Chance For Amateur Boxers In Wellington

Southland Times, Issue 24154, 17 June 1940, Page 9

Chance For Amateur Boxers In Wellington

A statement about the negotiations for a boxing contest between Maurice Strickland, the New Zealand heavyweight who recently returned from America, and Ron Richards, of Australia, was made at the annual meeting of the Wellington Boxing Association by Mr B. A. Guise, chairman of the management committee. Mr Guise said that before the committee had conferred with the Mayor (Mr T. C. A. Hislop), as chairman of directors of the Exhibition Company, regarding the possibility of Strickland meeting Richards at the Exhibition it asked Richards what his terms would be. The reply was that Richards’s fee would be £lOOO and that he would not be available for five or six weeks. The association, consequently went no

further with the proposal. It would have been a spectacular contest, Mr Guise added, but he doubted if, in view of the weight at which Richards would meet Strickland, it would have done boxing in New Zealand any good. There were not many Australians who would make a draw with the New Zealanders who could oppose them, and the association’s present intention was to start the season with an amateur night, he said. A number of the more promising boxers were now in camp, and those in training for this season were either novices, or unknown to the public. Consequently losses were probable on many coming contests, but in spite of this the association still intended to cater for the amateurs as well as possible.