IN THE RING.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1599, 16 November 1912, Page 12

IN THE RING.

[Bx "iIERCOEI."} THE WORLD'S CHAMPION, WELLS, OR ? November 20—Porter, y. Hannan (Blenheim). Novoraber 23—Hegnrty v. P. C. Cook (Timnru). November 29—Murphy v. Truscott (Gisborne). December ' 11—Hock Keys v. Hegarty (Wellington Town Hall). A Brilliant Finale. As a wind-up to an eventful, if not too successful,' eeason, the . local association has embarked upon an ambitious project —the importation of Hock Keys from Sydney as an opponent for "Jimmy" Hegarty. The venture is an expensive one. Keys, by virtue of his marvellous "come-back" act, is now right up again among the to]j division of Australian light-weights—m fact/it is quite on the cards that by tho time this appears in print he will be resident champion. On Wednesday night he was scheduled to have met Herbert ("Kid") M'Coy at the Stadium, to do battle for the honour, so his stiinding in Sydney is apparent. For these reasons the veteran can command big money, and, naturally, he is not willing to make a trip to this Dominion without special inducement. Negotiations have been conducted through, Mr. J, Barr, the association's Australian representative, by cable, and at latest it appears that matters have been satisfactorily arranged. ' . Diplomatic Negotiations. , Kfys waa first nsked if he would meet Hegarty for a purse of J2IOO, and replied that he would require either ,£IOO, win, lose, or draw, or two matches guaranteed for purses of ,£IOO each. The former alternative was too big a hurdle for the local executive, but further investigation discovered that the Northern Association (Auckland) was prepared to offer a similar purse for the Australian. Meanwhile, Hegarty had been, communicated with, and- he expressed his willingness; to turn out if guaranteed .£SO, win, lose, or draw, •The, association; taking -into consideration the calibre of his opponont, agreed to this, and oh Wednesday a cable was sent to Keys clinching the match on his'own terms, plus expenses, for December 11.' At the time of writing, no reply had been received, but unless something untoward crops up the affair can be looked upon as settled., ■ ' As stated,: the proposition is a big one for the association to handle, but if it materialises, the result: should , justify the enterprise.. Those . who remember Keys,in his memorable battlo.with "Tim" Tracy back, in 1905 will be keen to see him again. Ho was brilliant then, and judging by his recent performances he is no .whit lesS brilliant to-day—in fact, it is claimed in 'Sydney that he is even more so. ,'' ' . Hegarty's'Opportunity. ■' For -Hegarty, the opportunity is a great one. He -is'at present feather-weight .champion of the Dominion, and at first glance it would appear that going out of his class to stand up against a lightweight like Hock Keys is ambition run desperately riot. But there is more than that. Hegarty is admittedly not in the feather division at his best. He is really a,genuine light-weight, and at his strongest and best would strip for action at 9st. 71b., so his handicap in this respect is more apparent than real. • Moreover, in the "feather" division he is without a peer in New Zealand, and his recent clash with Allen Maxwell proves that he is well in the running with tho best of our light-weight men] - Ifc has been said, and with reason, that he. has never been properly extended, but he has'shown most emphatically that when the time does oome for him . to show his best ptices, the occasion will bo ' one to "writo home about" for those who do see it. It looks as though his'time has come at last, and. the stake, quite apart from the pecuniary side, is : a worthy one. Should he even make 'a .good showing against Keys, he will be in line for all the big purees he can find time to 50 after, while should he beat . Keys—^we'll', 1 it is'hard to'/'stiy. exactly what pugilistic. vistas., i/ould be opened up for him. The best "that Australia can" offer in matoh-making terms would bo none too gw>d for him—and the best on the other side just now for light-weights is pretty good. ■. Vacant—The World's Championship. . Who is now champion of the world? "Jack" Johpspri/ since'his clash with the law, may be written off as a "dead one," so far as the ring is concerned. Public opinion has counted him put, and it now remains tp. find, his successor. By the strict letter of, the law his forfeited title should revert to hi?, predecessor, but "Tommy" Burns,, even, after his recent victory from Eickards,' can hardly be ; taken seriously as a claimant, although no doubt his claim .will be duly filed. As regards the" coloured ."near champions," : the 'most legitimate successor to Johnson would be' "Sam" Langford, but it is only too ' probable that the day of the black . man as a world's championship proposition'has gone for many a year. In-his fall, Johnson has dragged down his' coloured brethren, and one outcome of his disgrace is sure to be the hard-and-fast-drawing of the colour line in championship fixtures. It can be: argued, and no doubt it will be, that this is a grogs injustice to the clean-living section of the coloured. community,' of. which' Langford, M'Vea, and Jean net Us appear to.be wprtliy examples, but this aspect-of the matter will, carry . po ' we.ight • against public opinion—especially in America—and as things: are now , the United States is a pugilistic factor that cannof be ignored. Australia unfortunately has ho entrant for the championship stakes, nor has any other of. the.white races except England,, whose candidate of-course is Bombardier ' Billy" Wells, of whom more nnop, So • we come to the "heavies" of America, and 'here we are faced with a conundrum that .takes a deal of answering. ;, "Hopes," Past and Present. ' In the San Francisco "Examiner," . Mr. W. M.' vNaughton discourses thus on this quostaon, and if this authority on the noble art cannot solve the problem, who can? " 'One by one they wander from us' is the refrain of an old song that treats of the desertion of the old homestead by successive . members .of .tho family,. With a few simple , changes the ditty would adapt itself the 'white hope' situation." He goes on to point out tne manner in. which Carl Morris and Luther M'Carthy drifted away, and comments: "It goes to show that, after all, fighting is a trade. The. fighter who is born'and not made is a scarce specimen of humanity. The woods are full of men who, ivliile tliey lack real championship are plenty good enough to shatter the dreams of the 'hopes.' A dozen years ago Joe Chynski, 'Kid' M'Coy, and a few others were the watch'-'d.ogs and trial horses of the heavyweight, division. To-day we have 'Jim' Plynn and 'Jim', Stewart, and one or two more. Thev are hard fellows to get by. A beating by one of them has a double effect, inasmuch as it sets back, and at the same time discourages." Since the above was written, another of the white "hopes," Charles Miller to wit, has gone down the sunset trail, having been beaten in sixteen rounds by Flynn. Apparently in America the two best are this same Flynn and the quartercaste Indian, Luther M'Carthy, and no doubt these two will'be brought together shortly to settle the question .between them. -• Will the Bombardier Arrive? • Now for' England's . hope, Bombardier Wells. It will be remembered that he recently journeyed to the States and met defeat at the hands of A 1 Palzer, and redeemed himself almost immediately by decisively beating "Tom" Kennedy. Despite this in-and-out display, Wells mado a wonderful impression on tho American press critics. One of these—an accepted authority—wrote as follows in a Now York paper:—"Welle is a marvellous boxer. It is impossible to compare him with others of the present day, because none of the others have a noteworthy fraction of skill. He has many of the features of a ■ Corbett and Fitzsimmons combined. The only thing he lacks (if he lacks that) is tho splendid stamina and .recuperating powers that both of the old'timo champions possessed in marked degree." This is high praise indeed, especially so coming from an American source, regarding an English boxer, and it shows that Wells must be very seriously considered as a championship proposition. Who'n the last mails loft England, tho Bombardier waa cexiottsly pontemnlatina oaottar.

