BOXING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1926, Page 27

BOXING.

RINGSIDE GOSSIP.

When Charlie Purdy crosses gloves with "Artie" Hay, welterweight champion of New Zealand, on Monday night, there should be a full house at the Town Hall.. The Aucklander has been steadily developing his punch, and his supporters claim that he will be crowned the victor at the end of the fifteen rounds' journey. On the other hand. Hawke's Bay critics aver that Hay will be a tough nut for Purdy to crack, and in proof of this they instance Hay's decisive defeat of the former welter champion, Loverid-e..-Against this, it must be remembered that Purdy beat Loveridge before that fighter fell a victim to Hay's blows. Anyhow, it should be a fight worth going to see, if tho Hastings man is all that he is said to be. It would be little short of a journalistic crime to alter one word of the accounts we have received from our San Francisco correspondent concerning the doings in Northern California of George Modrich, the Yugoslav heavyweight who resided for a number of years in Auckland. It is only a few months since Modrich left Auckland to seek his fortune abroad, but, judging by reports which have reached us, he will probably have bought 1113 return ticket by now. Alex. McCausland, writing in the San Francisco "Examiner," on the niornin<* following Modrich's one and only ii<rht, said: "George Modrich can pack up "his ring togs and go back to New Zealand, where he cut quite a figure as a wrestler, and no one in this part of/the universe will ever miss him. He proved to be nothing less than another Bill Squires— in other words, the rankest kind of a bust—at Dreamland Rink, succumbing to one of Tony Fuente's left hooks to the solar plexus in the fifth round of what was to have been a ten-round contest Modrich had nothing but a pair of boxing gloves, and he didn't know what to do with them after they had been laced on his hands. The bout had gone 30 seconds when It was evident that Modrich did not stand a chance. He seemed bewildered and looked altogether out of place. Fuente was sceptical and didn't know whether to step in and polish off the big New Zealander or play the watchful, waiting game. He elected to fiddle around and see what stuff Modrich had on the 'ball,' which in due course of ?! mc l . P , i ; 0 - ect t0 t)e Main S- Just before the bell he clipped George on the point with a stiff right, and Modrich went down on one knee. He was up'in an instant a nd clinched, about the only thing he knew to do. Modrich lashed out with his vaunted right a couple of times and Don Tony always ducked under it. The New Zealander puffed up Fuente s right eye in the second, and so far as his offensive work for the evenin_ took the first four rounds handily, outpointing h, s big opponent. After the first round Modrich refused to lead, and Fuente laid back, stabbing a left to S r i ?" f w and bod y- Ifc *M the light left jabs to the stomach that bothered Modrich. Tony had his right hand cocked always but Modrich stayed well out orits reach. He could.not get a v from Fuente's left to the stomal Tony' Zl S Jj- f ° r the stomach > and final!? landed in the fifth with a left hook that Ss° w e wh riCll Spra " h » yas, where he was counted but without bo much as trying to regain his Win g » Fray ? e SaM: Although the second round was the one in which Yugo George suffered his injury, he won that round-the only round oMh c Tve rounTh a ? 8 * < L take - "In the B <*°nd round he brought over a series of left looks to Fuente's head in the infighting, and, although he declares this was the round m which his ribs were fractured he won the session. At the enu of the second round, however nngsiders were unable to determine which was the worse fighter of the

Another sporting editor, Edgar O Gleeson, said: "The memory of Boshter Bill Squires will never die as Jong as George Modrich lives. George bowed himself in and out of the American fistic game at Dreamland last mght. It fell to Modrich to lose to Senor Tony Fuente, and he did his job in a none too artistic manner. George wenfc down to a punch which the writer is free to confess he did not see and doubts Very much if it was delivered in the nith round of what was to have been a ten round main event. Just why George chose the fifth round instead of the first, when Fuente clipped him a slight blow on the jaw, is one of those things which only a Dalmatian can explain. They say Modrich is a'wrestler when he is not opening oysters, or whatever it is that George does when there, are no Fuentes to fight. Last night, George was fl. total blank in either boxing or wrestling. He did make an effective plunge to the mat, landing somewhere on the nape of his neck and remaining, with body arched, till the pain became unendurable. Whatever George had had for dinner disagreed with him, because he assumed the look of a man in deep distress from indigestion. There, is the added rumour that George suffered two fractured ribs sometime during the evening. We hazard an opinion that if George has any broken ribs he brought them with him from Zealand. Modrich, a lumpyheaded edition of the bruiser type, but lacking in any of the bruiser'capacity for battle, began looking for some place to light on in the fourth round. He picked the centre of the ring as the least travelled spot, and that is where the referee found him a round later as he tolled off' the fatal ten seconds. Fuente was evidently cast for the major part in the extravaganza, because he appeared with hair nicely oiled and a sky-blue'pair of satin trunks. Any good third-class hitter can knock Fuente oyer the Twin Peaks (a San Francisco mountain). Modrich was not even fifth class..- .He struggled around with a glassy stare, closing with Fuente only when the lastnamed lashed out with a soft left. It is possible that Fuente will go. on picking other suckers and cashing in on his Mexican notoriety, but he will never get another set up like the Modrich party. Strange that it should fall to the lot of New Zealand to send over a heavy-weight worse, if that-is possible, than the Australian-grown lemon,, Mr. Squires, who was knocked out -.by Tommy Burns in less than a round pome nineteen years ago." The sporting

editor of the San Francisco "Chronicle" said that Modrich looked like Bill Squires, as he entered the ring on Tiis stocky pair of legs. "They were the same sort of legs that Bud Fisher referred to in Squires as piano legs. He had the same awkward style of Squires, the same sparseness of hair and much the same pathetic look. Also, if you need the information, he fought just like Squires. Evidently over in New Zealand and Australia they cut them out with the same biscuit tin. Seriously, the Dreamland promoters should not attempt again to perpetrate such a joke or inflict upon fight fans any match of the same sort.- There are times when good nature ceases, and this is one of those occasions. Modrich, in his gymnasium workout shortly after arriving in this country looked anything but a frighter. In fact, he was tagged as a joke then and there. Fuente is not much, to be sure, and the bout did not have the ring of sincerity. The New ■Zealander should have been given a tryout in one of the preliminary matches before being awarded a top spot on the card. The sooner our promoters realise they must play fair with the public the better they will be off. lt would Tiot be a bad scheme to return to the days of the old California Club, when strange fighters were handed the acid test before being allowed to appear In public."