BOXING AND BOXERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 29 April 1937, Page 9

BOXING AND BOXERS

BREAKDOWN OF DOYLE THE BOUT WITH LEVINSKY COMMENT ON CURRENT EVENTS (By Air Mail—From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, Ist April. Jack Doyle is nursing a doubtful, painful, impossible leg (writes B. Bennison), and there will be no fight between him and the extraordinary King Levinsky at the Wembley Stadium on Tuesday. Worse for the promoters, Jock McAvoy is laid aside with a severe cold, and Eddie Phillips, who w'as to have defended the British LightHeavyweight Championship against him, is left high and dry. To crown all, Manchester will be denied an eagerly watched opportunity to see Johnny King and Jackie Brown for the Bantam title on Monday. Wembley have decided to Hold up their show for three or four weeks, hoping in the meantime for a clean bill of health from the distinguished invalids..

ADVANCED BOOKINGS £BOOO

Tickets to the amount of something like £BOOO have been bought, and Wembley took the view that without Doyle and Levinsky it would be very much like staging Hamlet without the Prince. Doyle is decidedly down in the mouth: the “King” was beside himself when he learned of the hold-up. I am not altogether surprised at the breakdown of Boyle. It was surely asking too much of himself to get thoroughly tuned up in the few days that remained for an intensive preparation upon his arrival back from America. Leg muscles are always liable to give way under high pressure. To put it mildly, Doyle W'as ill-advised to rush off to the States after he had been matched with Levinsky. Training in mid-ocean is not like training in a gym at home, and besides, although Levinsky is largely a swinger and slugger, he is not a man to treat lightly. THE FUTURE OF DOYLE Now Doyle well knows the difference between victory and defeat. But that is Doyle’s affair and it is the bad luck of Levinsky, who, since he came amongst us, has worked I ke a Trojan. The chances of Doyle are perhaps brighter for the postponement. At least when he takes the ring there should not be the least doubt of his physical condition. I went to Tapiow to see Levinsky in a more or less full dress rehearsal last Wednesday. He was more amusing than terrifying. He decided apparently that If he were to make captive of the critics it was necessary for him to thump his sparring partners into helplessness. If he had been fighting for the world’s title he could not have taken more out of himself. TRANSPARENT LEVINSKY But how obvious he was! It was child’s play to pull him up with a straight left. He offered no protection whatever to his jaw and most of his punches were delivered from such angles as to convince me that he had no more than the foggiest idea how to box in a well ordered scientific way. Still I can well believe that there is something bound tq bend and break when he lands. Doyle can box better than Levinsky and can perhaps put more weight into his punches. In a sheer test of physical strength, however, the “King” would probably have it. When they do get into the ring, it will be overwhelming odds on a quick finish. It ns not a fight that I look pleasantly forward to seeing. lam indeed fearful of what will happen when Doyle and Levinsky go to war. A REALLY SERIOUS BAER Meantime Baer is working at Kingston with strange and every seriousness. “No fooling these days,” says Max. But he positively cannot help being unlike any other fighter. He is the richest of all in what we are pleased to call personality. He is being watched by hundreds of folk eveiy day. They see in him the rarest entertainment. Those who expected to hear from him what he proposed to do to Tommy Farr at Harringay on 15th April, must be sadly disappointed. Baer has, so far, only ventured a comical laugh when he has been asked about his chances. His condition is so magnificent that no critic who has watched and studied him concedes Farr more than an outside chance to escapea knock out. UNTROUBLED FARR But that has not robbed the Welshman of his serenity. I saw him in his camp at Blackheath on Thursday, and he would have it supposed that he had never heard of Baer. Scared of his job? Never! He is in fine shape and is so thriving on his training that he promises to spring the biggest surprise ever. “It was thought I would go under to Foord. I didn’t. Now it is predicted that I shall be slaughtered by Baer. And I won’t.”—that is Tommy Farr. And heaps of luck to him. AN IMPRESSION OF SARRON I made the acquaintance of Pete Sarron, the world’s featherweight champion. I found him to be all that he was represented to be. A grand little fighter, speed remarkable, and in his sleeve he stacks all the tricks. His light with Harry Mizler promises to be one of the best for many a long day. I do not say. that Mizler will win. but he is in such excellent form that I am certain he will put up a great show. LOUIS AND SCHMELING FOR LONDON The big news of the week is a definite assurance by Promoter Hulls that Joe Louis will fight at the While City on 30th July. Schmeling has promised to come to London, and Max Baer will remain, (that is assuming he disposes first of Farr and then Notisell tn fnlcn

on all comers. The National Sporting Club will shut clown after their weekly show on Monday so as to complete arrangements for staging fights of first-rate importance at Earl’s Court in May and June.