BOXING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 10 September 1923, Page 5

BOXING

SYDNEY, This Day At the Stadium in the heavy-weight championship, the Australian, Era Sheppeard, 13.7, (South Australia), beat Waddy, 12.7, the holder of the title, in 14 rounds. Both men shaped clumsily, showing a lack of science, Waddy causing amusement by constantly chaffing his opponent. Sheppeard had Waddy in trouble most of the time and at the fourteenth round, when Waddy was on the verge of collapse, the referee stopped the fight, MELBOURNE, Sept. 8 Sparo knocked out Baxter in the seventh round . DEMPSEY AND FIRPO EIGHT NEW YORK, Sept. 7. Tex Rickard says the advance sales of tickets for the Dompsey-Firpo fight on 14th September already amount to 800,000 dollars, the biggest sale yet recorded. The capacity of the house will nett 1,250,000 dollars. Dempsey gets 371 per cent of the receipts and Firpo 121 per cent. Benny Leonard at Philadelphia outpointed Johnny Mendelssohn, of Milwaukee, in an eight-round bout. NEW YORK, Sept. 8.

Firpo and Dempsey are entering the last few days of their training and reports from both camps declare the men.to be fit and ready. It is interesting to note, however, the dissimilarity of their training. Firpo ultimately dismissed De Forest ,his trainer, and surrounded himself with Argentinians, chiefly friends, and proceeded to train himself in a completely unorthodox manner, disregarding all outside advice- Ho appeared to bo wholly listless for days together, and then he would start to work, severely battering all _ his sparring partners and showing a strange unoxcited viciousness. Dempsev, on tho other hand, trained as usual with a retinue of handlers and a fixed daily regime. Observers declare that Dempsey appears better than he did for his Gibbons fight. NEW YORK, Sept. 8. While Firpo is hailed as a national hero in Buenos Ayres and municipal pageants are being held in his honour. Dempsey continues to be an overwhelming favourite here, some being of the opinion that Firpo's wide, open mannev of fighting, and his inability to use his left hand will make him a victim of aknock out bv Dempsev in the sixth round. Rickard claims that Firgo is an unorthodox fighter in every sense of the word and his unorthodoxy may give him the. victory. The spectators of the fight are expected to be 100,000. It must be remembered, in comparing the two men, that tho Argentinian exceeds Dempsey's weight bv 20 lbs. He has a longer reach and is known to be able to assimilate punishment. Firpo's right yields terrific power and few men can stand its force. He rarely hits straight from the shoulder, however, and mentally, the two fighters are diametrically opposed. Dempsey is keen and alert, while Firpo is sluggish and apparently listless.

(United Press Association)

GREYMOUTH, This Day

Tommv Fail-hall (Australia) (9.12) defeated Clarry Blackburn (10.3) (Auckland). The referee stopped the fight in tho 12th round. The winner led in almost every round, but tho contest was interesting.