BOXING Dawson Put End To Vic. Patrick’s Great Ambition

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 September 1947, Page 5

BOXING Dawson Put End To Vic. Patrick’s Great Ambition

Negro Dawson's crushing defeat of Vic Patrick marked lhe death of a great ambition—a grim set purpose which had for its goal a throne of the Queensbury realm. After the light I listened to a dozen different ringside “coroners” conducting postmortems, says an Australian observer.

The “verdicts were as varied and fantastic as is usual in such gatherings when the downfall of a sporting public, idol is discussed. Actually; there is quite a simple explanation, which gives full coverage of the reasons .for Patrick’s defeat. Firstly, it would be quite correct to state that, on the night, he met a more skilful boxer, with special knowledge regarding how to deal with “southpaws.” But there was a lot more to it than that. The Patrick of Monday night was a debilitated warrior, shorn to a great extent of the phenomenal physical powers which enabled him, in the past, to out-punch,, out-stay, and completely destroy all opponents in the lightweight and welterweight divisions. Somewhere along the back trail of the past 18 months the sands of Patrick’s tremendous strength, rock-like durability, and unrivalled stamina 'started to run out.

A Trickle At First

At first it was only a trickle, but, gradually, it assumed greater proportions. The writing appeared.on the wall when he fought the negro Hudson. On that night the gibing ghosts of former tough welterweight victims gathered in Patrick’s corner. Each might say with truth, “I helped to burn this fellow out and did my bit in dinting the armour of his boasted indestructibility.” Patrick scored glorious victories over Mc-

Laughlin, Burns, Sloane, Calteaux, and Co.

But, each and every one of these battles with much heavier opponents took toll —unnoticed at the time —of the lightweight’s powers of shock absorption. The- tight with New Zealander Murphy brought about Patrick’s retirement from the welterweight ranks. Alas, too laic—the damage had been done. The fact that Patrick preferred middleweights as .sparring’ partners was also a factor in the decline .ol! his once formidable physical powers. The lad was always easy to hit, and as he delighted in' slugging it out with the big fellows, the jar of the occasional punches they landed on him certainly did him more harm than god. The Hudson battle. revealed a great falling off in Patrick s speed and punching power. On Monday night he failed in the departments where once he leigned supreme—stamina and destructive punching. Outpunched And Outstayed Dawson —whom I do not regard as a heavy hitter— outpunched and outstayed Patrick. Vanished like the snows of yester-year were the vicious devil, destructive non-stop crossfire punching and fierce rallying qualities, which once made Vie Patrick the darling of the ringside gods. , „ At the age of 27, hejas a spent force a burnt-out shell of one of the strongest, most destructive and physically best-equipped natural lightweight boxers Australia has produced in 30 years. With little left but his brave fighting heart, Patrick . s announcement of his retirement from the ring is welcome news to every one’who admires a fine sportsman and a galant fighting man._