HEENEY'S COURAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 198, 23 August 1928, Page 16

HEENEY'S COURAGE.

NEW YORK AMAZED.

DETAILED STORY OF BIG FIGHT. SEVERAL POINTS OF VIEW. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, July 27

After defending his heavy-weight title like a true champion at the Yankee Stadium in Xew York, Gene Tunney first paid a glowing tribute to the rugged gameness of Tom Heeney, his opponent, over whom he scored a technical knock-out in the eleventh round of their fifteen-round bout. Tunney was greatlv concerned over Heeney's condition and thougli ho was happy over his victory, bis joy increased when word came from the challenger's quarters that the New Zealander was not in serious shape. "I made Heeney fight my fight for me," Tunney said when he was asked about the most important factor in his victory.

"I almost knocked Heeney down m the first round," he continued, '"and when I saw what a tough fellow he was, I decided to centre niv attack on his body. Ho was too courageous to be knocked out with one punch. It took a good many hard rights to his body before he weakened.

"His habit of coming in at me was also of great assistance to me. His rushing just added so much more force to my blows, and he was weakened bvevery one of them. I thought the referee should have stopped the contest in the eighth round when I paralysed Heeney's optic nerve with a hard righthand punch which landed just above h eye. I had cut that organ with a similar punch earlier in the bout."

Tunney indignantly denied the charge made by Heeney's handlers at the end of this round that he had poked his glove 3 thumb in the challenger's ey . "It was a hard, clean light hook 'to Heeney's head that started his blinking," Tunney said. Followed Training Plan. Tunney went on to explain that he fought his battle according to tlie plan he outlined early in May when he went to Speculator and started training. "\ou saw jue light "to-night's contest'it score of time.-, at Speculator," he said. "Every move I made against Hectic »• was exactly the same ones I made against the punching bags and the sparring partners."

funney's only scars of battle were a bruise on his chest and several scratchon his back. Ihe latter indicating; that they were made when he brushed again-r the ropes.

Heeney's explanation was given by the New Zealand.' in the following interview: "I pave my best in my effoit to take the heavv-weight championship of the world from U-iie Tunnev and I failed. Referee Kddie For!,.'stopped the bout in the eleventh round, but I feel confident that I could have lasted the Unfit if the third man in the ring had not stepped in. My left eye was puffed and I was bleeding from the nose, but I still felt strong enough to continue; still felt and hoped that°l might bring the champion down with one of my punches.

"Let me say right now that r.ene Tunney is one of the greatest boxer*that ever lived. He has everything that goes to make a champion. He is fast as a streak and hits with both hands. It was his left that bothered me most. I blocked his right, but I>.* kept shoot in 2 tha left hook into n.e like a machin<;-gun. It was the greatest punch in the game to-day. I guess. For the greater part of the fight I thought I did pretty well. I was carrying the fight to Gene all the wav. H> kept dancing away. It seemed* to in* that I was pretty well in the lead as we passed the sixth round. I landed pretty often and in the second staggered him with a sharp right to the jaw. At th.il moment I had visions of the champiof>hip coming to me. From my point it looked as if the champion was on tii-> run.

"A Good Scrap." "A little blood from the nose did not bother me at all. A single jab can bring that. But the fans always yell at the sight of it, and they seemed to think that Gene was hurting me. I was wrestling down, and slipped in a clinch during the third round. The eighth round was the turning point of the fight. "My left eye was cut and uninteutionallv, I believe, Gene jabbed his thumb in it. For a moment I couldn't see. I stepped back and blinked, trying to get my vision back. Tunney hesitated for a moment and then rushed in. The blood kept dripping into my eye and my sight was clouded. I could only see Gene through a liaze. My seconds patched it up as well as anyone could during trie intervals between rounds. I kept charging as I always do, punching awav with both hands.

K\en with the handicap I thought I was pretty even with Gene. Certainly he had not hurt me. even with his most vicious right slaps to the body. He kept trying to feint me into position for the right he had been practising with so long in training. So far he hadn't been successful. He cut some with his left, but the bone crusher was bouncing off my shoulders and forearms.

