At the Rate of £400,000 an Hour

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 642, 19 April 1929, Page 7

At the Rate of £400,000 an Hour

America Leads Way in Fight Parses

TACK SHARKEY received a guarantee of £20,000 for his receni " heavy-weight tight with Stribling. Fight promoters in Great Britain, so we are told, stood aghast when they heard about it, for they admit quite openly that a sum of £IO,OOO to be divided between both fighters is about as far as they can go for any contest that might be arranged. Even then they would probably lose money. But it should not be supposed that purses in England and in Europe are actually small. When Johnny Hill, the Scot fly-weight champion of Great Britain, fought Emile Pladner in Paris the other day—and was knocked out in the sixth round—his reward was £BOO and expenses for three people. Phil Scott’s

“wage” when he met Ted Sandwina at the Albert Hall was £1,200, while Jack Hood and Ecu Harvey, the welter-weight and middleweight. who were to have boxed at the Crystal Palace last week, would have divided £3.000. If a contrast is required it need only be remembered that the greatest and most-discussed tight ever held in London was that at the National Sporting Club in 1592 between Peter Jackson and Frank Slavin. Both were regarded as among the world’s leading heavy-weights, yet they were glad to divide a purse of only a little over £2,000. The largest amount given for a single contest was that paid to Gene Tnnney for his second fight with Jack Dempsey at Chicago. His cheque was for £200,000, and he was in action exactly thirty minutes.