BOXING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 27

BOXING.

RINGSIDE GOSSIP. ! 2 Proof positive that fight follower* y won't go to see boxers whom they don't i j fancy has beer, offered the Northern j j Boxing Association recently. The last . iouble-headed carnival, with two feather- | } weight xen-rouECer-. was a fiasco from j :he point of attendance. On the night j.. rhere -nas a -iibstactial loss. It is now j j felt that unless the public display; more i j. .merest the match committee may have to curtail it? activities, and contests c may be promoted less frequently. A! 5 sequence nf poor houses would quickly I r ":in ib? a-sociation. which might be com- I > r-eiled to up. Desperate efforts are j r L*ir.g made to regain public confidence. ] and nothing win he left undone to * attract a bic crowd to the carnival which j is to f-e held a: the Town Hall on - November 29. J , At this carnival two professional bouts.' ?ach of ten round?, with £7"> purses in J c iispnte. will be the principal attractions. Roy Overend. who r~?.de such an excellent showing against P. Black at the last -amival. is to n:eet Harry Gunn. the well-performed Timaru feather-weiffht. The ether ficht will be between Ales, j of the fishticg family. ' and Muss-'D. of Hastinjrs. The Hawke's Bay boxer i= already in Auckland puttins the p-olish on hi= form at Henry Donovan's Pamell He hai j had the Vnefit of a lot of with ; Artie Hay. -r ::h wh<--rr! he sparred con- i sistontly for several week?. Frank Taylor. Xew , Zealand amateur i liantara-weight champion. uho ha? Wen ; spelling fur a while. o"-v;ng to an injured hand. is doing gymnasium work again. He sparrim with Purdy the r-thpr n;-ht at E-jr r -".e l> school, j which ha? it? headquarter? above the -ity fire station. Taylor, trho i* a brilliant Mt in many respwis. enn make the best ■■ f them move. '"For once in a -svay the Auckland "T;*pr i= crrect." says "Cpsnis." <-.f the Christchurch •Star." in referring to the paragraph which appeared in this | column recently deplorine the low standard of professional boxinz in Xew Zealand. This i= the first occasion for years on which "Ostus" has been benignant to agree with the writer. But let that pass. ""Cestus'' thinks it really i i ? t.-rj >,ad Xe~ Zealand associations j shonid be silly enough to pay professional= a? many pounds as they would 2Pt shillings in another country were they to offer the same poor quality pugilistic wares. In the same issue "Cestus' , laments that the Auckland "Star' , writer iis a persistent advocate of what he calls I "the out-of-date dual control system." i When did the system go out of date? At what =ta:re was the '">Cew Zealand Amateur Boxins Union - ' officially reco:r----1 nised ? "'Cestus" would have the people of Cnristchtirch believe that Auckland alone continued to follow the old system of control. I Somehow or other the Southern scribe I always manages to $ret himself tangled !up when he starts to throw brickbats jat the writer. Making- reference to the j paragraph concerning the winding up of I the Whanparei Association, which ap- ] pearcd in the Auckland "Star." ''Ces--1 tus -, says that '"as the amateur control movement is supported by bona fide amateurs, whose main concern is the general welfare of the sport, it necessarily follows that the winding up of a ! body that was run on much the same j lines as those they advocate is not a J matter for r<H.->icinr:. but for regret." Very true. But hitherto "Cestus" ha? always endeavoured to show that his "amateur controllers'' were going to work along new lines. They were going to be quite unlike the existing "'professional promoting bodies." Was not the I Whangarei Association jnst as much a "professional promoting body" as the Northern Boxing Association, or the Chri-tchurch Sports Club? Yet, accordI ing to the Southerner, the lat« lamented Whangarei Association was "run on much the sarce lines'' as those the amateur controllers approve. Truly remarkable. The joke of the whole thing is that some oi the leading lights in the new movement were for many years connected with the poor old "professional promoting bodies."' To-day these gentlemen are "bona fide amateurs." The Christchurch writer always avers that I don't know the meaning of amateurism, but I dc seem to remember something to the effect that "once a neier an amateur." Can j this l-e si'le-stepped under the "rules' , of I the "'New Zealand Amateur Boxing j Union" ': j Jim McLaren, the promising amateur j feather-wfisht. is back in training after ja spell. Extolling the merits of Charlie Purdy. a Ion:: letter was sent to the writer by Pat Connors, of Wellington, this week. J "Xew Zealand may not have the pleasure jof seeing much morp of this truly great l>oy.' J he writes. "He will shortly be I looking for other fields to conquer, where the scope i* much larger, and the honours j greater. Purdy"* ambition is to climb '■ to the top run;: of the pugilistic ladder.'" i Connors' waxes enthusiastic about J Purdy'i improvement in style. "At last. ' Xew Zealand's clevere.-t boxer. Charlie i Purdy. has developed a punch—at least i a big section of the Pre~- has given him ! that credit. Purdy of to-day is a di£f"r----i ent Purdy from -what ho was six months ae<"i. Those that saw him in his early ] efforts v,ill not know him no->~. He still retains his speed and cleverness. He is i fast and elusive, when the occasion war- ! rants it, but to-day he carries a punch j that makes his opponents respect him. IHe is not backward in doing his share iof attacking. Purdy to-day ha.s all the I qualifications that go to make a truly great boxer. He has proved the goods!" While all this is very nice, and is. in its I way, a great "'build up" for Purdy, it is 1 common knowledge that the once popnj lar Auckland idol is no longer a. drawing- *; card in his home town.

The trati is that Auckland ringsiders have ~een T<->o much, of the elusive Purdy. Xo amount fo newspaper talk could restore the will-o-the-vrhisp to his erstwhile t>opTilarity. In other parts of New Zealand the boy "goes big," as the saving i?. bnt he has little honour in his horr.e town. For months the Northern Boxing Association held him cios-e. and Purdv at carnival after carnival. Ail of a" sudden his stock as a "draw" fell to rern. With their f.nai>ces in a depleted state, the Northern Boxing Association would not rare to Ea:<-h Purdv to-day, unless it vras for the title held by Artie Hay, and Artie, it is said, wams'to nx it §o that the referee, in the event of a clash for his crown, would be some Southern oScial. The Match Coruw,;,n't hear of anything of that kind. it seems that punch, or no punch, ringsiders won't see much of Purdy in an Auckland ring. Still, he should worry: There is a lot of money to be picked up in the s-outh, and n:ore. maybe" in those "zreen fields' , afar. which Connors mentions. Lyril McCarthy is preparing in hopes of a contest in New Plymouth.