N.Z. Boxing Urgently Needs Resuscitation

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31500, 14 October 1967, Page 11

N.Z. Boxing Urgently Needs Resuscitation

This is the flrat of tire articles examining the state of boxing in New Zealand. r ONCERN at the dedine of boxing in New Zealand was freely expressed at national amateur championships in Greymouth last month—but the annual conference of the New Zeeland Boxing Association took no steps to arrest the downward trend. The secretary of the association (Mr P. G. Harte, of Wellington) privately forecast that there would be no boxing in New Zealand no amateur championships as they are held now within

five years if the decline continued. The New Zealand Boxing Trainers’ Association recomt mended that intermediate ■ and/or B grade* be intro- . duced. The trainers met at • the same tune as the annual meeting, and their reconunenj dation will have to wait un- . til the next annual confer- , ence. The trainers’ recommenda- ■ tian* were aimed at retainf ing the interest in boxing of - boys when they are 16 and i 17. Trainer* have found that, > increasingly, boys are lost to i boxing when they become too i old to enter the junior cbam-

- pionships, and about the same tune have to restrict training while they study for 1 school certificate and univer- ‘ aity epfrance examinations. > The constantly dwindling t numbers of boxers entering 1 tiie senior championships and - tiie slipping standard of many - who do not enter was the - reason behind the recommendation for a B grade. In 1966, entries fqp the . championships held at Rotof rua were so poor that the I nomination period was exten- , ded and a fresh call for en- > tries made. The result was an > Increased entry—and a low- ■ ering of the standard of box-

ing. Many of the bouts had to be stopped because they were so one-sided, and tiie standard of boxing over-all was considered to bo the lowest in memory. This year, only 49 entries were received and, in the event, only 39 boxed at Greymouth. Even then, some of the bout* were so one-sided they had to be stopped arid the standard of boxing, epart from six of the nine finely was disappointing. Thu*, the putting into practise of one or both of the trainers* recommendations become* a matter of urgency. But apparently the Boxing

Council, which administer* the sport between conferences is going to imitate Nero. This group of men apparently is ready to fiddle away another year while boxing goes further downhill. Boring in the schools and universities has dwindled to almost nothing many school* now do not include boxing in their sporting curriculum and there are no university blues for boxing. The decline of boxing in New Zealand has coincided with the growing realisation throughout the world that boxing—the only sport in which the ultimate aim is winning by striking blow*

to an opponent’s head—can be medically dangerous. Yet tiie New Zealand Boxing Association has still not adopted the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur rules • which provide stronger protection against the possibility of boxer* suffering serious injury. A motion that the AJ.B.A. rule* be adopted by the N.Z.B.A. in their entirety was put at the 1966 annual conference. The matter was deferred because delegates complained that they did not know exactly what rules were different—after it had been explained that the N.Z.BA. rules were 95 per cent the A.I.BJL rules.

The Boring Council and N.Z.B.A. had a year in which to put the difference on paper, but the question was not even raised at last month’s annual conference.

The N.Z.B.A. and the Boxing Council cannot understand that until parents, schoolmasters and tiie medical profession are wholly satisfied that tiie rules of boxing and their enforcement in New Zealand are such that the sport entails no more risk of lasting injury than any other, boxing will continue to decline.

The present rules state that a boxer “should” be rested for four weeks if he is outclassed or if he is knocked out but can get back to his corner without assistance. If a boxer attempts to rise’.but requires assistance to reach his corner, eight weeks* rest from boxing is recommended. If he is unable to rise but has to be carried to his comer (that is, severely concussed), at least three months rest from boring is recommended. Until all these rest periods are made compulsory, and until the boxer who is severely concussed is compulsorily banned from boxing for the remainder of the season, or for six months, whichever is the shorter period, then many persons would not consider boxers in New Zealand to be properly protected.

Unless the N.Z.B.A, and the Boxing Council realise soon that boxing should be an art in which skill is given every chance to beat brawn, boxing in this country will die.