BOXING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15554, 11 March 1914, Page 6

BOXING.

THE LONSDALE BEIT. SMITH DEFEATS HAUGH. By Telegraph Association—Copyright. London, March 9. Dick Smith outpointed Denis • Haugh for the light heavy-weight championship of England and the Lonsdale Belt at the National Sporting Club to-night. AMERICAN FIGHTERS FOR AUSTRALIA. 'PROMOTERS AT SAN FRANCISCO. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] San Francisco, February 3. Some of the best pugilistic talent in the United States, and possibly one or two of championship calibre, will probably be induced to visit Australasia as the result of the arrival here a week ago of 11. L. (" Snowy") Baker, and William Joseph Howe, rival boxing promoters of Sydney. Howe, who represents the Olympic Athletic Club of Newtown, does not plan to . operate on such an ambitious scale as Baker, but expects to start on their way to Australia several young fellows who are ambitious and have given indications of ability in the ring, but who yet have their reputations to make. Baker, on the other hand, is prepared to negotiate with the highest-priced men in the business. He is particularly anxious to secure Ritchie, the light-weight champion of the world, and has already made an appointment to meet him and discuss terms. Ritchie usually requires a guarantee of £3000 every time he enters the ring for a 20-round bout, and he gets it. Fo r 10-round nodecision affairs he is paid from £1500 to £2000. Baker says with the great crowds that attend tho stadium at RusTicutters' Bay he is in a position to engage boxers who are paid the highest prices, and he believes ho will be able to' induce Ritchie to make the long journey and engage in a series of fights under tho Southern Cross. "Tommy" Burns, who always speaks in the .highest-terms of the way he was treated in Australia, believes a trip by Ritchie to the Commonwealth would be profitable both to the fighter and the promoter. Among other men Baker will seek to tempt to Australia are " Gunboat " Smith, admittedly the best white heavy-weight in the United States; Mike Gibbons, a man of about the weight and calibre of Eddie McGoorty < who defeated Dave Smith in Sydney ; " Harlem Tommy " Murphy, who is matched to fight Ritchie for the lightweight championship at an early date; Packey McFarland, jcith whom "he has been successful; Joe Azvedo, and others. After negotiating with the American boxers Baker will visit Europe, and hopes to sign up Georges Carpentier. the conqueror of Bombardier Wells. Baker has a Second purpose in his visit to America, and that is to discuss the future of the sport with the big boxing promoters with a view to deciding upon uniform rules, weights, and power in an international body to direct the sport generally. Poor old Bob Fitzsimmons, once" champion of the world, and by many reckoned the greatest fighter who ever donned gloves, has recently made himself a laugh-ing-stock by appealing to the Supreme Court of New York State against a refusal of the Boxing Commission to sanction his reappearance in the ring. Fitzsimmons is 51 years old. The commission: ruled that he is too old to engage in fights. "Fitz." appealed to the Supreme Court and filed affidavits from his friends to the effect that he is still in good physical condition and could meet the best men without danger. The court, however, upheld the decision of the commission, and Fitzsimmons was keenly disappointed. "If I were permitted to return to the ring there would be no more foot races or tango dances," he said. " What people want is some genuine boxing." Jim Wylie, the big Auckland forward who came to California with the New Zealand Rugby footballers last year and remained to register as a student at Stanford University, is said to be developing considerable talent as a boxer. One of his fellow-collegians in speaking of Wylis said : " He has a fist like a leg of mutton, a- punch like a horse's kick, and a reach like wireless telegraphy. Did I box with him ? I should say not." KNOCKOUT BLOWS. A writer in the London Times discusses the various kinds of knock-out blows, and draws morals from the Carpentier- ells fight Of the.blow on the jaw he says: — "Apart from courage, men vary in their sensitiveness to this type "of knock-out blow. The apparatus affected is situated just above where the lower jaw hinges on to the head, and the thickness of the bony plate-between the jawbone and the internal ear is not the same in all cases; nor is the exact relationship between the jaw ana the base of the skulL" As for the knock-out blows on the body, the writer says:—"The heart may be stopped or slowed, and the blood vessels dilated owing to the slackening of their muscular walls, if certain nerves be stimulated. These nerves are most readily excited by blows in certain places—for instance, the neck and ' the mark,' as boxers call the portion of the stomach just below the breastbone (though the whole of the latter region is more or less vulnerable). The alchemist Van Helmont placed the soul of man in'his stomach, not tor the obvious reason, but because he was apt to lose consciousness if hit there, and he would doubtless have regarded the downfall of Wells as a. proof of his theory. . . . It is hod merely that breath is knocked out of the body; one breathes to re-aerate one's blood, and in these circumstances the How of blood through the lungs is greatly diminished, as well as the flow through the brain, and a brain which is not supolied with blood cannot keep the muscles taut. There is a very great variation among individuals in their reactions to blows In these- regions. Some people are affected by a degree of violence which leaves others unscathed, and that this difference is physical as well as moral can be proved by feeling the pulse and observing whether the face turns pale. Negroes are much more vulnerable to blows cutting off the brain's blood supply than to attacks on the jawbone. A professional prizefighter does his best to develop his neck and body to protect the nerves in these regions, but apart from the actual sensitiveness of the nerves a thin neck and a long thin stomach do not afford a good foundation whereon to build. To see Wells and Carpentier in the ring suggested a liner and a battleship."