BLACK BOXERS ON TOP

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1913, Page 6

BLACK BOXERS ON TOP

..- —■ *♦»♦*— —-—~ ONLY ONE WHITE'HOPE. MR H. D. McINTOSH’S VIEWS. Although Mr Hugh, D. Mclntosh is for the time out of personal, touch with what is doing in the boxing World, no name is better known to sportsmen. While in I Auckland, therefore, it was natural that a Star representative should have invited him to talk about “What’s doing” in the fighting line. As Mr Mclntosh* says, however, there really hasn't much to talk about so far as the crackjacks are concerned. Johnson (whose fight with Tommy Burns was arranged by the Australian promoter) is, in Mr Mclntosh s opinion, likely to remain for some considerable time the world’s heavy-weight champion. The only “hope” in sight, he believes, is the young American, Luther McCarthy, who has defeated Jim Flynn, Palzer, and other good men. Tommy Burns, Mr Mclntosh thinks, will never come back to the world’s championship form, though even now ho believes that the little Canadian could lick any white man at the game, with the exception, perhaps, of McCarthy. The Ethiopian quartet —Johnson, Langford, MW ea, and Jeanette—are, unfortunately, quite by themselves as lords of the world s boxing area. Of the latter trio, Langford is, Mr Mclntosh opines, the only man who could make Johnson fight for bis championship. “Langford is quite a unique fighter,” he said—“squat,'sft 6in high, possessing extraordinary strength, clever, quick, and courageous. He is only a heavy middleweight, and he is the only man before the public at the present time who can claim to have defeated every fighter put up against him.” Talking of Sydney doings Mr Mclntosh said that interest was as keen as ever in boxing matters there, and at the Smith-Jerome fight at the Rushcutter’s Bay Stadium, after seating 15,000 people, the management had to send thousands more awav. “Smith,” he added, “is the only New Zealand boxer with a future at present before the public eye. I can’t make out why New Zealand doesn’t produce more good boxers. Heavens! How longed yesterday and to-day to get hold of some of Hie great strapping Maoris, I saw about. Queen Street, and teach them how to fight. Half a dozen at least, I have picked on physique, I have picked for champions if they only knew how to box. And that the Maori is a fighter, tradition goes to show, while it is worth remembering that a half caste Maori, Heroert Slade, was one of the best fighters of his day. Then take your pakehas. You’ve only got to stand in the street for a while to realise that New Zealanders are men of brawn and muscle. The only explanation is that in this country boxing does not receive the encouragement ’it merits, and until you import good men, and so infuse interest, I don’t suppose you will achieve anything much in the boxing world.”