BOXING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 180, 1 August 1925, Page 25

BOXING.

RINGSIDE GOSSIP.

It is significant that Charlie Purdy was told to "step on it" during his first professional fight in Sydney. Has anyone ever heard him told to go a bit harder in an Auckland ring? Yes, he has been told to go, but not by the referee, whose duty it is to see that boxers earn their money. The galleryite has told him to make it lively on more than one occasion. At all events, the Sydney referee, Joe Wallis, who knows a fight when he sees one, must have felt dissatisfied with the way the bout was contested, or he would not have jogged the young Aucklander's memory that he was taking part in a, real live professional encounter. It [certainly seems strange that a young professional making his debut in the New South -Wales capital should require a reminder of this kind. Of course, it is well known in boxing circles,. that many professionals are first-rate exponents of c?ie "carrying along" art. How often does one hear it said "He just carried hi malong for the fifteen rounds, keeping a few points ahead so as to make sure of the long end of the purse." When this happens, it is perfectly obvious to those who know anything of the game, and nobody is deluded save the blushing young thing up in the circle, who has come along with her beau to see what boxing is like. Even she will learn before the fight is over that it isn't the real thing, because 'everyone will be saying so. Just so long as New Zealand crowds are content to let professionals get their money in this way, will they sit out tame affairs that don't come up to a high-school girls' basketball game as a fight. Any Town Hall patron can remember contests that have been nothing but sheer hippodroming; on one wellremembered occasion some very bored ring-eiders threw pennies on tho stage to make them go! Also, it is not a great time lince an Auckland crowd had its intelligence insulted by the spectacle of a little boxer, pounds lighter than his opponent, sticking out his jaw to be punched, but instead of being punched it was tapped! Imagine how this sort of thing would be received in Sydney! It is to be hoped that the pointed observations of Sydney boxing writers will bear fruit, and that Auckland referees will not be guilty of allowing professionals to plod along at their own easy pace, carefully regulated so as not to make either man too tired by the end of the farce. Bather a first round knockout, any day, than a dreary succession of colourless rounds. The game is not to go fifteen founds at all costs, but to win, and to win without loss of time.

A sweeping assertion, as untrue as it is unkind, is made by "Cestus," of the Christchurch "Star," when he announces that the "professional promoting bodies have done their best to destroy the source whence amateurs come." Only a few enthusiastic cranks will believe this, in view of the excellent work done by the vanious associations in New Zealand, who have kept the sport alive. Admittedly, there have been shortcomings, but amateur boxing in this country owes a great deal to what are now dubbed "professional promoting bodies." However, the same writer goes on to justify himself by saying that "numerous amateurs will not identify themselves with competitions promoted by professional organisations," to this fact he ascribes the dearth of amateurs. This is all nonsense. The amateurs who will not identify themselves with the associations are mostly secondary school boys, who are forbidden to do so, because of some curious academic objection to police supervision. But this does not make for a dearth. The majority of Auckland amateurs have been only too happy to associate themselves with the N.B.A. Wellington boys look to their association for encouragement, and they get it. It is the same in Hawke's Bay, Palmerston North, Ashburton, Timaru, and Greymouth, to mention only a few centres. The trouble is that a small but noisy faction among boxing enthusiasts in this country is imbued with the comic idea that what is wanted is a revolutionary change in boxing control. Hence, we have "Cestus" announcing that "the present position is destined to undergo a drastic change before long," and that "the regime of the professional control of amateurism is nearing its end." This is certainly news—sad news. Supposing a lot of little amateur associations were foisted upon the country, how long would they last, what good would they accomplish, and who would support them? The public patronage would not warrant the renting of a large hall, and the receipts from the door in a small place could scarcely provide the necessary revenue to make the organisation function. If so disposed, the "professional association" could always stage a counter attraction,/ including some first-rate amateur bouts, and the little amateur organisation would get very much the worst of the deal. However, it is fairly safe to assert that the majority of those who have boxing at heart are well" content to remain supporters of tbe old established associations, without meddling with crazy schemes that are destined to be a failure by reason of their very impracticableness. The present associations can always depend on financial stability by reason of receipts from crowds attracted by professional contests, but an amateur association in a place like Auckland would be always pondering the question of ways and means, as witness the appalling attendances at the recent amateur championships. And if it be urged that this paucity of patronage is the outcome of the N.B.A.'s "professional" tactics, it has only to be recalled that the Auckland Military Sports Association made a' bid to popularise amateurism by taking the big Town Hall for its 1922 tournament, and that dismal failure was the result.

A movement is afoot 'to bring, the old-time heavyweight, Paddy SlaA-in, back to Australia from Canada, where he has been living since 1890. Slavin was a great artist, and fought the men of his day. His bout with Peter Jackson at the National Sporting Club, London, in 1592 ranks as a. classic among heavyweight contests and is green in thememory of sportsman still. Although well over 50 when the war broke out, Siavin went to France with the 67th Western Scouts, where, after a year in the trenchse, his health broke down and he was invalided home.