Boxing CENTENNIAL OF SPORT

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29972, 6 November 1962, Page 25

Boxing CENTENNIAL OF SPORT

Special Bouts Next Month A special night's boxing, with a double-bill including a New Zealand title bout and a burlesque bout between two "pugilists of the 1860'5." will be staged bv the Canterbury Boxing Association in Canterbury Court on December 6 to celebrate 100 years of boxinc > n the province Topping the bill tn the centennial tournament will be a bout between Hlnl Forsyth (Auckland) and Johnny Lawrence (InvereargiU). Forsyth Is the professional welterweight champion of New Zealand. It will be his first defence of the title, which he won from Jimmy Williams, of Chtistcburch, In a bout at Gisborne. The purse win be of £3OO. the winner to receive 60 per cent.

The second professional bout will be between Jimmy Fidow (Christchurch) and Dennis Hagan (Dunedin). The puree for this middle-weight contest will be £lOO.

The Canterbury Boxing Association hopes to put on two bouts between local amateurs as well. The bout between the “pugilists' 'of yore, stripped to the buff, with upright stance, bookmakers" calling the odds and the "police" interfering, should be an amusing spectacle.

It was in 1862, on the banks of th - e Walmakariri river, that the first "organised," but Illegal, bout of fisticuffs took place In the province Much later, the New Zealand Boxinc Association was formed in Christchurch and operated in the city to r w^> e ng^ r * ' T '° Vln<