Amarfio Outhoxed By Cool, Clever Murphy

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31124, 29 July 1966, Page 14

Amarfio Outhoxed By Cool, Clever Murphy

D. Murphy, the former New Zealand light-weight boxing champion, convincingly out-boxed K. Amarfio over 10 rounds at Canterbury Court last evening to win £640 and score his seventeenth consecutive win as a professional.

Amarfiio telegraphed all his swinging punches, and after the fourth round Murphy had no difficulty avoiding them and landed more hard punches than did the Ghanaian. The fight lacked the edge which lifts spectators to their feet. Amarfio was much slower than he was in 1964, Murphy a little slower than he was 14 months ago. A crowd of about 3200 (2798 paying to get in) greeted the unanimous points verdict in favour of Murphy with a storm of cheers. During the fight, Murphy was cheered repeatedly for clever footwork and weaving that made Amarfio miss by so wide a margin that he appeared a novice. Few Heavy Blows Neither boxer looked like scoring a knock-out at any stage of the fight. Amarfio scored with some good body blows early in the fight, and Murphy, who weighed 11b over the light-weight limit Ost 91b) and had to pay a forfeit of £2O, looked in pain momentarily in round four. Amarfio used only a long straight left and left and right swings, but he di’.d not worry Murphy with bis left swings as he did in their first fight 27 months ago. The Ghanaian varied his attack from body to head, instead of concentrating exclusively on the head as in their first bout. Murphy, carrying too much weight and not quite as fit as he was at his peak, was nevertheless in command throughout the fight apart from the fourth round. The boxing of Murphy, totting as hard as ever and blocking and weaving with consummate skill, against a hardslugging opponent, made it an interesting encounter, if not a tense one, after the first two rounds. The judges scored the rounds as follows: Mr T. Wildes, eight to Murphy, one to Amarfio and one even; Mr C. Welilman, six to Murphy, one to Amarfio and three even; Mr D. Stinson, eight to Murphy and two even. Murphy to Continue After the fight, Murphy said he would definitely continue in boxing, but he had no opponent in mind at present. Murphy attacked from the opening bell, hitting hard close in, but Amarfio covered most of the punches. Murphy scored with two left hooks to the head and a hard left rip to the body, Amarfio misised badCy with left swing® to the head, but landed one left jab to the body. It was Murphy’s round. Murphy continued to lead in round two, and his clever weaving made Amarfio miss with swings to the head. However, Amarfio landed one

very hard left swing to the body that made Murphy wince. More Mined Than Landed Amarfio speeded up in the third round and caught Murphy with three hard punchee closein. Murphy retreated rapidly under a hall of short swings, but blocked most of them. He evened up with straight lefts and left jabs and one good right cross. Both fighters were missing more than landing punches. The fourth round was Amarfio's. He was boxing more than fighting and caught Murphy with two hard left hooks early In the round and later with a hard short-arm right jab. Murphy earned applause for clever ducking; but his weaving was dangerous as he nearly ducked into a roundhouse right from Amarfio. Amarfio, attacking the body, landed several hard rips with both hands and had Murphy practically on the run in round five. Murphy weaved and ducked out of trouble, and Amarfio could not pin him to land a knock-down punch. Boxing coolly, Murphy took round six clearly. His defence was too good for Amarflo's short rips and uppercuts, and he scored with a heavy left to Amarflo’s face and three hard right jabs.

Amarfio led most of round seven and scored with four lefts. Amarfio could not land his hard swings, and Murphy never looked like really hurting Amarfio with any of his punches. Going In Reverie Murphy landed two hard right crosses in succession to AmarSo’s face, and Amarfio was walking into them. Murphy

spent much of the bout in reverse, but Amarfio could not penetrate his defence. Amarfio was warned by the referee (Mr N. Fisher) for rabbit punching, and Murphy landed a very hard short right to the head to win the round most convincingly. Amarfio landed two straight lefts and one left chop in round nine, but Murphy, ducking and weaving, made Amarfio miss almost monotonously. Murphy countered with two hard right jabs to the head. The last round was an anticlimax as the expected final burst by Amarfio, behind on points, did not eventuate. Murphy out-boxed h-lm over the whole round and scored with left jabs and right hooks. Results of amateur bouts were: Junior Paper-weight. J. Mitchell (St. Anne's) beat K. Pyne (Crichton Cobbers’ Club), on points, a split decision. Junior Catch-weight.—P. Jones (Crichton Cobbers’ Club) beat G. Jamieson (Papanui Sports Club), on points. Bantam-weight.—R. Carstairs (Linwood Boys’ Club) beat J. Quinn (Crichton Cobbers’ Club), on points. Light Welter-weight. R. Thompson (Fldow’s Gym) beat W. Hastings (Crichton Cobbers’ Club), on points; K. Morgan (St. Anne's) beat D. Naylon (Linwood Boys' Club), on points; J. Shaw (Papanui SportsClub) beat G. McCosh (Fidow’s Gym), on points. Welter-weight. G. Sandrey (Timaru) beat G. Perham (McKinley's), on points. Middle-weight. A. Simpson (Fidow’s Gym) beat P. Smith (Timaru), on points.