BOXING-THE MAN WHO KNOWS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6631, 9 June 1928, Page 6

BOXING-THE MAN WHO KNOWS

(To the Editor.) . Sir, —One of the chief charms of boxing is that every man knows more about it than the next fellow. It is by no means unusual to observe an individual in black cotton gloves and vegetarian boots disputing the profound science with a chap whose lower jaw suggests a money box, and whose general mien creates disturbing thoughts of what a fire in a furniture faptory would bo like. So that it is to be expected that after every boxing tournament the referee becomes a fair mark for the criticisms of a multitude of quid nuncs. . . Take for instance, the final punch in the ’recent Casey-McKnight clash. One newspaper report described it as a left-hook, while another explained how Casey back-moved McKmghtfs lead and cross-countered. Seeing that the coup de grace was a remarkably short, straight and most un-ladylike right to the jaw, and that a back-move is entirely opposed to a correctly manoeuvred cross-counter, the value of such typical statements may at once be estimated. . •, , Then again I read in yesterday 3 "Times” that a boxer who successfully back-moves a lead scores by so doing, and that the one whose lead has been nullified by an opponent’s back-move also scores for "attack.” Seeing that "attack” consists of "direct clean hits with the knuckles of either hand’ ’ your boxing scribe has me mystified. There have been a number of these lamentable discrepancies, of late, and recognising, as I do. that Tom Hceney warrants more newspaper space than say, Pavlova’s Conditional Reflexes and that the "Times” ever supports all movements for the advance of uplift and education, I have deemed it fitting to draw attention, per medium of your valuable journal, to loose statements calculated to mislead a studious public. I am, etc. F MODESTIA. Palmerston North, June Bth, 1928.