BOXING

Southland Times, Issue 21073, 3 May 1930, Page 19

BOXING

(By Self-Defence.)

FIXTURES. May 3—Pete Sarron v. Tommy Donovan at Dunedin. May 12. —Steve Hughes v. Les Adams, at Invercargill. May 21. —Johnny Leckie v. Tommy Donovan, at Napier. May 30.—Novice and open tourney at Invercargill. June 12. —Max Schmeling v. Jack Sharkey (world’s heavy-weight championship), New York. June 25.—-Wally Bancock v. Jack Paul at Invercargill (probable). Les Adams is in steady training for his bout with Steve Hughes next month and the popular welter promises to make a bold bid for victory in his first professional match. Billy Grime is desirous of meeting Artie Hay, welter, middle, and light-heavy champion of New Zealand. A strike of boxers has occurred in Queensland. Licensed boxers attached to the Queensland Professional Gymnasium Proprietors Association have decided that they would not fight under Stadiums, Ltd. These are the boxers from whom competitors in bouts preliminary to big contests have been drawn. Their complaint is against the rate of pay. They say that the pay for a fourround bout is £1 10/-, out of which the boxer pays the traiher 7/6, and for a sixround bout it is £2 10/-, from which 12/6 is paid to the trainer. It is reported that, in consequence of this strike, Stadiums Ltd. will do without preliminary boxers for Brisbane fights, and will put on vaudeville turns. The local school conducted by Messrs Adams and McNeil is going strong in the rooms in the Cecil Buildings. There arc over 20 lads in attendance, many of them Tech nical students. - Probably the largest school in Invercargill is that controlled by Messrs Hughes and Sycamore in Esk Street. By the time the season closes, it is expected that this school will again be able to sport an imposing array of cups and medals. They made a fine show last year. The Sydney Stadium authorities are after Donovan for a series of contests (states an exchange). Unless he is under a good guarantee he will be well advised to stay here. Tommy made £440 last month, and with a tussle with Sarron in Dunedin and three other matches in the offing he has no need to travel abroad. The. Taranaki Boxing Association is endeavouring to secure the services of a good Australian featherweight to meet Donovan. I cannot explain the apparent lack of British outstanding heavyweight boxers, no more than I can tell you why we don’t have any more old-fashioned winters.—James J. Corbett. Jack Dunleavy is negotiating, for a tour of New Zealand for Dealer Wells with the Napier Association, states the Sydney Referee. He might meet Wally Hancock while in New Zealand, but his first bout will be with Jack Paul. Jack Dempsey ranks the boxers of the world as follow:— Flyweight: Black Bill, Cuba. Bantam: Al Brown, Panama. Featherweight: Kid Chocolate, Cuba. Junior lightweight: Benny'Bass, America. Lightweight: Sammy Mandell, America. Junior welterweight: Baby Joe Gans, America. ' Welter: Jackie Fields, America, and Jimmy McLarnin, Canada. Middleweight: Mickey Walker, America. Light heavyweight: Maxie Rosenblum, America. Heavyweight: Jack Sharkey, America. Watty Jack and “Firpo” Kitson will meet again in a preliminary to the Adams-Hughes bout this month. This pair put on a good show in the theatre last month and the return should be full of interest. Popular opinion will favour Jack but he will not be able to take Kitson too cheaply. Dunedin will be the mecca of all boxing enthusiasts to-day when Pete Sarron and Tommy Donovan meet again. Southland is-

going to be strongly represented at the Forbury Stadium and in this end of the island anyway, the bout is exciting great interest. This bout is being promoted by the Otago Boxing Association at a cost of £l,lOO, making it the most expensive proposition probably that has ever been put on by a New Zealand association. With the popular prices, however, the association should not have' to worry regarding the financial outcome.

The Southland Boxing Association intends holding another open and novice tournament on May 30. Entries are being called immediately. The association is also in communication with Wally Hancock (Australia) and .Jack Paul (one time of Dunedin, but now of Australia) with a view to matching the pair for a 15-round bout on June 25, the night of the Rugby football encounter British touring team v. Southland. The following preliminary bouts. have been arranged for the night of the Adams-Steve Hughes encounter: C. Galt v. Ray Nichol; J. Prendergast v. R. Harvey (Winton) ; W. Jack v. R. Kitson, all six rounds of three minutes. Emergency bout: J. Hughes v. A. McNaughton (Orawia). It is understood that the association also approached G. Spencer in an attempt to match him with G. McEwan, but the former declined the bout.

Why Allan Campbell failed to knock out Broadfoot in the contest for the heavyweight title in the Civic Theatre, Christchurch, on Monday night mystified quite a number of people who were close enough to the ringside to witness the’ many opportunities that the Oamaru lad seemed to throw away. Behind his apparently inexplicable conduct, however, is a story of courage and endurance. Just before the first round ended —it was a fifteen round contest—Campbell connected with the side of Broadfoot’s head and fractured h'is hand in two places (as an examination subsequently proved). However, he gave no sign of the pain he wits enduring, and made a fast, agressive fight all the way through and did not give Broadfoot enough time to speculate why he was holding back his right hand oh occasions when a well-timed punch would have settled matters then and there. Campbell called into The Press Office on Wednesday morning with his hand in plaster of parks, and explained the reason for his failure to press his advantage to the utmost. “I was simply unable to use my right hand,” he explained, “and it must certainly have looked as though I was not doing my best. Fortunately my hand did not swell until after the glove was removed.”

