PUG PARS.

NZ Truth, Issue 943, 22 December 1923, Page 11

PUG PARS.

Harry Stone was In Wellington last week-end, and called m to see the writer. He reckoned that he had not pulled any stunts at Napier with his fight with Blackburn, but said that as things were at times becoming monotonous he just flew about to liven matters up. He has a good word for the Napier officials, all of whom he said could not do enough to make him at home. Clarrie Blackburn meets Larry Lasher at Taumarunui to-night, and the crowd should get a good fight for their money. Up In Napier at the present time the sports bodies are running a Mardi Gras. and thero is a queen to be elected. Harry Stone is one of the leading lights on the committee of the boxing queen, and when m Wellington last week collected not a little money on her behalf. Nothing much has been accomplished In the heavyweight line ln Australia of late, and since Blackie Miller won the title he has not been called on to defend it. The said Blackie is now back m Sydney, and intends' to break away from the navy, so that will allow him to delve Mnto boxing unhindered. Mike Flynn is still over m Sydney, living ln~ hopes. In a letter to the writer he reckons there 19 every chance of his getting a match In the New Year with Jimmy Semmens. This pair met once previously, Semmens winning by a foul In the fourteenth round. The welter title changing hands at Invercargill from Jock Graham to Harry May did not cause a great deal of comment. Jock will no doubt go for evens, and as there are plenty of others ln the game that think they have a better right to the title, Harry will not be out of work very long. Jack Finnic has shied his hat Into the ring In Sydney, and along with lt £60 to say that he can beat any 9st 91b In the country. There is one thing that you cannot accuse the lad of, and that Is modesty. Eddie Butcher and Sid Godfrey are going into retirement after this bit. Harry Stone talkß of stopping m Napier for a time to give the young idea up there a few points about the noble art. Should he carry his Intentions out he Is not going to ask for payment for his services, but is just going to do it for the good of the game. Though he is absolutely frothing to do a bow to an audience. Alf Lewis 'cannot get an association to give him a try-out. Here Is a good boy running to seed, and the feather that puts the Indian sign over him is worth following. On Boxing Night at Palmerston North the heavies. Jim O'Sullivan and Tom Heeney, will decide tho rubber. The winner is to take all the purse and also tho title. Will lt be good? Sure. And the winner will be Heeney. methlnks. Judging by the excellent manner thc light of last week was handled at tho Wellington Town Hall there is very little likelihood or the council ever having to apply the order of the boot. Still, why take any chance? Get that Stadium proposition under way and be Independent. At Hastings on New Year's Night Harry Stone will meet the light heavyweight champion 1-Mdle Parker over a fifteen round contest. The extra weight will make no difference to Harry, not even In -the result. What Is wrong with tho Marlborough As.'iori.itlun m it.*-* next tourney In thc New Year giving the feathers a go: They nr*' < ult s0 particular ttboui purees, nnd give Just us good a dlsplaj as tho lights. What i.s wrong with tho Ota«ro Association? It Is about time they go' to work and put on a fight for th* followers In the dour city. Il Is Ktrrmgc that a town that possesses one of th( he.«t lightweights m th* land canno even give him a go, and. If the wrltei remember}* rightly. Murray has no had a fluht m his adopted town sine* he fought Mich Huthcrford bark li August. 1 !•»".' I. These amateur tournament;* In the King'" Theatre are ul rhfht In their way. hut do not negle** the pro*, jiltngether. i>l In und mnki a match (a ret uni between Volaln awl Vtrrnv would he a good one) fttu hook lli« M**tie«<tv'«* Theatre for som« tlme early In January.

