BOXING

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 17

BOXING

By

CROSS-COUNTER.

Les Murray has been matched to meet Jamito at Invercargill on May 51. The contest should do a great deal to revive in terest in the southern city, for Murray’s prowess is well known, while Jamito has already made good against Trowern, although the decision went against him. The Filipino is little known in New Zealand, and there is no knowing what will happen, though it is expected that Murray will hold his own. Purdy’s defeat of Hector M‘Donald at Taumarunui was not at all surprising. Purdy won comfortably, being much too clever and speedy for his opponent, though the first lounds were so gentle that the referee had to stop the fignt and ask the contestants to put a bit of enthusiasm in it. NEW ZEALAND REFERES. “An Old Sport” (Timaru) writes as follows:—Regarding your boxing notes of April 20, I notice the “impressions of ‘Solar Plexis’ are that Ive Wallis should be brought over from Sydney to educate referees, judges, etc.” Maybe, but in New Zealand there are just as capable men as anywhere else, if given the experience. Pro bably “Solar Plexis” is referring to the Parker-Williams clashes, and lost a fortune. Anyhow, he is not the only one who loved and lost, and with capable and firm officials Parker will shade Williams every time they meet, unless the knock out comes t.o light. Parker won by a small margin certainly. but he won nine out of the 15 rounds Timaru, and fully the same distance at Christchurch. Referees have to contend with the one-eyed type of audience who accept gallery stunts and look at one man all the time when he carries their few “bob,” and 70 per cent, are not conversant with the fine points of the game. Referee and judges require more than the average amount of knowledge, and it takes experience acquired by actual performance of the duties. Boxing is a good healthy snort and associations should use every endeavour to live up to what is expected of them. New Zealand is not the only place where exception was taken to the rulings of -referees. Australia, England. America all made mistakes according to critics, and why should we allow any interference- by outsiders? We adopt the two judges and referee system, and in the case of professionalism in Australia they allow one man to judge and control, and he is a super-man if able to sntisfv the punters. Surely three brains, in a closely-contested bout, are superior to one. You have good referees in New Zealand. Take no notice of the carping critics, and control your sport your own wav. HERE AND THERE. The cable news brought a surprise to those who thought that Firpo was out of the game for good. Fie has evidently a spark of the fighting spirit left, as he defeated Ermino Spalla in a 12-round contest at Buenos Aires. . The following are the results of Loveridge’i profesiosnal fights to date.— Knocked out Walden in sixth round; beat M’Knight on points in 15 rounds; knocked out Ridgway in three rounds; beat Hay on points in 15 rounds; beat Stace on points in 15 rounds; lost to Casey, fight stopped at the end of 12 rounds; boat Blackburn, who retired after round eight; lost to Purdy on points. Paul Berlenbach, who recently lost the world’s light-weight championship, intends later to become a wrestler. Too many of our boxers are wrestlers. “If Jack Dempsey desires to walk about the streets of any of our towns and admire the scenery lie is welcome to do so, but lie will participate in no boxing contests in this State.” Such is the edict of v Governor Martin, of Florida. The heavyweight champion is forbidden by law to fight in Florida, whereas quite a number of northern States would like to find means to compel him to fight. There must be some significance in the fact that only quite recently Jack Renault, Gene Tunney, Saavedra, and other well-known boxers performed without hindrance in Florida. Dempsey gave the lie to the calamity howlers when he attended the opening of the Miami racing season. Jack looked as fit as the proverbial fiddle. He is absolutely straight down the front, and has the same swinging stride. The champion, who is not yet 31 years of age, feels that he is at the very height of his physical powers. He is prepared to fight when conditions are right. PROFESSIONAL AND AMATEUR. AUCKLAND, April 28. The movement which is on foot to dif* 4 ferentiate between the control of amateur and professional boxing was viewed with extreme disfavour at the annual meeting of the Northern Boxing Association. <

Mr Craig (president) said the statement that the Boxing Association was primarily concerned in the promotion of professional contests was false, and it could not be said truthfully that the amateur side had been neglected. He was quite certain that no new association could give the same sup port to amateurs. He thought it would be in the best interests of boxing to increase the membership from 150 to 300, and increase the subscription to (say) three guineas per annum. This suggestion was applauded, and Mr Craig gave notice of motion to that effect. “During the coming year,’ he continued, “we are expecting strife, but we are going to fight cWn f or the rights of the associa tion.” The pn=?tion had been fullv ex plainer! to th" Minister of Internal Affairs and thev would continue to keen the matter under the Minister’s notice. He did not think that the new movement would meet.