BOXING Willie Jones Will Come Out Punching

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 February 1947, Page 4

BOXING Willie Jones Will Come Out Punching

There’s no need to tell American negro boxer Willie Jones that the tactics he should «employ against Bos Murphy in their return match at Petone fin Saturday are the tactics that he 'used against Jack McCann. He knows. Jones told the Sports Post last week that he had done all the sizing up of Murphy he considered necessary —in the five rounds of their first fight —and rightly or wrongly he was going to make the fight willing from the initial gong. Don’t run away with the idea that Jones thinks Murphy is going to be easy to bowl. He has the highest opinion of the New Zealand champion’s ability. He considers Murphy one of the fastest thinkers in the ring, that he has ever encountered. ! He has never taken an opponent cheaply. Against McCann last week, for instance, Jones went into the ring determined to fight his best, and that best is very good indeed. McCann just didn’t have a chance against the bril-, liant speed and terrific hitting of his opponent. No Idle Boasts I To repeat, he’s going to come out punching against Murphy next Saturday and lie knows there'll be a real battle ahead. He made no idle boasts about knocking the New Zealand champion. He contented himself with saying that he himself would enter the ring in perfect physical condition, confident in his own ability to make a- real fight of the return —his overwhelming defeat of McCann has done him a lot of good—confident that he will, at the very least, bring to Mur-, phy realisation that the latter has been in a fight. Jones has been faced with one great difficulty in New Zealand, the difficulty of assessing the ability of opponents he has never met, never seen in action in a bout. All he has had to go on are the reports, from a mul-

tiplicity of sources —varying in reliability—about the quality of the men he’s been scheduled to meet. For instance, before his bout with McCann he was told to watch for this, watch for that, and so .on, until he finally entered the ring in some bewilderment. He just didn’t know what to expect, though he had formed the idea that McCann was likely to prove a pretty tough opponent. Impressive Victory For this reason, perhaps, Jones was cool, determined, and merciless against McCann who,- measured by ordinary New Zealand standards, is a pretty useful and tough middleweight boxer. Jones’s convincing victory, therefore, is all the more impressive. Jones now is free to fight anywhere in New Zealand. He came here under contract for two bouts for the Hutt Valley Association—against Murphy and McCann. After his return match with Murphy he’s open for engagements anywhere in the country. He’s keen to stay here for a while too, and particularly wants to meet Roy Stevens. Burns Wants Murphy To Reduce Weight SYDNEY, February 19. The Australian welter-weight, Tommy Burns, says that he will not fight the New Zealander, Bos Murphy, unless Murphy reduces his weight to lOst 91b. “There is no doubt that Murphy is fighting well over eleven stone,” said Burns to-day. “My advice is that, when he fought Willie Jones, he was much heavier than billed. He is too good a fighter for me to give him half a stone or more. I am keen to meet him, and if he can make lOst. 91b., I will rush the match.