The fight of the Sydney season is to be decided to-night, when the pleased Louis Pleeswill meet the Bald Stag! owner, Sid Godfrey. That Les Murray has improved out of all recognition was fully evident to those present at the Yolaire fight. He boxed a lot more cleanly than on any other occasion, his footwork and backmoving being excellent. He did not take any chances by getting m close to his opponent, but on the few times they did come together Les held his own. That right hand of his still carries a nasty punch, but he never used it a great deal, and seemed to be storing it up for the last bit. On the way he fought at Wellington it would -take a very good boy to get the count over the Dunedinite. It was a night of introductions at the Volalre-Murray fight. Harry Stone, Jack Pettifer, Arthur Firth, and George Curran all made their bows to the big audience, and issued challenges to the world. C. Peoples says that at Palmerston North Clinton, the featherweight, had a three-round spar with Blackburn and -showed that he is possessed of rare fighting ability. His speed is wonderful, and he promlsesto become a real champion if given plenty of con-j tests. ..Peoples is quite positive he would fully extend the champion, 'Charlie Purdy, and he considers that It is the bounden duty of the different associations to give this boy plenty of opportunities, as unquestionably he is the goods. Tho following amusing incident is taken from a New York publication: — Sam Langford once fought a local champion of a border town m U.S.A. At that time he was winning all his fights by the knockout m one or two rounds. Before the fight the local sheriff came to Langford's room m the hotel and pushed a .45 Colt revolver into his stomach. "Say, nigger," said the sheriff, "if you knock our guy over, I'll knock you over. What do you know about that '" "Did you knock?" Sam wns asked. "No! Ah didn"t knock him. Dat sheriff kep' hollerin*. frum the ringside, 'Now, mind what*' Ah tol' you, nigger.' Ah let that fellah go the distance. Ah can digest chicken, but no lead." There is a debate m the United States at the present time as to which boxer is entitled to the horizontal championship, says the "Boxing Blade." a New York publication. There are three entries, according to the humorous scribe who is dealing with the matter — Joe Beckett, Fred Fulton, and Homer Smith. When, Joe Beckett goes down he stays down, says the American writer, and so does Fulton. Smith goes down oftener than any of them, but he gets up again. In his bout against Firpo, Smith was on the canvas 19 times m the course of .the fight, while m his two rounds of fightIns against Harry Wills he was down nine times before he decided to remain m a horizontal position for the required ten seconds. Tim Tracy's brigade includes a fine lightweight named Dennle Moate, 17 years old and sft. llln high. He has a good punch, but is very wild yet. Another good welter has started with him m Harry Lutz. He will be good for the next tourney. Percy Black will be ready for another match next month. Tom Rlgby, the Blenheim welter, wires to the writer: "I wish to challenge Harry Stone to a return match, under any association; can find a side wager." The return match part of it refers to a fight the pair ha<J at Broken Hill, when Stone won on points. Stone, when asked what he thought of it. - said that he would only be too pleased to accommodate Itigby, providing, of course, somo association would put them on. Nothing has been heard out this way for a long time of the doings of Arthur Wyns, who came to Australia with Criqui two years back, but an American paper brings the news that he was defeated by Henri Hebrans on points for the featherweight championship of Belgium on November 22. Wns, when he came to Sydney under M. Eudeline, was looked on as the crack of the party, but he proved, m fact, the dud. He met Syd Godfrey, and that person gave Wyns the father of a hiding- and incidentally broke the Belgian's heart. Wyns was next pitted against Jamito, but he was unfortunate enough to break his hand m the fourth, and, though he kept on, he was compelled to capitulate ln the sixteenth. That was the end of his Australian career. Criqui, who won all his fights In the Commonwealth, was thought to be the Inferior of Wyns — In fact Wyns had beuten him just before leaving for Sydney. A surprise Is In store for readers when they hear that Paul Demsky outed Harry Holmes In the sixteenth round at Brisbane a few weeks back. Holmes led on points early, but m the fifteenth Demsky floored Holmes and I m the next spasm outed his man. Tho Bluff Association will probably stage a tournament on New Year's Night, the premier attraction to be a 15-round match between tho old rivals, H. Leckie and W. J. Sycamore. This will mark the entry of both men into the professional ranks. Peter Torrle, the one-time successful Dunedin lightweight, has wold his taxi business and Has gone away into the heart of the Central to become mine host of a hotel at Cromwell. Gene Tunney recently defeated Harry Creb a second time for the light-heavy weight championship of America. Tunney Is a big, rawboned lad with the frame of a heavyweight, nnd at 175 pounds he le a dangerous opponent for any boxer on account of his strength and his ability to take punishment. Tunney Is a product of the American army boxing bouts. He first sprang into prominence when he captured the A.E.F. light-heavyweight titles at Paris In 1919. On his return to America he placed himself under the direction of Hilly Gibson, of New York, the rtianagcr of Benny Leonard, and ! Gibson has led him along carefully, holding him back and matching him with opponents whom he waa practically certain to defeat. Tunney'*" schooling has been of the right sort — at lc.ua for Tunney — and he has gradually eliminated the more dangerous of his opponents. Perhaps his Kioatest conqueKt since arriving at the top of hi* dlvltslon wu» the 10-round verdict he earned over Jimmy Delano*, of St. Paul's, m a hectic balje at Chicago. Delaney won the earlier rounds, but Tunney's strength and his ability to take punishment wived the day for him, as Doluney tired pereepuiiiy over the latter part of the journey. If Mike McTigue. the lightheavyweight champion of the world, and Cone Tunney are matched It will be a good thing for the latter. McTigue is uttle more than v mediocre boxer — moo* a Offensive artist than an uggreMtivr- performer, and that m why Tunney is Kure to win. The Taranaki Association ha* under consideration the holding of another prnfeaslotuil tournament during January when the »tur attraotlon will prohtibly be the matching of Gene Volalcr and Fred Smith.

