BOXING

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 December 1925, Page 3

BOXING

WIN FOR PURDY.

1- (Per Press Association.) d. -— e AUCKLAND, November 29. e In a fifteen-round professional boi e ing bout for a purse of £2OO, Charlt e Purdy (the Auckland lightweight) 9.12 a defeated' Harjry Casey (the Queen; r land welter weight) 10.3, on. point; y The decision received a mixed recep/ ion. ' Did darcy beat firpo? 1 That there is a possibility that th /late Les Darcy fought Luis Ange ’ Firpo ,the “Wild Bull of the Pam 1 pas,’’ mill come as a great surpris to most people interested, in boxin: , says the Sydney “Sun.” Nearly al South America and almost everybody i. in the Argentine thought m 1923 tha Firpo was destined to be heavyweigh • champion of the world. Ninety thou ’ sand people saw Uiim really have Jad 1 Dempsey out of the Polo Grounds New York City, on 14th September o • that year, in two of the most sen sational rounds ever fought for th' ■ heavyweight championship of th< ; world. Dempsey was Helped bacl i into the ring, but was allowed t< > continue and then knocked Firpo out According to t'he records, Firpo who was born in 1896, had his firs ■ ring battle in 1919. E. O’Sullivan > better known as “Tim” is confiden that Firpo received a- lesson in box ing in 1916 from Darcy. O’Sullivai and Darcy left together for Amiefics that year. Their first port of cal after leaving Australia wa s Tai Tai near Antofogasta, in Chile. ashore to stretch their legs; O’Sullivan and Darcy came across a tent ii which was appearing a travelling boxing show of flhe type familiar ir Australian provincial centres. Ir the boxing team one big young felloe M out. He was the idol of tin local fans. Darcy took him on, and beat him up iso badly that the crowd became ugly'. “We were in a tight fix,” said O’Sullivan, in relating the incident, “and a night in prison seemed jus» one of the things that was going to 'happen to us.” Fortunately the fourth officer of the steamer on which they were travelling was present, and he could speak Span'sh. He managed to soothe the angry Latins sufficiently to allow Darcy and O’Sullivan to get away. “When Firpo was being boomed as the coming champion,” added O’Sullivan, “I saw many of his photographs, and I at once recognised the idol of that Tai Tai booth. I feel sure that it was Firpo- who got such a beating from Darcy.” O’Sullivan states that there is 110 doubt but that the cause of the death of Darcy was double pneumonia. After rcy and lhe parted company, the new manager of the Australian champion kept him on the move from State to State. O’’Sullivan says that Darcy must have visited fourteen States in three weeks. In doing so, he experienced severe climatic changes and he caught a bad cold.” “Darcy, you know,” O’Sullitan concluded “would never wear an. overcoat. Strangelv. he always combined that the weight of an overcoat made his shoulders ache. To get rid of the cold he took to road work to sweat it out. He c'augljt a fresh chill and pneumonia set m. Just before Darcy left me, he weighed 13.6, with hi s clothes on. He would never have been able to fight again as a middleweight but he would (have given those heavyweights something to think about—hard.”