BOXING.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 May 1937, Page 3

BOXING.

PATHETIC FIGURE. ‘ * -PUNCH-DRUNK; ’ ’ EIGHTEK. One of the most pathetic figures in modern sport is the “punch-drunk-“ boxer. Such a man was met the other WaS famous > in for a woild championship—now, i n the middie thirties, he is a finished man. The boxer who fights and fights'till is every reflex action i s conditioned by the ring; the boxer who takes punishment about the face and head over and over again; t e boxer driven y stark need of money, sometimes by sheer hunger, to stagger into the ring and rely solely on his capacity to endure— this man is a danger to the community and a peril to himself.

He becomes—in the vivid phrase coined by boxers themselves—“punchdrunk. ’ ’

In the ring he gets beaten with comparative ease. This puts his price down and consequently drives him to take more and more engagements—while ho can still command them. He aims at the mark and hits the ribs. He sees a blow coming and dodges into it* instead of away from it.

His face changes—externally developing “cauliflower ears" and other stigmata of the old <:‘pug" because he can no longer avoid the blows that i*am on him. But the spirit and mind mirrored in his face changes too; the brain becomes affected by the pounding and jarring it has received.

In his private life, he becomes vague. He will ask a question, nod as it is answered, and—ask it again. He fails to take in what is said. He talks too much. He stares. In severe cases his voice sounds muddy. As he watches a light he punches the air identified with the circling figures in the ring.

Medical experts believe that any blow on the head mars the functioning of the brain, that any violent sport ■where head and face injuries are the order of the day is attended by the very real peril of “punch-drunken-ness. ’ ’ BRADDOCK’S WORLD TITLE Janies J. Braddock, the world *s heavyweight champion, has arrived in Chicago with partners and trainers to prepare for his June 22nd bout with Joe Louis, and says he will positively meet Louis, not Sehmeling. That may be so. But it is doubtful if Brkddock wdll be world champion if he meets Louis on that date. Braddock is under contract to defend his title against Sehmeling- at the Garden. Lawyers who have examined the contract binding Braddock to Madison Square Gardens for the first defence of his- title, say that the only way he can get out of „the fight—which he is avoiding—is by resigning the title. The contract, in their opinion, binds Braddock only as champion. 1 It was thought in America that Braddock would resign his title, promote the bout between Sehmeling and Louis for the heavyweight crown, and then challenge the winner, a fight that would probably draw a million-dollar gate.