Title Fight Tonight
The Dunedin Town Hall is booked out for the title bout between Joe McNally and Billy Leckie for the national lightweight title this evening. Experts have predicted one of the finest matchings in this division for more than 20 years.
McNally, the present title holder, and one-time Jamieson Belt holder, has twice withdrawn from planned contests with Leckie because of injuries, but has for some weeks been training and sparring with welter-weight Samoan and Tongan Islanders in Auckland.
Leckie, having twice beaten Johnny Hanks, former lightweight and feather-weight champion, to take the feather-weight title, has had two hard fights, and after his knock-out over Hanks he is confident that he can match McNally and take the title McNally won by beating Hanks last year in Dunedin. Mr J. A. Stead, a member of the fight promotion panel of the Otago Boxing Association said yesterday that McNally, who was troubled a few months ago because he had to lose weight to make the grade, “has never been fitter.’’
His Auckland training has kept him well within the weight limit and his chances have improved since Leckie’s surprise challenge last season which caught McNally in the dying stages of the season over-weight and out of training, said Mr Stead.
McNally, although a Janjieson Belt holder, is considered by many to rely entirely on a knock-out punch, and after he beat one of Ambrose Palmer’s stars, Enrico Squadrico, last season, by a very heavy right cross? he confirmed these opinions by saying: “I knew I had to get in early; he was a scientific boxer.’’
McNal'y only last season returned to the ring after a spell of three years when he had part of his ribs removed because he had contracted osteomyelitis. McNally’s stormy boxing career, his ability to punch harder than any other light-weight in the Dominion, and the hero worship of Dunedin crowds, together with Leckie’s determination, will make this fight one to be remembered. R-(H0 vchi o Z-Ps edz.y
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28314, 27 June 1957, Page 15
Word Count
332Title Fight Tonight Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28314, 27 June 1957, Page 15
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