Extra Classes Expected To Improve Boxing –

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 September 1950, Page 3 (Supplement)

Extra Classes Expected To Improve Boxing -

Amateur boxing in this country should benefit from the revision of the weight classes, introduced at the annual meeting of the New Zealand

, Boxing Association at Greymouth last , week following the resolution passed ; at the International Amateur Boxing /Association Congress at Copenhagen , last June. J By making two more weight divi- : sions, the light welter and the light ; middle, a lot of unequal matching should be avoided. It was a bad .’fault of the old eight-weight system that a welter of 9.10 could be called on to meet one of 10.7, and that a middleweight of 10.8 could be drawn against one of 11.6. Weight differences of almost a stone in these 'classes impose undue strain on the lighter men I The light welter-weight class now 'caters for boxers of 9.61 pounds to >lO.O the welter for boxers of 10.0 to 110.7-4, t he light middle for boxers Ifrom 10.8 to 11.21, and the middleweight for boxers from 11.3 to 11.1 IL | (These weights are approximate, and will probably be those generally (used for normal weighing. The odd 'ounces in the official scale obviously result from the conversion to the avoirdupois system of the metric weights laid down by the inter-

national association). At the same time, by the insertion of the two weights in the middle divisions, the ranges are reduced in all the other weights. Which is to the good. The upping of the lightheavy limit to 12.101 means that only those close to the 13.0 mark and above will light in the open class. A strong 13-stoner is big enough to fight any heavy, but a man at, say, 12.8 was severely handicapped under the old system when he had to meet a stronger 14-stoner. Risk Of Injury As a result of the- wide ranges under the old system, boxers often 'reduced their strength by sweating Iweight off to make the lower weight. This frequently had a debilitating 'effect on the younger boxers, who 'were still growing, and increased the risk of injury. i This was apparent in last week’s

championships at Greymouth when youths went away two and three times in an effort to get their weight down to make a lower class. One at last threw in the sponge after having lost some five lbs. Had he made the grade, what were his chances in the ring after so much forced wasting? It would probably have been better for him during the past month or so to have concentrated on building up weight to reach a reasonable mark in a higher grade. V. Tuck’s Position Vern Tuck, the West Coast welterweight, who had to waste to get into that section—he would have had to clash with his brother, M. Tuck in an effort to be the West Coast representative in the middleweight section had he not taken off weight—is only one of last week’s contenders who would have been eminently suited by the light-middleweight class. The light welter class has, at odd times, been semi-officially recognised in American professional boxing—for example Tod Morgan, who gavel Australian Vic Patrick some of his; hardest fights, was recognised more j or less officially as world light—or i junior—welter champion. So was the rugged Jimmy McLarnin at I mother time. j The try-out of the compulsory eight-count, in use all this year in Australia, will be interesting. At j first sight this did not seem to be i particularly good move. It seemed i ;o rob the aggressor of a legitimate advantage; and seemed redundant ,vhen a competent referee was in charge, to see that a boxer was not illowed to fight on if he was not capable of defending himself.

Has Its Points But on more mature consideration the idea has its points. The Clem Sands-Phil Wallace contest at Auckland served to give it some backing. Wallace, it will be remembered, was doing reasonably well when he ran into a hard right and went down. He took only a short count and staggered back to his feet, but the referee had Ino alternative but to rule him loser on a t.k.o. as he was not in fighting condition.

In' this particular case Wallace might not have recovered sufficiently 'after an eight-second spell to carry 'on. But in a similar case the compulsory rest might be sufficient to 'allow a man to collect his senses, even if he unconsciously gets back to his feet inside the time. To some extent, in theory at any rate, it should help to reduce the chances Of a man, on the losing end in points, winning by a lucky punch. It may still be argued that it is

unfair to rob the aggressor of a chance of scoring a knock-out. - Reduces Chances Of Injury

But the answer provided by the sponsors of the move—and the reason why it was first thought of—is that it reduces the chances of a groggy boxer being seriously hurt. Boxing, after all, is only a sport, and any way of making it safer must be at least given a trial. The compulsory count was observed on odd occasions, apparently at the referee’s discretion at last week’s championships, and this seemed rather peculiar. Some few boxers, —West Coast’s B. Edei’ was one—on rising after a blow was ordered not to resume boxing until eight had been tolled off, but others had to weather the storm immediately they rose, whether it was one second later or nine.

The ruling should have been applied to all boxers or none at all.

A situation that occurs rarely enough but did happen at the championships last week, would raise another problem through a compulsory eight count. This would be a repitition of the Perry-Gallagher double knock-down. Gallagher was up a few seconds after he went down, but under the new rule, the referee would have to order him down for eight.

Three Judges Old-timers will probably criticise the decision to take away from the referee the right to adjudicate when judges disagree, and to have all decisions in the hands of three judges. But it has always seemed that a referee has his hands full controlling a bout, without allocating points as well. With judges on three of the four sides of the ring it should be possible for fair decisions to be reached.

This system, of course, has for some time been the rule for Olympic and Empire Games boxing. The many dubious decisions that caused a scandal at the 1948 Olympics should not be taken as a sign of fallacies in the system. It seems that they arose purely because of different styles of judging, and varying interpretations of the rules in the 50-odd countries represented.

The new system, however, increases the need for announcement of how decisions are reached. The model announcing of results by Mr J. Beban, the Greymouth announcer, at the 1950 championships—under the old two-judge system, of course—followed the style initiated at Wellington in 1949, and was most satisfactory. It is only fair to the boxers and to the public to know whether, or not a decision was unanimous or split.

The change means that more judges will be required. By pinpointing judges’ rulings inefficiency will soon be spotted—by the officials as well as the public—and unsuitable judges will soon be removed.