IN THE RING

Southland Times, Issue 23227, 16 June 1937, Page 14

IN THE RING

NOVICE BOXING TOURNAMENT The Southland Boxing Association has arranged to hold its first novice and open tournament for amateurs on June 26. Already the secretary of the association (Mr F. H. Hughes) has received a number of entries, and the prospects for • a successful tournament are bright. Practically all of the schools in the city and country districts are now in full swing, so that there should be •plenty of material offering in the various classes. A feature of the programme promises to be the special bouts in which R. Baker and J. Lambert will be engaged. George Muir, Southland heavyweight champion has announced his intention of entering the professional ranks, and in order to give him a start the Southland Association is trying to arrange a bout with Dave Lindesay, of Auckland, former New Zealand heavyweight champion. Muir is a rugged boxer and should do well in the professional ranks.

J. J. Braddock and Joe Louis will fight for .the world’s heavyweight championship.at Chicago on June 22. Although Dick Baker, the clever Southland lightweight, was not available to meet Jenkin at first, a letter was subsequently received by the Otago Boxing Association from the Southland Association that Baker had changed his mind, and would meet Jenkin at Dunedin, says The Evening Star, Dunedin. By this time Craib and Jenkin had been matched, and Baker has now been offered a special match with the winner of the Craib-Jenkin bout. Norman Fisher, of Christchurch, has also been approached by the association asking if he will be prepared to meet the winner of this subsequent bout. CRAIB AND FISHER In a fast, exciting bout:—considered by competent judges to be the hest contest seen in Christchurch for many years—C. Craib, South Canterbury champion, beat N. Fisher, New Zealand lightweight champion, on points in a bout at the Caledonian Hall, says The Press (Christchurch). _ The bout, which was fought at a fast pace throughout, roused the large audience to a high pitch of excitement as each round served only to emphasize the evenness of the two boxers. Although Craib appeared on occasions to be badly shaken by several punishing blows to the head, he rallied splendidly to win a most popular decision. The standard of boxing throughout the evening was uniformly high, and the bouts, with one or two exceptions, were marked by little unnecessary holding and clinching. Craib weighed 9st 71b and Fisher 9st 61b.

Joe Louis is expected to sail for England on July 7. Mr Syd Hulls, promoter, stated that Louis will meet the winner of the fight between Tommy Farr and a selected opponent at the White City, London, on July 30. Farr will probably meet Neusel, the German, who defeated Jack Petersen twice. Dick Humphries’ sweeping challenge to Jack Carr oil is the most spectacular boxing move of recent months, says The Sydney Referee.' Carroll, so far as local challenge is concerned, has been sacrosanct for many years. Now a boxing club beards the old lion in his den. Because of the poor quality of heavyweights fighting these days, Johnny Risko, America, who has not fought for two years, has gone into training for a come-back campaign. Most of the present American top-line heavies are fighting in the come-back class, but outside England they are not taken seriously. The average ex-boxing champion makes a poor referee, in . the same way that jockeys are invariably bad tipsters. One who is a striking exception to the rule is Jack Dempsey. The old world champion, whom many believe was the greatest heavyweight ever seen, has been refereeing for some years, but he is as much in demand as ever, though he is one of highest paid * officials in the States. The latest about him is that he has contracted to referee a series of fights in five South American cities—and his payment for the brief tour will be £lO,OOO. And when an English referee is paid £5O for handling a championship match we think he is doing wejl, says The Daily Mail. The pull Dempsey has is astonishing. He is still a national hero in America, and when he is refereeing people pay to see him as much as the fighters. Jorge Brescia, the Argentine heavyweight recently knocked out in the third round of his bout with Joe Louis, declared, when he came to: “I thought the left side of my head was coming off when Joe popped me.” Charlie “Red” Mitchell, lOst 31b. at the age of 44, annexed another title when he defeated Monty Andrews, list ljlb, in a bout for what was termed the middleweight championship of South Australia. From the opening bell “Red” was never in danger of defeat. He toyed with his opponent, hitting him where and when he liked.

WRESTLING “King Kong” Cox, the American under contract to wrestle in the Dominion, promises to be one of the outstanding attractions of the season. A pupil of the famous wrestling coach, Farmer Burns, who died last year, Cox ranks among the foremost matmen in the United States. Known as the “Jack Dempsey of the wrestling world,” he has been competing in professional ranks for the past eight years and has wrestled on an . average four to six times a week. About sft Ilin in height and weighing 17st 21b, he is particularly powerful in build. Although he has never held the world’s title, Cox has been a serious threat to the champions for several seasons. He has taken part in seven title bouts, meeting Lewis three times, Londos twice, Browning once, and Detton once. He lost the bout against Detton on a disqualification. Cox has the reputation of being probably the most aggressive and toughest wrestler in America. “The reason I’m so crazy in the ring,” he remarked humorously in Auckland, “is probably because I was born on Crazy Woman Creek at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming.” When asked if he had any special hold, Cox said that, while he used all the recognized ones, he preferred to concentrate on fore-arm punching and head-locks to win him his matches. “I knock the ‘soup’ out of them,” he said. Cox seemed disappointed to learn that straight out punching was not permitted under the New Zealand rules. The new scale of weights under the Olympic rules which have been adopted for the New Zealand amateur wrestling championships this year are as follows, the corresponding scale under the old rules being given in parenthesis. Bantamweight.—B.ll (8.6). Featherweight.—9.B (9.0). Lightweight.—lo.s (9.8). Welterweight.—ll. 4 (10.7). Middleweight.—l 2.6 (11.4). Light-heavyweight.—l 3.9 (12.7). Heavyweight. —Over 13.9 (over 12.7).