BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13782, 22 June 1908, Page 7

BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP.

SQUIRES V. BURNS. THE AUSTRALIAN BEATEN AGAIN. Sydney files to hand-by. last night's mail confirm the news , previously published in the Herald as to the result of the contest in Paris between Squires and Burns for the world's heavy-weight championship. Burns knocked the Australian out in eight rounds. It is (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) a year since that day. which all sporting Australia had been anxiously looking forward to for months before, when Burns, after winning the championship of the world, through defeating .lack O'Brien, the clever-'Philadel-phia!! boxer, met the. Australian champion, Squires (whom hundreds of admirers thought invincible) and knocked him out in one round. After recovering from the .shock of the news and reading the details of the contest, so far as it went, large numbers of Australian people made tip their minds that " Bill " did not get a fair chance to show what he was really capable of, and that he was literally carried off his feet by a more experienced man, and had he survived one round a different tale might have been told ; indeed, several letters from American friends of the Australian conveyed as much. Subsequently Squires succumbed to .lack ("Twin") Sullivan and Jim Flynn. but only alter severe struggles, throughout which he exhibited extraordinary pluck and took a great deal of punishment. Following Burns' arrival in London last October, Squires put in an appearance unheralded by even a newspaper paragraph, and evidently bent upon endeavouring to arrange another match with his first conqueror, for the Australian had never been defated before lie met the present champion of the world. During the intervening time nothing was public!-- said bySquires about meeting Burns again till the night of March 17 last, when Burns opposed the Irish champion, Roche, in Dublin then Squires challenged the winner to a mutch, the outcome of which is now announced. Meanwhile Squires, it will be remembered, was matched with Roche, whom Burns had knocked out in one round, and, on April 30, Squires also knocked the Irish champion out in the fourth round of what had been a sevisre battle, though the- ultimate winner always had the better of matters. That Squires had improved, and was consequently better fitted to meet Burns on the latest occasion than when they fought last July, may be gathered from the following, published in London early last month:—"A fine concert room, attached to Squires' hotel, was fitted up as a gymnasium. We saw the Australian engage in three two-minute rounds with Dick Jordan, who will remain with him until the eventful day when he meets Burns. Not even Tommy Burn* is more expert with the ball than Squires, who, while engaged at it, forced the idea upon the onlookers, of whom there were several, that he has nothing short of a terrible right. He spent, nearly an hour at- this, and was not in the least fatigued; indeed, on completing the ball-punching he at once put on the gloves for his task with Dick Jordan. Very pretty to witness were the three rounds they engaged in, and in which the Australian was seen to much advantage. His trainer is Jem Russell, who also hails from the Antipodes, and who at one time did some fighting ' down under,' but. has been companion of Squires for a considerable time, and, like the latter, is an exceedingly well mannered, and rather retiring man. Both speak in most laudatory terms of the treatment they have received from all with whom they came in contact since their arrival. ,

"That Squires has improved, the f&cii of his being able to stand before Burns during eight rounds, is evidence. The- articles of agreement signed by Burns and Squires provided for a boxing contest of 20 threeminute rounds under Sporting Life rules (which are a great improvement on the long since out-of-date Queenslfury code) ' for a purse and a side-stake.' ft was expected that Squires would weigh about lost, and Burns a few pounds less."