BOXING

Southland Times, Issue 18945, 19 May 1923, Page 13 (Supplement)

BOXING

(By “Punch.”) . The dates for the local Tournament have been fixed for June 4 and 6. io encourage local boxers, entries will be received from Southland alone. There should be no shortage of entries, with boxing schools in town and country. Southland boxing enthusiasts will remember the local boxer A. H. McCurdy as a bantam-weight. Now in the feather-weight class he has greatly improved. A suitable match with Leckie, of Dunedin, could easily be arranged for the coming Tournament. J. Read, who fought in the bantams last Tournament, will again appear in the ring this Tournament. A willing fighter, he gives an opponent no rest from the clang of the gong to the call of time. Improved in many ways since the last tournament, he has yet to learn the best method of using his right hand—shooting it straight to the mark. Doubtless he will learn by experience that a swinging right exposes his body overmuch. To bridge the gulf from the amateurs to the light-heavyweight championship of New Zealand in one night is accomplished by few boxers. In doing this E. Parker, of Timaru, has surprised most people. Now he is to be matched with J. Heeney, of Gisborne (the holder) for the middle-weight title. When Parker fought McCleary he was but a few pounds over the middle-weight limit and little difficulty should be experienced in making the limit. With Adams, Taylor, Humphries and a promising heavy-weight in training for June 4 and 5, F. C. Jarvis’s Boxing Class should give a good showirig. Up-to-date boxing schools, as those now started in Invercargill and throughout Southland, deserve more support than is at present given them. At all three schools the beginner can be'assured careful teaching in modern ring methods with proper facilities for training. A most promising youngster is now training at the “Excel” School. He is a paperweight and, young as he is, boxes with the coolness of a veteran. He is capable of beating most flyweights, but in spite of this, his instructors are wise in withholding him from the present tournament where he would meet older and heavier opponents.

C. Blackburn is to meet Paul Demsky in Wellington this month. New Zealanders will be pleased to see the Australian in action for this his first engagement in New Zealand. Let us hope, however, he can be engaged to fight the ex-Southlander, Les Murray. This would certainly prove a great draw in Southland. “Just because Bill Brennan was knocked out twice by the rabbit punch there are people who think it should be prohibited,” says a writer in the New York Evening Journal. “It is not prohibited in Australia, as has been stated. It is not prohibited in any place, so far as we can find- out. No real fighter is bothered about it. John L. Sullivan didn’t worry over it, neither did McGovern, Ketchel, Walcott, McCoy, Jeffries and a host of others. If a boxer is foolish enough to bend over and leave the back of his neck unguarded, he ought to be socked right there.” BOXERS OF TO-DAY.

NOT PLUG-UGLIES. This is the era of the white collar athlete. There is no longer any prestige to be gained by a fighter pretending that he is a throw-back to the days of the hairy ape. The fashion in these days is to be semi-intellectual. Our ring heroes tie down their cauliflower ears. They wear spats and gaudy cravats and carry canes. No longer are they proud of the dirty caps and black sweaters that once were the badges of their profession. John L. Sullivan, roaring of manner and ready with his fists in the ring or out; a drunken Colossus, with a kindly heart and a rough-edged tongue, was the symbol of the ring in the time that he dominated. Benny Leonard is, perhaps, the handiest symbol of these modern days (says an American writer). He is soft of voice and manner, and dances entertainingly in a Broadway musical comedy. Golf has more attraction for him than the garish pleasure of the Great White Alley. RESIN ON GLOVES. A GRAVE DANGER. They’re getting a bit careless again about the gloves (says an American paper). Several times recently we have noticed a 1 referee fail to compel a boxer to wipe the resin off his gloves after they had touched the canvas. That seems a little thing, but it’s bad. You can’t be too careful about the gloves. Joe Shrugue knocked out Benny Leonard in four rounds. He beat Johnny Dundee, Charlie White, Louis De Ponthieu, Harry Stone, Leach Cross, Owen Moran, and a whole parcel of other classy lightweights.

Joe was headed straight for the championship, bowling along at a hurricane clip. Only Willie RitcKie and Freddie Welsh stood between him and the coveted crown. New Jersey was cock-sure Joe Shrugue would give the State the honour of boasting a world’s ring champion. Suddenly Joe’s eyes went bad. He was forced, to retire from the ring. Only a most difficult operation spared him from total blindness.

All the trouble was caused by a speck of resin being ground into his eye. Most of you know “Doc” Bagley, the famous manager and handler of fighters. “Doc” brought out and developed Willie Jackson.

All of you who know “Doc Bagley” know he wears big, thick lensed, horn ribbed spectacles. His eyes are very weak. Because of the glasses and professional appearance they call him “Doc.”

There was a time when “Doc’s” eyesight was despaired of. For weeks he had to remain in a dark room. It was almost a miracle, the doctors say, that he could see at all when they took the bandages off. All of “Doc” Bagley’s eye trouble was caused by getting resin in his eye. It is no wonder that whenever a boxer’s glove touch the floor Bagley, almost invariably yells:— “Wipe off the gloves. Make him wipe off the gloves.”

When one comes near to blindness and for weeks has nothing but darkness in front of him, he doesn’t forget it very soon. Sammy Goldman long managed Pete Herman, world’s bantamweight champion. Recently because of growing blindness Herman retired from the ring. For several years he has been totally blind in one eye. He succeeded in keeping it a secret from most rivals, but some of them became aware of it and used to try to manoeuvre to come at Pete on his blind side, where he couldn’t see to block or evade a blow.

It was a severe handicap, but it was really wonderful how Herman succeeded, despite it. Eventually, however, Herman’s eye trouble became so bad that he like Joe Shrugue had to retire from the ring. Herman’s blindness was not caused by resin. It was done by an ooDonent’s loosened glove string.

Peter was sparring at a charity show in Philadelphia. He was boxing a mere novice exhibition. In the midst of the bout his opponent’s glove string became untied, and on a missed blow, a punch which Herman easily evaded, the glove string whipped across Pete’s face and lacerated the eyeball so severely that he lost the sight of one eye.

So you see how careful it is that the gloves of a must be tied on securely and that under no condition can the glove strings be tipped with wire', metal or any hard substance.

Every time you go to a boxing bout and you notice a boxer fail to wipe off his gloves after going to the canvas, just rise up on your hind legs and yell: “Referee! Make that fellow wipe off his gloves! Why in Sam Hill don’t you know your duty without having to be told of it, anyway?” And if you ever notice a boxer’s glove strings are loosened or dangling, don’t be afraid to rise up and tell ’em all about that, too.

By doing so you may save a fellow mortal bis eyesight, and a boxer his livelihood.