BOXERS COME AND GO

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 10 June 1933, Page 8

BOXERS COME AND GO

THE END OF TOM HEENEY WHY COMEBACKS MOSTLY FAIL. DISHONEST BOXING.' PROMOTERS

(By “Physical Gultiirist.”)

Writing to me recently a well-inform-ed ,sports writer said, “About old athletes that never come back; after climbing to the top- of the tree, especially topnotch -boxers, they are feted in sif directions’ —champagne suppers, etc. The fat then gets well 1 imbedded in the muscles, which settles the comeback stunt. If needed Tunney ooiikl have gone on with the game for quite a time, as he was a dean liver.”

Possibly the most convincing to- New Zealanders is the case of Tom Heeney, who fresh from his- laurels when he fought his epics fight against Gene Tunney, brought Ills bride to the land of liis -birth, wa-s feted right and left, made much of and hailed as a, conquering hero—for what? Fighting a. good .losing fight. -What appealed to his admirers was- liisi unquestioned grit and pluck. When he- ought to have kept himself in condition his friends were doing their level best to help liini on the downward track. Once a wealthy man, he is now reduced to keeping the wolf from the door by fighting for a pittance and taking a hiding from, noxers who would have • been mere sit-ups- for Tom when in his prime. A Sydney paper mentions Torn Heeney’« pathetic plight in America. “The Rock from Down Under. Now Fighting for Pence. Fistic Romance Ends asTWife Weeps at Ringside,” arc the headings.

While tins was going on -Mrs Toni Heeney sat at the ringside weeping Copiously. When the -referee intervened Heeney’s left cheek was split, his right ear was mangled and bleeding, deep wounds spread over his eyes < and bis face was covered with blood. “It was near the end of the 10th round. The house wasn’t big enough to pay old Tom more than 200 dollars for his licking. They say lie needed the money to pay off a mortgage on his home.” The old -Rock from Down Under is all washed up. He’s through why doesn’t he quit? Why doesn't the Boxing Comnyission repeal his license? Fights are few and far between for Tom these days. Stanley Pareda was a victim of the late Ernie Schaaf and Primo Camera, It is possible than ail attempt was about to be made to bring the young Polish giant into the limelight again by giving him a well-known fighter with an international reputation, yet easy enough for him to beat. It is possible that they reasoned this stiff punching Polo would turn old Tom upside down in a round or so. But they did not know the New Zealander. As an obvious “set up” he was there in the tenth and last round, talcing it as it came, with his face a punch-riddled mass of bruised flesh, his legs gone, but liis fighting heart and his indomini'table spirit anxious to stay to the end of the distance. The Sydney writer goes on to- say “Honest old Tom was a rough diamond in a field -of rough diamonds —a man who conquered physical disadvantages, a not too fast fighting brain, and a lack of tactical imagination, but a willing leak-like durability and stamina, and be once touched the highest places in pugilism. There was not a vicious thought in him. There was nothing vicious in the manner lie lost wliat fortune he earned. He did nothing to earn the fate that came his way last month. It is to be hoped that what is lolt of that 200 dollars will clear the mortgage and relieve the necessity of that woman sobbing unrestrainedly at the ringside while her husband fights for pence in the ring. Tom was one of those fellows who just didn’t deserve to finish a ring tragedy.” THE COMMERCIAL MIND

Now we turn to the brainy side of pugilism. Tom Heeney may be said to represent tile honest plugging type of fighter who always gives the fans a run for their money. Then there is the other type. He may be termjed the win-tie-or-wrangle kind, the class of man who brings boxing into disrepute, who lives by liis wits and reputation, who never makes a match if it can bo avoided, and when lie does makes sure of the £ s d. llie cables of late told of a boxing contest where the fight was allegedly fixed for one of the competitors to receive the verdict in the sixth round and, because he only received the verdict at the end of lo rounds he declined to return the cheque for £IOO which had been handed to him as a guarantee of good faith by the thus the court action. Giving evidence on his own behalf the boxer said it was not that particular fight which was fixed, but another one.

ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE

It was fights of this nature where the public were being robbed that brought professional boxing into disrepute in New Zealand 40 years ago. Tho boxers in those days killed the goose that laid the golden egg. Is historv going to repeat itself? Some time ago I made no secret oi the fact that I though A 1 Foreman had shot liis bolt. Although at thenthird time of meeting Foreman won from Jimmy Kelso in the third round it was won on a foul after a hurricane fight by both sides, m which Kelso apparently had a lead on points and, although' Foreman got h|on«e apparently on the jaw two of his heaviest punches, so litlfc impression did they make that he Had to claim a foul to win. While Foreman lay upon the floor writhing apparently m P ! V in > Kelso was walking about the nng wondering what all the fuss uas about. It seems to this writer that las far as boxing in concerned there is a mug born every minute.