American trip. To sum up, "Mercury" ventures to predict that eventually, when a settlement is arrived at, the accepted world's cliauipion will bo eitlwsr Bombardier Wells or tho man that beats him in a battle for the ehnmpionslup, The tiino is not at hand yet—it. may not come for a year or two yet—but when it does come-, the title will be borne, if not by tho Englishman, by a man who by beating. him has proved himself worthy of the honour.Monsieur Le Boxeur. The path of tho Frenchmen in Austra. jia is proving a thorny one. Disaster after disaster Ims befallen the invaders, albeit all through they have shown themselves worthy foemen for the Americans and Australians pitted against them. I'aul Til, Leon Bernstein, Ercoic do Balzac have all bean defeated, as chronicled in. this column, and the latest mails bring news of two more defeats. On Saturday week last their welter representative, Jean Andony, was disqualified in the eighth round of his clash with "Put" Bradley, of America. His offence was in going down without being struck, but the critics are by no means unauiinolis concerning tho justice of the sentence. The "Referee," always n sturdy bsrraeker for Arthur Scott, tho Stadium referee, this time states .outright that he made a grievous error in his decision. However, that is by the way—the. verdict is the only thing that couuts. >-This disaster was followed speedily by another reverse on the following Saturday; when the victory went to Australia through the agency pf "Jimmy" Ilut, who out-pointed Leon Trnlfier over twenty rounds. The French camp in Sydney has been strengthened-by the arrival of Jean Poesy, the bantam champion of Europe, and dofeater of the English champion, "Digger." Stanley. Ho is to meet "Jimmy" Hut on November 3.0, "Mat" Wells, Welsh, and Mshcjan. The news, published on Wednesday, that "Freddy Welsh had woji back the light-weight championship pf England from his erstwhile conqueror, "Mat" Wells, is of peculiar interest just now, owing to the presence in England of "Hnghie" Mehegan, whose defeat of Wells recently caused such a .stir,. A meeting between Wells and the Australian champion will be eagerly looked for, and after that should follpw a contest for the world's titlo between the winner and Ad. Wolgast.' The latter, by the way, is not having matters all his own way, despite his penchant for sidestepping the top men and consorting with second-raters. His last venture of this kjiid—against "Joe" Mandot—saw him escape from a ten-round bout.with a lucky draw. It will not be long now before the wily Wolgast is rounded' up and' forced by press and public opinion to take his position seriously, and his title into tho open, market—when, probably, another chain-, pionship wijl change hands. ,I.f only' Mehegan can boat y/elsh, Wolgast will l>e hard put to it to evade a meeting with the Victorian, and then—but' there is such a thing.as being too optimistic. J&hegaa, by the way, was scheduled to have met Owen Moi'an at Birmingham on Saturday last in a fifteeji-roiind boutNotes. : "Joe" Jeannette .has signed a contract ■ to box five matches in Australia under the aegis of H. D. M'lnto.sh. He is to.receive ■£5000' and 25 per cent.'of tho gate money : —*o it is said. . A glance at the schedule at the top pf this column will show that this month two of the Dominion's championship ■ titles coine up again for ' argumeuWhe ] light-weight on November 25, when l Porter will defend l it against. "Billy" Hannan at Blenheims and the .welter, at Gisborne, when "Denny" Murphy and "Lyn" Truscott will conduct the third of their series of contests, . . i