In next Saturday's "Sports Edition" — "PUNCH WITH HIM"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 145, 21 June 1941, Page 5 (Supplement)

In next Saturday's "Sports Edition" — "PUNCH WITH HIM"

And the trial norse, if nothing else, has garnered experience during his years in the ring, and an experienced fighter if he wants to dog it can usually avoid being knocked out. To have such a clown recorded as having lasted ten rounds with the candidate is considered very damaging to his career and clear evidence of poor management. One reason why the sports writers helped to create such a furore over Joe Louis was that his early amazing knockout record was honestly come by and the writers knew it. It is almost impossible for a negro to get a white fighter to take a dive at him, whereas the negro is, under certain conditions, ipso facto supposed to obey orders whenever requested. Louis had to carve out his record with his lists, and did.

-f -f -r -r THE promoter rarely if ever bothers with fixing a fight. He is dealing directly with the public, and must sell them tickets and get their money from them, and it is more to his interest to serve up an honest contest if he can. And besides, he doesn't have to. The managers take that matter right out of his hand. It was said that Rickard would not tolerate a crooked fight, and yet plenty of bad ones took place under his promotion. There is simply no way that a promoter can control the integrity of any of his fights except to blacklist those managers and fighters who have a reputation for being shady or who have ever been mixed up In a crooked ring deal. That would leave about half a dozen with whom to carry on business, which isn't enough. The man. at the head of the whole business, the politician, takes his pickings in patronage and favours, which are his form of currency. The cheap, semi-racketeering type will steal petty cash if there is any they can get their fingers on, but the big ones like the members of the New York State Athletic Commission keep 1 their hands clean, although it is possible to read politics of some sort in three-quarters of the things they do and the ukases they issue. ♦ + + ♦ NOT even the most ardent | believer in the purity of a; political boxing administration could quite stomach the innocence of the order that once went out from the commission offices that all fighters must wear trunks of a certain colour, the make of one certain manufacturer; such a roar went up that the commission i had to amend it hastily to mean any | manufacturer. In local politics the boxing pat-, ronage is highly important. More! good can be done for the party with ' a free fight ticket than a 500 dollar | bill. And a promoter can be bled for plenty of complimentaries and. passes because he is rarely anxious to buck the governing politicians,; i with their absolute autocracy over j | the sport and complete licensing■ ; powers. And besides, they always have the j j trump card. They can always call l 1 up their old pal, the fire commis-1 ! sioner, and have any club shut down ! as a fire hazard. It has been done. I A hostile commission can very i ; easily hornswoggle a fighter out of a j ■; favourable majch simply by refusing 1 ! to license or sanction it. It was I purely politics that drove the first fight to Philadelphia. J

THE politicians manage to get . a finger in the pie in the awarding of stadium-construction contracts, the ushering jobs, the programme and soft drink selling concessions, and sometimes even the assignment of the motion picture rights. It is not necessary to graft here, nut merely to see that right-thinking parties secure the lucrative contracts and jobs, parties who have influence and who will wield that influence and show proper gratitude at the polls when the time comes. A favour to a lighter of Irish extraction is good for the Irish vote, a fish tossed to an aspiring negro pugilist takes care of the Harlem constituency. There is really no need to crowd and jostle at the boxing trough I here is room enough for all the pigs, both great and small.