BOXING.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 260, 7 December 1914, Page 11

BOXING.

THE MIDDLE-WEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP, After all, there may be a serious fla\y in West Australian King's claim to the .. middle-weight championship of the world. In an article which appeared iii these columns last Monday the recent history of that title •• was traced; and ■ it was stated that by his defeat of " Jeff " Smith, on the preceding Saturday evening, King became the logical middle-weight champion of the world. As the Smith-King contest was billed as being for the world's championship, the writer of that article naturally; assumed that the men would have . weighed in at the world's championship limit, list 41b. But Australian papers which arrived later in the week showed that Smith and King were under agreement not to exceed list 61b —the Australian limit —an hour before the contest." It is possible; but scarcely likely, that neither men exceeded list 41b. Hbweyer, that will not be known until the papers containing reports of the contest arrive, In t|e meantime, the doubt remains.. . ... -. < .'

It is to be regretted, that the Baker management-and the boxdrs themselves did:not wisdom 1 in : this mat l terj and fix the limit kt list 41b,. (especially as it was aniioirrieed' that the 'contest was to. .be . foi? tlie world's ;championship, Jeff'' Smith at that I time' being tlie man withi,the;,best claim to the title, : A fight at ;that weight would have left the winner, with a clear title to the world's championship. As* it is how, America^ : already hailing "Jimmy" Clabby as the legitimate champion, will probably refuse, to accept the Smith King contest as having any bearing on the title. Immediately after Clabby ; s defeat of George Chip, on November 6, American critics claimed the championship, for Clabby, they ruling out "Jeff" Smith for non-ap-pearance, although Smith had beaten Clabby in Sydney a few-months before. In all probability the weight-limit for; (the Smith ; King affair will be pointed! to by the Americans as Smith out of the world's middle-weight class. They ! probably will argue that if Smith considered himself the champion, he would have insisted, unless he were, no longer i a genuine middle'-weight, on meeting King at list 41b—the fight being announced as for the world's title—in order that his claim should not be impaired. It may be that Smith is still able to fight well at list 41b, but it is M all Lombard Street to a China orange" that American bpxiiig*" fans'.', will not admit it now until Smith proves it in America. In any case, they certainly will not admit King's claim to. the championship when they discover that the Australian fought for it at a limit of list 61b. So the middle-weight championship problem.remains unsolved,, after all, because of the short-sighted-ness of the Sydney Stadium authorities.! CLABBY'S DEFEAT OF CHIP. ; The American mail which arrived on Friday brought details , of the ClabbyChip contest, whieh was held under world's championship conditions. Mr Douglas Erskine's summary of the fight,, written for the "San Francisco Exam-' i ner,'' runs as follows: "Jimmy Clabby was awarded the decision at the end. of his twenty-round bout with George Chip at the Daly City arena last 'night. Ben Selig, the referee, had no difficulty in picking the winner. Clabby outboxed Chip all the way through the fight and when he left the ring he did not have a mark on him. Glabby strained his shoulder in the early part of tlie fight. He says he could not use his right arm freely after the sixth round. This probably accounted for the fact that he did not finish Chip, who was in a bad way on several occasions, when a good right-hand punch might have settled matters. Clabby scored with his' left in round after round, and his lead on points was so great that it was apparent long before the finish, that Chip's only chance for victory was to,knock out his man. The Indiana lad showed even better form than he did on his appearance here before his last trip to Australia. His straight punches were fast and accurate and his blocking and ducking left nothing to be desired. '' Chip tried to get in one of his sleepproducing punches, but Clabby was as elusive as a butterfly, and was either inside 'tthe swings or so far away from therii- that the' swish of. Chip's gloves did hot even make a flutter in Clabby's hair. Clabby proved himself a master of the manly art of boxing and showed conclusively: that he is.: Chip's superior in every angle of the game. The fight; was : a clean one with less than the usual amount of flinching, the men broke' quickly as sooii as the referee called I their ttention to the ' fact, that their ! hands were tied. Even in the clinches Clabby, who weighed at, least five pounds less than his rival, showed great superiority. He worried Chip with jolts to the body and at times had him' badly, puzzled. He kept shooting his 1 gloves into Chip's face with the speed of a rapid-fire gun and Chip was unable to offset Clabby's work at close quarters. In fact, Clabby was as far in the lead as regards infighting as he was in the open boxing." WELSH AND WHITE. Another contest only briefly mentioned. in the cables from America last month was the ten-rounds no-decision bout between "Freddie" Welsh, lightweight champion of the world, and "Charlie" White, of Chicago. This bout was held in Milwaukee on November 9. The following description is extracted from the "San Francisco Examiner's" telegraphed report,, this time from the pen of Sam P. Hall,:- — Taking an unfair weight advantage into consideration, coupled .with a blizzardly tenth round finish, which found Freddie Welsh bleediiig- aud reeling frdm a vicious two-handed attack, it is oxir opinion that Charlie White was entitle 1 to the popular verdict by a slight shade at the conclusion of the ten. rounds . of dazzling glove play in the Milwaukee auditorium to-night. '' White went through the ten rounds with the flashy Briton without takinga punch that would crack the proverbial eggshell and wound up his sensational performance by giving the world's champion a savage whaling in the final three minutes. Welsh left the ring

with the blood pouring from a nasty cut over his right eye, the result of a nifty left hoolc.