i " ~~~~ Tex Rickard has started upon arI rangements for a match between the • winner of the Kid Norfolk and Mike i McTigue for the light-heavyweight ' championship of the world. In the 1 event that McTigue is unavailable, i Rickard plans lo ask Carpentier to ' make the trip over again. Luis Firpo, who became an inter- > national hero by being knocked out by [ Jack Dempsey, isn't doing any boxing , these days, but he is doinrj consider- ■ able eating. Firpo is one of the most I prolific eaters m the history of the - ring. He has a tremendous right : and the same kind of an appetite. Luis can out-eat any two men m the heavyweight division. This is why he is • such a sizable heavyweight. Flrpo is ' eating his way back to the Argentine by easy stages. He was invited to > stop off at Cuba to give a boxing ex- - hibition. The invitation also includ- - ed a dinner m his honor. Before dln--1 ncr Luis said he would box, but after • dinner he decided not to. "When dinner : was finished the toastmaster asked Fir--1 po how he liked it. Luis replied: ■ "Great; let's have another." He left Cuba without putting on a boxing 1 glove. Luis was next invited to • stop at Panama. He was asked to ! give an exhibition of his boxing skill and another dinner was arranged m 1 his honor. Luis consumed the time alloted for both bouts at the dinner table. No chef haa ever scored a decision over Firpo. They have had i him on the, ropes with indigestion, but he always came back. When the '< Wild Bull of the Pampas has eaten "his way through all the dinners that will be given m his honor he will re--1 turn to America weighting close to 300. In Dunedin they have a welter by the name of,Alfords, who is looked on by good judges to be the goods. Les - Murray informed the writer that Alfords would be worth matching with ■ anyone of his weight m New Zealand, ■ and Les was confident of his man holding his own. Alfoi-da it; not very particular about the purse, he being keen to get a foot on thc ladder. i Eddie Butcher, after a couple of weeks* spell, has gone back to Sydney and at the Stadium last Saturday made a mess of the Belgian, Henri Dupont, knocking him In the third round. The pair met several weeks back when Butcher also got the decision, his opponent having to retire with an Injured hand In the eleventh. Six months have elapsed since Eddie Parker challenged Jack Heeney for the middleweight title ond Eddie . reckons that the crown should now be handed over to him. Should he be awarded the title he will not have to wait long for a fight as already one ! man Is m the field for lt — Arthur Firth. When this note was written Les Murray was still m Wellington and quite undecided as to his future plans. Australia looks large to Les; lt seems to hold a certain fascination for him. 1 Candidly speaking 1 think that Murray would be making a mistake to go over to "the other side at the present : time. It Is not a question of his ability to win contests that brings forth this cooler to the ambitions of a line young fellow. It is this: Les Is In the 1 game for all he can get out of It and If he makes the trip to, Sydney he will flnd gates over there at the present Juncture very small. Somo of the ' contestants at the Stadium have 1 been receiving as their Bhare less than £ 100 and unless a man can get a fight • every fortnight there Is very little ln , It. There Is no disputing the fact that if a boxer is the goods ho will clean up more money m the Dominion than I m Australia. Take Fairhall for ln- , stance. What a nice rake off he took away with him and he is coming back for more. Another point if Murray I was to go to Sydney he would find it '< hard to get boys of his own weight to meet him. The lights these days are all around 9.12 and the giving of a few pounds to a proved boy Is a big handicap. Stay at home, Les, bui if you should go good luck to you. Jack Pettifer challenses Eddie Parker for the llght-heovywelght cham- • plonship of New Zealand. Jack would ■ nlso like to meet Brian McCleary or Em Young. If Young still ha« that £C 0 slde-wager Pettifer will cover it 1 the moment some Association shows ; willingness to stage thc contest. ( Arthur Firth wants the winner of _ the Stone— Parker fight, or a match , with Tom Rlgby — at Blenheim would suit very well. i Harry Stone arrived hack at Napier , safely after hia visit to the Empire 1 city and all Hports were pleased to set- j him again. Harry say*-* his one oh- j 1 ject Ih to boom the game. He would . like to demonstrate his goods before a i Wellington audience. H«* is »ot alone . In that desire. Wellington fans wish , to Bce*him m action and are ho pi tin 1 > thnt he will bo matched against Volalre i m January.