BOXING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 240, 7 October 1916, Page 16

BOXING.

In regard to a etory which appeared recently in the "St. Paul Dispatch" (U.S.A.), to the effect that Mike Gibbons would tail for Australia to fight Darcy, and that Harry Sherman, president of the Twin Cities fight clubs, would accompany him as manager, and be prepared to wager £20,000 on the result, Mr. Baker says that Gibbons wants too much money, and at present he cannot come to terms with ihim.

When he was champion of the world Jack Johnson made many thousands of pounds, but according to American papers he has lost most of it. A letter from Madrid, Spain, to a New York paper says: "Only the diamonds that his white wife is wearing stand between Johnson and poverty. This is the geneial impression of Americans who have observed the former world's champion In his desperate effort* to make money in Spain. Some months ago Johnson turned up in.Sp.ain with ~an English boxing trainer,' an 3"a ' : eoi6u'ro'd' boxer, and took a suite of rooms at a palatial hotel. He attempted to book passages for Brazil, but learned that he was not permitted to leave Spain without a passport. The American Embassy refused to issue hjm a passport, under instructions from Washington, because he fled from Chicago. Making the best of ■his plight, Johnson went to Barcelona and staged a contest between himself and another negro. But the Spaniards are so used to seeing bull fights that the bout was mot a success, though Johnson beat his opponent badly, in an effort to satisfy the spectators' love for excitement. The £200 that Johnson earned at that fight soon ran out, and he is having a hard time coaxing promoters to stage another affair. He told friends that unless he could start a boxing school there he will have a hard time."

Files to hand last week by the American mail contain particulars with regard to the two championship matches referred to last week—Wfelsh v. White and Kilbane v. Chancy. The conditions in connection with the Welsh-White contest provided that Welsh should receive £2,750, 50 per cent of the receipts over £5,400, and 51. per cent of the proceeds of the pictures, and that White should receive £800. Attempts to stage a contest between Kilbane and Chancy failed for a long time owing to promoters declining to agree to the excessive demands of the two men, and to the fact that the Chancy party claimed that they should receive the big end of the purse. They based their right to this because Kilbane withdrew from a contract he had signed to meet Cbaney at Baltimore on March 17, and that therefore he had forfeited the championship to Chancy. Of course, the whole thing was another of those absurdities that frequently crop up in America from the fact that there is no power in existence to compel holders of titles to meet the best men, or to fulfil! their contracts. In face of conditions, Chaney's claim was ridiculous, and one writer drew attention to the different front presented by lie Chancy party a few months ago, when Kilbane was hunted from pillar to post for a match, and later, when they appeared bent upon putting every possible obstacle in the was of a match. Finally, a Cleveland sportsman, Matt Hinkel, settled all arguments by agreeing to the demands of the Chancy party and put them in the place of having to agree or resign all prospect of a match for the championship. He put up a purse of £3,000, of which £2,000 was for Kilbane and £1,000 for Chancy. The latter demanded another £200 and an addition £100 for training expenses. Hinkel agreed to this, the event came off on September 4, and Chancy, whose ring record is one long list of knock-outs, was knocked out in the third round.

Jack Campbell, the American expert, in an interview published recently, spoke about boxers who are so cool and collected during the progress of their' fights that they do not need the advice of seconds. Jimmy Clabby is a good sample of that kind of boxer. Jimmy was boxing twenty rounds with George Chip at Daly City. He had been warned that if Chip ever connected with his chin, he would be "knocked dead." Along about the tenth round, while sitting in his corner, Clabby leaned over and spoke to those in the Press seats. "Say," he said, "I thought you fellows said this guy had a punch." "Better be careful, Jim," cautioned one of the scribes; "if he lands, you'll find out." Clabby threw back hie head and laughed. Then he came back with this: "If a guy has a punch and can't land it, he hasn't got it, has he?" The newspaper men had no immediate reply to the question. Jimmy bad their goat. And throughout the remainder of the fight, between rounds, and in the clinches, Clabby kept kidding the newspaper men about thi*. punch, that wasn't