" White was stacked up against a man who outweighed him easily eight ; pounds, and who was a full fledged I welter-weight in the ring to-night. Stacking this up with his feat last May in trimming Willie Ritchie, then champion, also at a high weight, itIcroks as though Willie will have to be recognised as the leading legitimate light-weight of the w r orld, though the title still technically rest with the lanky Briton. Truth to tell, White 's margin to-night was not sufficient to justify- a transfer of the championship, but he won, small as the margin is. "In summing up the fight, we figure that Welsh won one round, the fifth, cleanly. White had a margin in two of the busy boxing spfclls—the ninth and the tenth. That gives him a lead of but one round, but the points he piled up in the tenth are enough on which to earn him the verdict. 1 ' It was a battle between the two greatest life lxanders in the business —one with a left jab and hook that was like a flash of lightning, but lacked in power to harm or , slow up his . opponent. That was Welsh's. The other left was a powerful hook that did not go home quite so often, but when it landed it jolted aridjarred and dazed. That was White's. It was the punch that won him the fight, the one that opened a gash above the foreigner's eye and partly blinded him, so that' White found a way to penetrate •the most baffling defence he ever sawin' the closing moments of the struggle. ' " CHAMPION TRIES INITGHT-ING. . " The Chicago boy 's admirers were disappointed when he started qff at hi»< old familiar style—that of making thei ojther party lead and looking fqr chaneeg to counter with his left hook, and' a" stunning right cross. Welsh pursued his usual tactics of stepping in, leading with the left, and then laying on his man so that neither could strike a blow.. Occasionally he tried some of his widely heralded infighting, and while he scored a few more points.when in close, he did nd damage to speak of.. A ruddy spot on White's kidneys -was the Only sign of punishment around his body.

"They went along for four jrduiicFs with White missing a whole lot and his best blows being blocked. Charlie drew first blood with a left in the mouth in the third. In the fifth ,the Briton cut loose and with the use of a left that he : shot to the body and then hooked tip to. the head, he went to. his corner with the le%d in his possession. . ;

"The sixth round saw some smart boxing, with Freddie getting his revenge by drawing a trickle of the claret from White's mouth. The session was. fairly even. The seventh saw some more pretty work with their lefts, but no hard, blows were struck. One White right to the head staggered Freddie a bit and in ;a clinch White threw the Briton away from him. The eighth was tame. Welsh appeared a bit tired and White, evidently „was -resting up for .• the finish that was to come. Then came the ninth, in which White started off. Hehunched Freddie about considerably in this period, but the Englishman showed no signs of punishment as he loped to his corner for the breathing spell. WHITE'S GREAT FINISH.

" The tenth round came,- and White winning finish. He started off slowly, then, heeding shouts from his corner, opened up. Welsh was leading in ■ sair.e eld way and thought himself safe when suddenly the left hook shot out and from his right eye came the blood, it smeared his face. to a bright red and no doubt hurt his judgment. of distance. White, at fight of the gore, tore into the fading veteran and slammed him about in merciless fashion the rest of the fight. Four times Freddie was forced to rush to cover to escape the effects of the onslaught. He made a brave show of fighting back, but he was slipping and slipping fast, and the crowd knew it. White was on top of him, whaling away when the gong rang. It was explained after the battle that the reason White played a waiting game early in the going was that he-feared, because of Welsh's left, that he would tire fatally if he set a dizzy pace. That was the reason he was content to go along moderately, landing when he got an opening, and waiting until the time came to make his spurt. It was some spurt, believe lis." In reading that report, it should be remembered that when Mr Hall writes of White winning the fight he refers to his own opinion that White woii—

no referee '&. .decisions am .allowed - in Milwaukee. It should also be remembered that by far the.greater majority of American boxing referees and spectators prefetf the forcing fighter to : thV merely skilful.boxer, and that ''grandstand finishes" weigh greatly withu, them. They differ also from tie British system of awarding points, in that. they do not—or very seldom—allow points to the man "who causes his opponent miss. As a rale, they give points only for blows scored, and practically none for defence. It will be noticed that Mr Ilall writes of White missing a lot for four rounds, and having his best blows blocked. Welsh is given no credit for that: It is very evident from this report that if a referee's decision had been allowed, the referee had judged the fight by the

British system, the verdict would have gone to Welsh.