BOXING AND BOXERS

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1929, Page 7

BOXING AND BOXERS

NOT TIP TOPPERS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.} The picture of the Paoloni and Schmelling fight, which was privately shown in London during the week, was to me, ample confirmation of my rating of the two men (writes Eugene Corti). I am well aware that the screen is apt to create false notions. It can be ever go misleading. But in this instance we have it made .clear that at best both Paoloni and Schmelling are far from being expert in all that has to do with boxing. To me they were positively crude. See the picture for yourselves and you will agree with me I am sure. 1 have never felt justified in exulting over Scott, for the reason that I can see in his fighting make-up many and marked limitations, but he certainly has a sounder knowledge of boxing than either the Basque or the German. Also do I consider him. when in tip top condition. to be as strong. I shall have a terrible shock if Scott is beaten by Schmelling. That is, if they ever meet. When last I saw the British champion I thought he was carrying too much flesh, and was in need of a rigorous tuning up. If I read his condition aright I would advice him, especially after what has happened to Schmelling, to put himself through a hardening process at once. It is vital, should he receive the call, to be fit to go into the ring right away. I have a suspicion that, if Scott does not keep in strict training, he will run to seed. We must all be saying that he appears to have a chance of a life time. Whatever was the Americans’ former attitu’.e towards him, it is pretty plain now that they are prepared to receive him kindly. There is still no strictly reliable information' as to the intentions of Al Brown, though we now know that Baldock has agreed to fight the Panama negro for a purse of £6OOO, put up by an entirely responsible London syndicate. But, in view of what seems to be an established precedent, would not those of the promoting syndicate have their minds immensely relieved if, before proceeding further, they ascertained what the official view was with regard to contests having to do with championships between white and black? It would be much to be regretted, should Brown consent to come here, if the authorities stepped in and a fight were made impossible. A STURDY YOUNGSTER.

When young .Pat Daly, of Marylebone, fought Garland, the former" services champion and Olympic boxer, there were quite a. few- who thought the youngster was courting trouble by taking a chance against elder and more experienced fighters. And I was of that way of thinking.; True, he was adjudged the winner over the Irishman on a recent occasion at Clapton, but there was a period in the bout when he threatened to crumple under the heavy blows which Garland sent along, and I felt that the boy was in danger of being overworked. But the little fellow cocked a leg over the ropes last Sunday, and well aaid truly beat Kid Pattenden. • Frankly, I was surprised. "When the match was made I considered that it was, to put it mildly, a bold adventure on the part rf Daly and those with him. For you know as well as Ido that Pattenden is better than many a champion I could name. It was not, so I assured, because Pattenden was off colour that he lost. He simply could not take the measure of the boy who would appear to be getting better and better.

Unless he blows up through .being overworked Daly—what a rare fighting name! —must get to the top. He has something to learn in the way of holding his hands so as to steer clear of a “swinger,” but, my word, he is wonderful, remembering his few years, in the power and the quickness of his hitting, and he is game from tip to toe. Any lad who.can beat Pattenden, in the conclusive -way that Daly was held to have beaten him, must be an expert boxer as well as a complete fighter. So far as I have been able to gather, it is not probable that Johnny Hill will have a third match with Ernie Jarvis, much to the regret of the Millwall man, of course. The likelihood is that the Scot will turn his attention to the Birmingham youth, Bert Kirby. It is possible, if Hill is still the fly-weight champion with the National Sporting Club come to frame their next season’s programme, that one of the first men they will seek to have matched will be Hill, and. if by that time Kirby has not met the. Scot, he will be accepted as the worthiest challenger. A persistent, an accomplished little fellow Kirby, whose latest success was to defeat Bud Walley. Which was no mean achievement. MICKEY WALKER TOO BUSY. I see that Harry Crossley, the Mexborough light-heavyweight, is anxious to take a tilt at- either Frank Moody or Gypsy Daniels. Since the fighters been lying fallow for some time —a bout whom he seeks to get into the ring have for Daniels is surely long overdue —thev should be stirred into action, if anything like a reasonable purse is offered. It would certainly be all to the good if we had some light thrown on the cruiser situation. Mickey Walker tells us that he has <so much on hand that he cannot give a thought' to coming over here. I expected as much. Even if Walker had not something like a full programme of engagements on the other side, promoters here would discover that they could not afford to pay him anything like the money he would require to meet Len Harvey. ’ I am afraid that Harvey will have to do some travelling, if he is consolidate his position. Though, if he will look round, I dare say that he could get more than one profitable job.