RING NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1911, Page 14

RING NOTES.

(By "Cross Counter.") Boxers have been allowed so much rope that it would be almost unfair to spring the new rule (of disqualification for holding without a caution) on them without a perfect and distinct understanding and serious warnings (considers j "Cestus," ill the London Sportsman). We have referees and referees, and the worst of it all is that in many places the official is next door to a nonentity. How often do we hear the call, unfortunately frequently from the promoter of a show, "Let 'em go on; let 'em fight." This, too. comes from the spectators, and the competitor goes his way fighting and holding in turns, and considers that in doing so he is boxing fairly. Later he finds himself in the hands of a firm and strong referee, and boxing under conditions altogether different becomes perplexed, or continues his faults until disqualification overtakes him. The question of preventing a man from fouling is a never-ending discussion. To my thinking, a referee has as much right to come between a'cbmpetitor and his fallen opEonent as to break two boxers holding, ometimes both are clinching, and not infrequently only one is in fault. In the t latter case the referee is preventing a man from fouling, just as this same official shields one who is in a mind to strike his opponent when down. With the referee outside the ropes, it is impossible for either man to be favoured. I The question is, Should a man inclined I to lose his head and foul be assisted by the referee? The other night Lang fouled Curran when the two were near the ropes, and, one can say, beyond th« reach of Mr. Corri, for the foul came quickly. Providing Curran had gone down in the middle of the square, might not Lang have been saved by the referee? If new rules are to be formed about holding and respecting, the kidney punch, the powers of the referee should be stated. Speaking of Lewis, the American, mid-dle-weight (who so signally defeated the English favourite Johnny Summers, who was giving away perhaps 101b), a London critic expresses the opinion that he ! showed in the little time he was in the ting quite^ enough to justify the reputation he holds, viz., that of being one of the best men in the world at his weight. Lewis fought very open, it is true, but while he showed a cast-iron head and an invulnerable torso, it is just possible that, opposed to a man nearer his own weight and his equal in strength, he would have exercised more ■care. At times he seemed to absolutely "give" his head to Summers, and the confidence with which be bored in early on augured badly for the success of tho smaller man. Lewis has a peculiar seesaw sway before he delivers, which is more remarkable seeing how straight and clean he delivers on 'the ribs. His body fighting is undoubtedly his strongest point, and at this he is particularly effective. There is nc clinching about Lewis ; indeed, from what he showed us on Monday he is as fair a fighter as one could_ wish to see. The reader may remark" that fie had nothing to beat, but, judging a man from what on* has seen, Lewis is one of the best men of his poundage we have ever had this way. His work at close quarters was great on Monday, and I could but pity the man who would try to land on him the much-discussed kidney punch. After seeing the American conduct himself one nan understand now he defeated middleweights like Larry Temple, Honey Mellody, and other men, and at the same time wonder how of recent years ho managed to get down to 10st 21b. Lewis is only twenty-four, and yet he has been fighting, and hard, too, for the last seven years. Jack Johnson, who begins to find the multiplicity of fines for furious automobile driving beyond even his purse, threatens to take to aeroplanrng if the police don't leave him alone. And if he does to the air retire, he will call his aeroplane " Burns," and, no doubt, enjoy the fact that till he breaks _ his neck he will b* on top all the time. He proposes to invest in a 14-cylinder Curtiss biplane, and, when he has mastered the art of using it, he reckons he will just satiate that wild craving for speed that has proved such a costly pastime. In honour of his own colour he proposes to have the planes of his machine coloured black, and tnat black biplane ie to scoop in the world's prizes galore. Had Johnson been a white man he would have been a beauty actor, sure! (says a Sydney journal). A man with his abnormal vanity couldn't help it.- The police are said to be seriously considering what is to be done, for if Johnson gets going with his speed mania he will work up to such a fearful bat that, if he strikes any part of the Amurkan continent, the U-nited States will lose a hunk of territory. Boxing is in for trouble. The deaths of Gleeson ( and Bryant in one week have given the anti-boxing people a large handle on which they can get both hands. Gleeson, whose proper name was John Leslie Victor Jacobson, and Bryant, who is really James Boland, died, not on account of the extraceverity of the punishment received, but owing to the fact that neither of them was nt to enter a rinc, and a Marathon race would have killed them just as certainly. The prompt action of the Sydney Stadium oeople in announcing that henceforth all intending pugilists

shall be carefully insptjcted by a dock* at tho ringside ha« drawn the teeth ot the oppositionists. Also, it will ensure that the paying public will not be robbed of its moneys worth by the ill-health of the gentlemen who supply the sport, comments the Bulletin. '