owners of hunting dogs, or others, that to have not tied them, went out at night, "and went to hunt in the wrong place".
   Another one of the qualities of the Presa Canario, consequence in part of it physical strength, was it capacity to fight with the coarse cattle (bovine of the country) in the pastures, or other sites. A Presa Canario did not avoid the attack of a head of cattle by obstinate this was, and little work cost  him to take control of her and to take it to the fold.
   Between these many owners of cattle it seems me opportune to mention here to Pancho El Rey, "Man very dear and of word", comments  me Don Polo Acosta. Don Pancho de La Paz Hernández, or Pancho El Rey, grew up with the coarse cattle, and he did not deal with more dogs than with those of Presa "of the land" -in those years nobody speaks of the Perro de Presa Canario but of the dog of presa of the country or the land, -and if he had hand with the cattle more he had with the dogs. The Teide is one of the dogs that remember with more affection, completely white animal, "and truly of the land", according to Don Pancho, and Leon, uniform chocolate-like coat, and Santiago, reddish.
   Don Pancho de La Paz also trained presas dogs, and some times for free, "as a hobby", he comments. They tell me that once a lawyer of La Laguna took him a dog to train it, and to feed it took once in a while one  talega of gofio (a bag of flour of toasted wheat), but seeing the lawyer that the dog every time was skinnier, he said: "Look, Don Pancho, the dog is skinny". Don Pancho looked the lawyer mockingly and replied: "No, if the dog eats well, what happens is that he has taken the lessons very hard". It was in the times of the famine.
   Don Pancho de La Paz Hernandez was born in 1895 and has many things to speak about, for example, how to train a dog of presa, or how taught he  them,"in the old way", as  corresponded to the necessities of the country and each owner. Don Pancho told me that he never took his dogs with leash. The dog, their dogs always walk to the foot, and if he said them to go ahead they did it, due for that he had taught them, and if he meet a friend or a stranger with another dog, his dog never separated from his side nor to fight nor to smell the other, and if the other, that sometimes happened, wanted to fight, his dog fall back and with this behavoir demostrated that the well taught dog never takes the initiative, this one is take by the owner.
   The canary farmer did not thought, nor thinks, in dog´s fight, like could happen in other places, for example, between the citizen people that look for new ways to amuse themselves, new strong impressions to kill the boredom of their gray lifes. In this Don Polo Acosta agreed, although he recognizes that he was the motor of the fights of dogs in Tenerife, "but without falling in the excess at any moment".