FATAL BOXING MATCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20105, 16 November 1928, Page 17

FATAL BOXING MATCH.

YOUNG MAN'S COLLAPSE.

DEATH AFTER KNOCK-OUT. SENSATION IN MELBOURNE. About an hour after he had been knocked out in a preliminary boxing bout in tho ring of tho West Melbourne Stadium on November 3, Albert Joyce, of Carlton, died at the Melbourno Hospital of concussion and a fractured base of the skull.

Jovec was engaged in a six-round boxing bout, which immediately preceded the main wrestling contest. He was an experienced young feather-weight who had had a number of engagements at the Stadium this year. His opponent was Joe O'Brien, who weighed Bst. 13j|lb., or moro than Joyce.

In all respects tho lads wero well matched, though O'Brien had tho advantage of possessing a "weighty" punch in tho right hand, lie "floored" Joyce with this blow in the second round, but Joyce rose and fought back strongly. In the third round Joyce forced his opponent to the ropes and landed a clean right to the jaw, but from a clinch in tho neutral corner O'Brien first uppercut him, then chopped him on tho car, and as Joyce swung out into the centro of the ring O'Brien drove hard and clean to the jaw.

Joyco sagged to the canvas, where the referee, Mi'. Val Quirk, repeated the count over him. Joyce had pulled himself half up. and was resting on ono knee for the count. At "nine" Joyce staggered up and fell forward into a clinch. O'Brien pulled free and crossed a short right to tho jaw. This time Joyce collapsed, his head striking the floor as he fell. Mr. Quirk immediately intervened and "crowned" O'Brien the winner on a technical knock-out. Removal to the Hospital. Joyce was dragged to his corner, where O'Brien helped his seconds to revive hiip. Joyce lay back with eyes closed and then, pulling himself together, crossed the ring with the aid of his seconds. At the ropes ho appeared to collapse again, his knees sagging as ho left tho ring. He was carried to tho dressing-rooms semi-con-scious and relapsed into coma. The Stadium medical officer, Dr. T. F. Hanly, examined Joyce ami ordered his removal to the hospital. He died without regaining consciousness about half an hour after admittance.

Joyco had been boxing otilv six or seven minutes when ho was knocked out. To guard against injury in such accidents as a boxer striking his head against the floor the Stadium management lias for many years used granulated cork covered by linoleum for the floor of the boxing ring. Moreover, Mr Quirk is always on guard to protect ft boxor from unnecessary punishment, and technical knock-outs duo to his intervention aro far more frequent than clean knock-outs. A Previous Fatality.

In tho Stadium ring in Melbourne tho previous fatality was on October 27, 1923, when Seaman Jack Dunstan, former mid-dle-weight champion of tho Grand Fleet, and boxing instructor to the Royal Australian Navy, was knocked out in the 10th round by tho Queensland champion Max Gornik, now wrestling referee in Brisbane. Dunstan died in circumstances similar to thoso of Joyce's death, collapsing on leaving the ring and never regaining consciousness.

On July 5, -1921, tho Filipino featherweight Cabenela Dencio died after a bout in tho same arena with Bert McCarthy, (hen Victorian champion, but in Deneio's caso death was proved to have been due to a disease of the brain, which might have been fatal in any violent exertion.