KEEPING TITLE?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31321, 17 March 1967, Page 13

KEEPING TITLE?

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A) LONDON. Manoel Santos is unlikely to be stripped of his Empire light-weight title even if the Empire Boxing Committee believes there are grounds for doubting the result of his title bout with the Jamaican, Bunny Grant In an interview yesterday, the assistant secretary of the British Boxing Board of Control, Mr R. Clarke, made it clear that in these circumstances the committee’s most likely action would be to order Santos to take a rematch with Grant. Mr Clarke said that if the board of control received a protest from Grant’s manager it would await a report from the New Zealand Boxing As-

sociation before taking any action.

It seemed obvious to him that even if the committee decided there was no justification for ordering a rematch Grant would be named as one of the leading contenders, if not the top one. Mr Clarke said the British board had no jurisdiction in the matter. “We can only receive protests and refer them to the Empire committee.” The committee consists of representatives of all Commonwealth nations. Most boxing boards appoint to it persons living in Britain. The New Zealand representative is Mr B. Turner, a Palmerston North-born businessman who has been living in London for 30 years. He is reputed to be the only member of the committee who resembles a boxer—he has a cauliflower ear.