"Toward the end of the tenth round we were slugging away against the ropes. He landed and I landed. It was a good scrap. Then out of nowhere the right came across. I wasn't bothering about defence then. I was set on getting home a few shuns myself. It landed straight on the button and down I went. Mv 4iead ciacked against the floor and everything went black. They tell me I rolled under the rope*, anyway. The crack on my head did as much as the punch, I think. '"Fight Not Over." "T didn't know what it was all about until I was in my corner with Charley and Eddie Harvey flopping water over uie. I came to right enough and came out fast at the start of the eleventh. So far as I was concerned the fight wasn't over—not by a jolly sight. "Ttinney hit mc with some left jabs. My nose bled pretty badly, and then before 1 knew it Referee Forbes stopped the tight. It wasn't necessary. I wasn't knocked out; no, ir, not near it, but the blood seared the referee evidently. Well, it was up to him to make the decision, and 1 can't bear any ill-will toward him for stopping it, but, so far as my name is Tom Heeney. I feci that I could have gone on to the finish—and maybe pulled the chestnut* out of the fire before trie finish.''

Sum ruing up the situation, Heeney "There were un'y eight to go before the iiuir-h and th© minute's would have done me a world of good, it's a!! in the game, though. I -hould like anotner chance at the championship. 1 am not done yet by a long and will fight my way back toward that chance. Now that I 'have found Kent Tunney.' I've found that he ir- a great lighter, but I'm not sure yet that lie i* my master. I did my be-t and it wasn't enough this time. Maybe tnere will be another time and another result. I hope ko. I can only add that frene Tunney is a tine sportsman, as well as a fine fighter, and that I wish him all the luck in the world." Anzac's Courage Praised. One writer, Robert Kdgren, one of the leading sporting authorities in America. testified to the gameness of the New Zenlander. and in the course of his ringside account of the encounter, said: "For eleven rounds tne champion rained blows on the patiently plodding and constantly aggressive challenger. He 1 :t Heeney enough to knock out a regiment of men, mauled him almost out of human shape, and at last had him tottering back, feebly trying to move his arms to hit out in desperate, and hopeless defence, when Referee Forbes stepped between and ended the slaughter. '"It ir> not often that such ganieness as Heeney's is seen in the ring. His courage was so impressive that toward the end. as Heeney turned his bloody mask of a face upward toward the lights and smeared a soggy glove across, bruised eyes to wipe them open enough to see, the crowd became absolutely silent. "There was no call for a knock-out, no applause as Tunney, sneering, eager, pressed in and hit blow after blow at the head and body. Tunney never showed himself sucn a finished tighter before. He had everything in the world —speed, ]>crfcct calculation of every movement, perfect accuracy in hitting and skill in avoiding blows. And he had a punch. Not a Dempsey punch, by a million miles. "If Dempsey landed as many blows as Tunney sunk into Heeney's body and bounced from Heeney's battered face they would have to call a dozen coroners to identify the remains. But Tunney is Tunney, and style of fighting is a bruising, battering style, not a clean shooting over of the one-punch knockout. Effectively it certainly is. Heeney can testify to that." A Gory Spectacle. Another angle of the gory spectacle was afforded ty Westbrook Pegler, one of the most talented sporting writers in the United States, who has a style of his own. In his dispatch Pegler wrote: "Tunney fought a patient, methodical battle after the first rourd. in which he found after some painful experiments that the stout man f'om New Zealand would have to be worn down. The fight ended with Tunney's delicate face turned in a silent plea to Forbes to spare him the necessity of slugging a helpless and mutilated man further.

