PUNCHING TO WEALTH

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 28 April 1928, Page 12

PUNCHING TO WEALTH

RING MILLIONAIRES. POVERTY TO RICHES. ROMANTIC CAREERS RECALLED “Punching to Wealth” is the title of an interesting article on famous boxers, contributed to a London journal, by Air. Trevor O. Wign.aU. He describes the odds against a beginner making a fortun? as at least two hundred to one, while there is the further circumstance, that there is no known instance of a novice gaining a championship or anything approaching it. Of .Tack Dempsey it is related ihp was once so poor that he was reduced to sneaking food from the free-lunrih counters of the San Francisco saloons. The night he received nearly £200,000 for losing to Gene Tunney, he- said there had been mam- occasion's when he had fought like an animal for. the equivalent of a few shillings. Whan Dempsey was fighting four-rounders in Oaftifornia towns, on!y a year or so before he became the champion, his usual reward averaged £lO. What was more—and ho stressed this—those battles were in many cases infinitely harder than the higher-paid ones that came later. When Dempsey was slamming his way to 1 the heights." the road he was compelled to travel was among the most heart-break-ing ever encountered by a human being. THE TRIALS OF TUNNEY.

There is a disposition to think Tunney has missed the trials and tribulations that beset nine pugilists out of tear. Mr. Wigna.il says that is not a correct belief. He was for pftven years a pedestrian on what has ween called the Cauliflower Highway; making a living it is true, but not a sufficiently good one to ensure a comfortable old age. There were nights when he slept on a bench in a park, .and plenty of days

when his belt had to be tightened. How many people know that about -a year before he defeated Dem-psey he was ordered out of Philadenphia ring because the referee came to the conclusion he was either not trying or that his -skill was not high enough for him to be permitted to remain. Ye-t that is a fact. When Tunney next returned to Philadelphia it was to do something that has since placed him among the- millionaires of his country. ROMANCE OF TOM HEENEY. .‘•'There is romance- in that; but easily the most romantic figure in tins fighting of to-day is the New Zealander, Tom Heeney. >So fat as I can tell,” proceeds the writer, “-he lias never had a counter-part. “When a pugilist nears the age of thirty without reaching a higher position ‘than that of a deputy or -a, ‘trialhorse,’ it may usually be taken, for granted he is a- failure. That, to put it quite frankly, was how Heeney was regarded in England twelve months 'ago. He was so short-awned, so -lacking in a punch, and iso deficient in personality and, pugilistic attractiveness that promoters in London (who are now falling ovp-r each other in efforts to get him- to sigh his name to a. contract) only smiled when he- asked them for an engagement. To-day. both as a. fighter and ulsi a drawing-card, he ranks with Tunney and 1 Dempsey.

i “Homey, in a phrase, ds the classic l example of a boxer finding world-wide ! fame at the very time when his age I and accomplishments prompted every- . one to believe his insignificient day was over, and that he was not fit to appear in a preliminary bout. His earnings to-day are those of a, great lawyer or a film star. When he left London, not • much more than a year ago he could • hardily buv himself a packet of cigarettes. Hie case is, of course, exeeption- ■ al, but it explains why it is that even 1 the boxer who is knocked! out every time he nuts up his hands still retains • in his heart the hope that springs eternal. ' HUMAN GOLD MINES, i I have never yet met a fighter .who

didin’t see a gleam of brightness in the worst of the Hidings that was sent his way. Take for instance: Fitzsimmons and Jimmy Wilde, who were laughed to scorn when they first fought before big crowds: Jim Corbett who, by everyone who knew him, was told at the outset to go back to -the bank where he was a 'clerk;-Jim Jeffries, who was given a job as a cleaner of a gymnasium when lye first applied for the lowly post of a sparring partner; Tom Heeney, who was actually on his way home to New Zealand to seek work when he achieved the .apparently impossible. “I have been watching boxing long enough now to realise that the man who seems to be a square peg in a round hole may he in reality be a human goldmine in the making. If Tunney lasts another three or four years —as he probably will—lie should he worth at least a couple of million pounds. ENGLAND’S YOUNG HOPES. “This possibility makes all tire 'more interesting the fact that them are in England to-day two young men who may rise, to the same eminence as Tunney. Ohe is Len Harvey, who was horn at Plymouth, and the other Donald Short!and, who comes from Sheffield. The latter, at 17 years of age, is already a full-fledged heavy-weight, and it is likely that by the time he reaches manhood he will be even, bigger and stronger than the gigantic Jeffries.” . Mr, AVignall hais by no> means given up hope of seeing the day when an English fighter will rule the heavyweight roost. “But (thinking only of the wonderful rewards;—rewards 210 other profession offers) wouldn’t I like to be in his 'Shoes 1” ho ejaculates in conclusion.

Apropos of Heeney, it a© interesting to note, by the way, that Mr. F. J. Peers (who was in New Zealand as ‘ ‘jVLiss Domino’s” xn annger) writes from Canada : “New Zealand could do with a live publicity agent in Canada, for the people and the Press know very little about it. They always refer to your very promising Tom Heeney as an Australian.”