When Pete Sarron and Tommy Donovan met in 'Wellington, there were about 40 pressmen present to tell the whole of New Zealand all about the mill. It must be a far cry to the day when so many journalists were gathered together on one job in New Zealand, but if the public of Dunedin have an idea that they are to be honoured in like manner they arc to be disappointed. Followers of the noble pastime in Southland are taking keen interest in the bout, and the Southland Times, in order to cater for the wishes of a large circle of readers, applied to the Secretary of the Otago Boxing Association for a ringside seat for its representative. The following reply speaks for itself: Owing to the heavy expense incurred in staging the Sarron —Donovan contest, the committee of the Otago Boxing Association resolved at its last meeting that no Press privileges be granted other than the two local papers and no accommodation will be made at the ringside for any other papers. There is no doubting that the publicity which the band of pressmen present at Wellington gave to the bout there, that public interest was heightened in the return bout and that the Otago Association has a lot to thank them for. Why then this curtailment? It is not like past actions of what had become known as a progressive association. The pressmen in contests such as this one are accommodated on tables ranged against the ring and the amount of room taken up is not great. At any rate not sufficient to force the association to exclude all but the local papers from reporting the fight at close quarters. It is futile to ask a pressman to describe a boxing match from a distance, no matter how good he is but if visiting pressmen wish to give their readers an account of the fight, they will.be forced to do so at great disadvantages—no room in which to write and probably howling men yelling and jumping up all around them. The action of the Dunedin Association is in marked contrast to that of the Wellington Association which placed all the arrangements for the Press under the management of a local newspaper man, and visiting and local journalists were enabled to work in great comfort and do their reports under conditions that made for the best. The Dunedin Association’s action is rather puzzling—more than that it is bad business as excessive frugality usually is, and it betrays a complete ignorance of the fact that but. for the great publicity given to the Donovan —Sarron bouts in Taranaki and Wellington, the Otago Boxing Association would not have tackled this third meeting with the confidence it has shown. Private information received in Invercargill states that Pete Sarron has no intention of leaving New Zealand at present. He likes the country and after to-day’s bout has two other matches in sight. Probably there will be others, as the season really has just begun.

One thing that many people hope will not happen is that Pete Sarron’s left hand will not fail him in to-day’s fight. Sarron has had a lot of trouble with this hand and it will be remembered that it went back on him in his last match with Donovan. Showed Real Class. Wally Hancock, the former Australian welter-weight champion, showed real class in his contest with Ted Morgan, of Wellington, at the Town Hall at Dunedin, and while there was no doubt in the writer's mind as to Hancock deserving his win against Reg. Trowern, it must be said that the Australian made a much better showing with the previous fight under his belt, writes Hooker in the Evening Star Sports Special. Hancock took the ring in superb condition, and, on the other hand, Morgan appeared just a trifle worn. Nevertheless, general expectations were that a hard and closely-fought contest would result, and Hancock’s knock-out victory in the third round after Morgan had been down for three different counts previously was something in the nature of a sensation. Morgan has never previously bitten the dust and most of his bouts have been won per medium of a deadly left hook and a left rip to the body. He showed much promise in his earlier fights, but after seeing him in action this week the writer can only assume that he 'has fallen away sadly. His awkward southpaw stance troubled Hancock not one whit, and with Hancock fighting on top of his man all the time Morgan appeared to be at a loss as to what tactics to pursue. He was leaving himself very open, and Hancock certainly wasted no punches in penetrating the defence. It did not seem to occur to Morgan that he had a useful weapon in his right hand, and he landed scarcely one clean punch with it. Hancock was quicker to the punch, and scored with both hands both to head and body, his timing being splendid, while he measured every punch with great accuracy. His most deadly attacking force, of course, was his vicious left hooks, and time and again he staggered Morgan with crisp, snappy punches to the chin. A left rip to the body also proved effective, and he varied his attack by occasionally driving a straight right to the head and sinking short rights to the body. It was one of these that set Morgan going in the third round, and with his dangerous left hand Hancock did the rest.

Hancock showed to great advantage in the long-range fighting, and while the bout lasted it was certainly of an open nature, though Morgan hung on on several occasions to avoid punishment. To say the least Morgan’s showing was disappointing, and in the light of some of his recent contests it will take a good performance or two to restore him to favour. Hancock, on the other hand, proved himself a good fighter, able to make use of the ring, and he showed admirable coolness throughout. It should take a pretty good fighter to_get the best of the ex-sailor, and a Hancock-Paul match seems a logical one for some association now that Paul holds a decision over Morgan.