BRITISH GLOVE FIGHTS

Northern Advocate, 27 April 1921, Page 6

BRITISH GLOVE FIGHTS

ARE THEY FAKED?

Are boxing promoters really sincere in their mucn-advertised desire to find a British "wnite nope," or are I'ney playing a profiteering game on tne sporting puoiic? asss an iiingush writer.

'rnose interested in the noble art are asKing the question. Many are growing suspicious of contests whicn iast only one or two rounds. BriiiiJi heavy-Weights are boomed as cnampions of tlieir class. They are matched against fighters from America and France, and are so ily beaten and outclassed that spectators who have paid high prices for seats go away disgusted.

. It i s not the boxer's fault. It is the fault of those who promote contests between men who are unequally matched.

The records of Gunner Moir, "Iron" Hague, Bombardier Wells, Goddard, and Joe Beckett make melancholy reading when compared with those of men like Tommy Burns, Carpentier, Moran, and DempseyOur men have proved themselves to be strong fighters and clever boxersBut they are no match against for. eign opponents.

WHERE ARE OUR CHAMPIONS. Our hopes were pinned on Joe Beckett until Carpentier and Moran showed how easy it was to knock him out. Bombardier Wells, most brLliant of boxers, but sadly lacking in the fighting temperament, has been beatfen so often, usually because his nerves have let him down that the public would have forgotten him long ago had it not been for his magnetic personality. , Goddard and Gunner Moir to have flattered only to deceive, although when "Iron" Hague beat Moir in two and a half minutes, after the latter had stood up' for ten round 3 against Tommy Burns for the world's boxing championship, boxing enthusiasts jumped to the conclusion that in Hague we had a real champion. Hague did not maintain his reputation, however, and one has to' go back twenty-four years—to March. 1897, when Bob Fitzsimmons beat Corbett at Carson City—for the last record of an Englishman winning the world's boxing championship. In spite of this, promoters continue to match men who have been tried and failed against the 'boxers of France and America. •So-and-so has "come back" and will fight the European or American champion of his weight, is the gist oi the preliminary notice. Glowing accounts of the former's improved skill and speed are published, huge purses are advertised, the public pny big priccs for seats—and only witness another fiasco!

If you asked the man who knows the game why promoters do not make an effort to find a real "white hope"* ' instead of arranging matches for ; those who have tried so often before an'd found wanting, he would laugh at youIt would take too much time and money, he would reply. Even if a youngster was discovered with the necessary weight and skill, it would take two or three years of careful training and' handling to make him fit. for championship matches. Unfortunately, a s the manager of a well-known boxing club told me, no sooner does a local boxer show signs of exceptional cleverness than he is seized upon by promoters, who proceed to exploit him chiefly for their own ends. They persuade the boy . to place himself in their hands. They engage a manager and arrange two or three easy matches, which he wins without much effort. Tf there is any danger to the new man, such matches are sometimes faked. Paragraphs about the newcomer are sent; round to the newspapers and a match with someone holding a championship i's arranged. , ".Public interest.in thus aroused." said tihe manager. "A big hal-l is taken, seats are bought freely, and if \ the protege wins he is acclaimed anJ other 'white hope.' If he loses, he j'hes had such a big boom tV.t thej | public will be anxious to see him I again- In the meantime, the promoters are making plenty of- money | out of the matches, and if the boy I continues to lose they look for another man whom they think may prove a ready-made champion. "I could mention several cases in which promising boxei's have been spoilt by being pushed too soon into j the ring for championship matches, in order to satisfy the greed of cer- > tain promoters. Had they been trained carefully and systematically for a couple of years, they might have become real champions and upheld the supremacy we have lost.