BOXING.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1927, Page 5

BOXING.

DOINGS AT HOME. BOXING AND BOXERS. London, Nov. 18. (By Eugene Corri. —Special to the News.) My friend Tex Rickard, in a way quite characteristic, has taken the bull by the horns in the matter of Elky Clark. He has invited the Scot to go to the States, and given a definite assurance that he will put in a match with Fidel La Barbra for the World’s flyweight title. So the absurdity of the New York Boxing Commission, who decided that-if Clark desired to join the world-beaters he - must be first tried out, has been removed. Rickard, I happen to know, has long been anxious to have Clark make the trip, and, so as to convince the New York Board of the credentials of Clark, he got in touch with the National Sporting Club, who, as you would expect, promptly assured the Yankees that Clark was undoubtedly the best flyweight in Great Britain, and had every right to challenge La Barbra. It is suggested by Rickard that the fight be staged on January 21. Evidently he is of the same way of thinking, as most of us in this country —that Clark will beat Alf Barber, whom he is to meet at headquarters on the night of the las Monday in this month. So it is up to Elky to make good against Brighton’s clever boy, and set out to recapture the title which Jimmy Wilde surrendered to Pancho Villa. That he appreciates the opportunity to do an immense service to British boxing I am sure. Shrewd, calculating, sensible fellow is Clark; and although it is asking him to do tremendous thing to snatch the title, I have every confidence, given fair conditions, that he will succeed. DING-DONG TACTICS.

I do not expect that the contest will be spread over more than 12 rounds; certainly it will not be one of 20 rounds; and for this reason I hope that Clark, when he gets into the ring at Madison Square Gardens, will go all out to finish his man. Fighting on the other side is no test of staying power. It is arranged so that all the odds are that a non-stop fighter will win. Under whose auspices Clark will be in America I do not definitely know, but I understand that Charles Harvey, so well known in thia country, will watch his interests. He could have no more desirable manager. I hear that a new and powerful syndicate is about to take over the boxing at the Albert Hall; also that under new arrangement the more important belt contests will be staged there by the National Sporting Club. I await events with the liveliest interest. It would seem that a new note is about to be struck in boxing, so far as ft has to do with London. For the want of accommodation, it is to be regretted that the fight between Clark and Barber could not be staged other than at Covent Garden, so that the general public might see it. We want our big boxing to be done so that everybody may be privileged to see it. • Only a limited few can hope to have places at the ringside of the N.S.C. and for this reason, if for no other, the Club cannot afford to put on the contests they would very much like to. Even with the N.S.C. there is a money side to boxing, and without the necessary accommodation, they could never pay the prices for an inter-, national bout. ANOTHER BRITISH HOPE. It is no use saying that the topnotchers ask for too much money. A World's champion shouts high, and you cannot blame him, not so long as America is prepared to pay so handsomely for what she wants. With the formation of the syndicate, to which I have referred, we should have in the near future fights of world-wide importance. And we shall get them, if Clark comes back with the flyweight title, for then America will have to come to us. I hope that, if Tommy Milligan gets through his match- with Tom Berry—l should have been more pleased if he had decided to fight Frank Moody—he will follow Clark to the States, and, have a crack at Tiger Flowers.