BOXING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21978, 13 June 1933, Page 10

BOXING

MIDDLE-WEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

LOWE BEATS M'EWAN

The boxing contest for the Middleweight Championship of New Zealand between Bert Lowe, Dunedin, the challenger (11.4 i), and George M‘Ewan, Invercargill, the holder (11.6), drew a great crowd to His Majesty’s Theatre last night, and after a solid battle the Dunedin man, who fought with great determination all through, won with a knock-out in the fourteenth round. It was only the sheer grit of M‘Ewan that prevented the end coming sooner. In the opening round Lowe demonstrated the strength of his left-hand punch, as immediately the gong sounded he brought across a solid hook to the jaw and then connected with two hard left rips to the body. From thence onward the fight was with Lowe, and it is doubtful if M Ewau won one round. Lowe relied chiefly on left hooks to the body with an occasional Ic" to the face, and now and again he brought his right into play, but not very often. M'Ewan, on the other hand, fought mostly on the back move, _ and when under pressure came into a clinch. It cannot be said that there was much weight in M'Ewan’s blows in his open work, and Lowe gradually wore him down and was still full of fight when the contest ended. M‘Ewan could not do much effective work with; his left hand, with which he has won fights on previous occasions, and as stated his blows lacked strength. Lowe won the first four rounds with a comfortable margin of points, but the Sonthlandcr did better in the fifth, although he was still allowing Lowe to do the greater part of the leading. The sixth round was won clearly by Lowe, and the fighting quietened down in the seventh. Lowe won the next round, and in the ninth M'Bwan did well in the infighting. Thereafter Lowe began ,to pile up the points. In the tenth round Lowe scored repeatedly with lefts to the body and head, and in the eleventh it looked as if M‘Ewan could not weather the_ lefts and an occasional right with which Lowe connected. The gong brought him relief, and in the next two rounds M'Ewan with great pluck fought ,a losing battle, and more than once carried the fight to his opponent. y He was weakening, however, and bore thd signs of the punishing to which he had been subjected. He was loudly applauded for his gameness at the end of the thirteenth round, when he took a lot of punishment from Lowe’s lefts. In the fourteenth round Lowe connected with three lefts to the head in quick succession, and M‘Ewan staggered into the ropes and dropped, his hands. Lowe then drove in a strong left to the face, and M'Ewan went down for the count. The fight was refereed by Mr J. Kilmartin, whose_ task was not a heavy one, the men fighting with good sportsmanship. ' J . It may be added that M'Ewan has been twice defeated since he won the championship from Parker. On both these occasions the championship was not at stake. ■ ; ; r . LIGHT-WEIGHTS,

The preliminary contest was between Charlie Buckley, Dunedin (9.25), and Dave Richardson, Timaru (9.4).

This Was a poor affair, as Richardson practically hung on from start to finish, and the referee (Mr A. A. M'Donald) was calling “Break right through the contest. In the eighth round he called “ Break ” no fewer than 23 times, and even more times in the seventh. Richardson was down for nine seconds in the • second round, and was down . for another nine seconds immediately after, and then the gong saved him. The fight was for 10 rounds, each of three minutes, and Richardson’s seconds threw in the towel in the ninth. The position really was that Richardson adopted all sorts of tactics to enable him to see the 10 rounds out, and prevented Buckley from fighting in hia usual attractive style. LIGHT HEAVY-WEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP NIGOL RETAINS TITLE. (Per United Press Association.) HASTINGS, June 12. In a good fast professional contest for the New Zealand Light-heavy-weight Championship Ray Nicol (12.7), Invercargill, retained his title at Hastings tonight, defeating Billy Sullivan (12.65), Hastings, on points. The champion shaded his opponent in the ./majority of the 15 rounds, Sullivan tiring badly from the tenth.