NEW ZEALAND CHAMPION WINS

Evening Star, Issue 21905, 17 December 1934, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND CHAMPION WINS

' NIGGL BEATS SPAGNOLA The Sydney ‘ Referee ’ has the following concerning the heavy-weight boxing contest at Melbourne between Ray Nicol (New Zealand light-heavy and heavy-weight champion) and Pietro Spagnola:— The better use of a straight left, which, although it carried very little sting, was always a point-scorer, gave Bay Nicol (12.6), of New Zealand, the victory over Pietra Spagnola (13.4) in fifteen rounds of two minutes each at West Melbourne Stadium on Monday night. , It was far from being a good fight. Every round was marred by excessive clinching, in which Spagnola, by his continual hanging on, lost a bagful of points. As a matter of fact, Spagnola threw the fight away by his failure to keep punching when Nicol earned the battle to close quarters. Waiting for Nicol to lead, Spagnola would endeavour to counter with short rights, some of which landed, but the majority of which were off the target. Then he would fall into a clinch, and just hang on. To give Nicol his due. it must be said that he was always anxious to • fight, but Spagnola’s tactics would have prevented any opponent from making an impressive showing against him. . . There were a few rallies in which both men threw punches thick and fasti but neither managed to damage the other much. Nicol’s left eye was cut in the eleventh round, probably from a clash of heads, and it bled freely thereafter. In the last three rounds, Spagnola did more real fighting than at any other time during the contest, but in spite of it he could not keep Nicol’s left out of his face, and, in marked contrast. his own rights—his main weapon of offence—were so often hurled with the action of someone throwing a ball that they simply could not be effective. Spagnola’s display was poorer than any for which he has been responsible in Melbourne in recent weeks. He was once again the crude slogger of his early appearances. Nicol might have made a more_ attractive showing against a man less inclined to hit and hold. He is a strong, willing fellow, but he still has a lot to learn.