"Heeney had fallen at full length just as the big ship bell at the ringside banged clamourously ending round ten, and for a moment there was a commotion in the ring and some question among the crowd as to whether the fight had ended there or the bell had saved Heeney. Joe Humphreys, the announcer, bounded up the steps through the ropes at Tunney's corner and, without troubling to go to Charlie Mathieson and Tim Flynn, the judges, for their slips, attempted to grasp Tunney's hand and lead him to the centre of the ring for the -crowd's salute to the victor. "Tunney waved Humphreys away and Forbes, losing his presence of mind for an instant, waited until Humphrej-s had thrown the entire show into confusion. "Heeney's handlers popped through th© ropes and jumped across the ring to their man, shouting 'Tom! Tom!' "Old Charlie Harvey, for years an importer of English prize-fighters who could not keep their legs under them, hobbled across the platform on his crippled right leg, every bristle of his moth-eaten moustache twitching in tremendous agitation, and seized Heeney's head off the floor.

"Heeney's ears were wet and slippery, both from the gory' lather smeared by Tunney's pounding fists and from water sprayed on him with a sponge, and, as Harvey lifted, the unconscious man's head slipped out of his grasp and banged on the wadded floor with a dull sound as of a bowling ball dropping in the pit. 'Tom! Tom! Ginger goodness, Tom, old boy!' Mr. Harvey chattered wildly. 'Get up, Tom. The bell! Tom, the bell!'

"Heeney's muscles began to twitch with the first faint return of consciousness, and Charlie, assisted by his brother, Eddie, and Jim Hennessey, the foreigner's trainer, without waiting for any more of the racing seconds to pass, laid hold of his arm and dragged him back to his corner. They sat him on a stool, held him in a wobbly upright attitude, put ice on the back of his neck, swabbed iodine on a gushing cut on his right eyelid, and tumbled back out through the ropes, clearing the corner as the bell rang for round 11, and Heeney lurched to his feet to continue the battle. At Tunney's Mercy. "Tunney had Heeney at his mercy now, and except for a few desperate swipes of his short fuzzy arms, all of which fell inches short of Tunney's elusive head, the New Zealand man could only keep his face toward the attack and stiffen his legs against the shock. Tunney's left leaped between Heeney's gloves and delivered several more shocks to th-; face. Tunney's right, which had been banging with agonising monotony against Heeney s heart, went over in a few more thrusts beneath Tom's halfextended left arm. The right whipped to the jaw.

"Heeney went to the ropes, sagging and with arms drooping, and Tunney glanced at Forbes. The thin, sallow man in the grey uniform, moved in quickly, waved Tunney back, and held his right hand on high. Tunney then stepped forward to Forbes, laid a glove on Heeney's elbow, and, without actually supporting him, guided him to his corner, talking to him as they moved across the ring. Tunney was telling Heeney that "he had fought a game fight and that he was sorry to have cut him so badlv."

Reverting to the encounter. Peeler wrote: "Heeney's eyes began to blink and weep about half-way through the eighth round, and the first indication that the Xew Zealand fighter was beginning to wear down came when he caused his sturdy but clumsy charges to cease and began to veer away. Tunney was as quick as anyone else to notice Heeney's distress and drew him into an awkward lead, ducked it, and shot over his light straight to the injured eye. As the round ended and Ileenev went to his corner the eyelid \v;\s beginning to part and blood was trickling down over the eyeball. Hen nessev squatted in front of the stool with an iodine bottle and a toothpick swab and brushed the wound. 'What happened to his eye out there when he began to blink?' cried John Mortimer, one of the English stockholders in Heeney, the most widely partitioned pugilistic property in the corporation of the game. 'Thumb.' said Charlie Harvey bluntly. 'Thumb in his eve.' "

Hard Man to Stop. Most of the writers who sat at the ringside agreed that Heeney's little short arms put him at a terrific disadvantage with the long-armed champion from the beginning, four and a-half inches making a world of difference in that respect. What surprised Tunney was being compelled to batter down the challenger in such a punishing way, as he firmly believed that the man from Gisborne would be an easy opponent to dispose of. As it proved, he was the most difficult challenger who has been in America for many a year. Never before has such sterling courage been witnessed in an American fistic ring. Incidentally, the appearance of the Gisborne boxer in the Yankee Stadium proved a splendid advertisement, not only for New Zealand, but also for the British Empire. for it conclusively demonstrated that men of iron exist under the British flag, despite the Anglophobe propaganda that for many years past has tended to throw discredit on the prowess of those who proudly reside under the Union .Tack.