SPORT IN ECLIPSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23073, 25 June 1938, Page 14

SPORT IN ECLIPSE

The world, or such part of it as chooses to take notice, has just been treated to an exhibition which reflects queerly upon what is supposed to be an age of high civilisation and enlightenment. Two men met in the prize-ring for something under three minutes. One of them is crowned champion of the world, the other retires to hospital where he remains for a week, until able to return to his home for convalescence. So many people were prepared to pay high prices 'to witness what happened that the two men most concerned divide some £200,000 between them. All this happened in a country where the unemployed number millions, and many of them are woefully short of the bare necessaries of life. The contrast alone is a direct reflection on the sense of true values ruling; but the atmosphere of money-making with which the prize-ring is surrounded is not its only dubious feature. The battering which one man received at the other's hands was far from edifying, though fortunately brief. Without saying or implying one word against genuine athletic sports, including scientific boxing, it can be seriously asked whether the brutality and. unmeasured violence of the prize-ring as exhibited in New York is a thing civilised society should tolerate. Amateur boxing is a first-class sport. Many professional bouts are quite beyond criticism, being indistinguishable in spirit from amateur contests. When, however, the stage of world championships is reached, the relationship of the business to true sport becomes slender. This has for years been true of the heavyweight division. Science takes second place to a willingness to batter or be battered. So the most devoted follower of sport ought to bo able to agree that the world would be better without such exhibitions as that in which negro met German in the .ring at New York.