TOM HEEEEY SLIPS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 102, 30 March 1929, Page 13

TOM HEEEEY SLIPS.

NEVER LOOKED A WINNER. OUTCLASSED BY ALONEY. A startling upset in the struggle for the much-coveted heavyweight championship in the world of listiania, made vacant by the retirement of Gene Tunney, occurred at Boston early in March when Jimmy Maloney, the SoutlL'Bosten fishmonger, obtained the’ decision over, Tom Heeney, erstwhile “Hard Rock from Down Under,”, in a one-sided ten-round bout, and thus became the contender for heavyweight titular honours, who much be reckoned with such luminaries as Jack Sharkey, Max Schmeling, the German, and Paolino Uzcudun (says an American correspondent). Maloney up to a year ago was virtually an unknown in the boxing field, when he was considered a “pushover” for heavyweights trying to work their way up to a battle with Gene Tunney, then world’s champion. It was by knocking out Maloney in less than one round that Heeney got the title fight on the strength of the achievement. The meeting of Maloney and the New Zealander attracted a gathering of over 20,000, the Hub’s biggest indoor assemblage of fistic enthusiasts in Boston. It was a bitter pill for Heeney to swallow, and the defeat of the New Zealander was regarded as incredible until it was confirmed officially. Commenting on the defeat of Heeney, Jack Farrell, one of the leading sport writers, in a d.spatch from the ringside, wrote: “As for Heeney, the crushing defeat —and it was all that—doubtless relegates him definitely to the class of has-beens. He proved that Tunney took everything out of him but his stout heart. The rejuvenated fishmonger outboxedand outfought’ him in eight of the ten rounds. He staggered him time and again with vicious rights to the jaw and battered his face to a pulp with stinging left jabs. MALONEY A DIFFERENT MAN. “The cringing, chicken-hearted, fear, stricken Maloney of a year ago was conspicuous by his absence. In his place was a light-footed, fast-punching boxer and fighter, who took all kinds of desperate chances and stood up manfully when the going got tough. Maloney’s transformation was little short of. complete. Heeney fought like a man who had a premonition that the jig was up right at the start. By contrast Maloney fought a cool, calculating fight. He took no unnecessary chances for the first four rounds, but when he realised that Heeney was unable to hurt him he met and bested him at every method of fighting the Anzac adopted. “Heeney made a rushing fight of it. He pressed Maloney back to the ropes whenever he got the chance, but each time Maloney either side-stepped or fought himself free with a well-timed impressive two-handed counter-attack. Maloney made a mess of Heeney’s face with straight lefts. Tom tried desperately to get away from it, but the harder he tried the more effectively it worked. When the New Zealander discovered he could not perfect a defence for Jim’s fast-working left, he dodged and bobbed, only to run into short right uppercuts, which nearly tore his head off. “The Maloney who fought in Boston that night will be a tough man for the others questing Tunney’s crown to beat.” Other ringside experts gave five rounds to Maloney, two to Heeney, and the remaining three even.