SARRON-DONOVAN CONTEST

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1930, Page 11

SARRON-DONOVAN CONTEST

MEETING OF GREAT FIGHTERS. Pete Sarron is a star fighter! He is a quiet, modest,' cultured little man out of the ring. He has the smile of the boy and the modesty of the early Victorian. He doesn’t talk and he doesn’t look fight. That’s Pete of the everyday, as you meet him. Sarron in the rink is, like Donovan, a pocket Hercules. He is swarthy, thick-armed, well-muscled and well-ribbed. An Assyrian, he is the possessor of a nose that would strike terror into the heart of a person with a watch to pawn. When the fight begins his eye is as keen and steady as a panther’s. He boxes skilfully; fights like a tornado. But he mostly fights. He is crafty and punches from all angles to all angles. His short, savage, swinging rushes play havoc with defences and at times he comes down like a legion of wolves — a very tough morsel for the man on the other end of the argument. The man on the other end of the argument on this occasion happens to be Tommy Donovan, and the New Zealander is a prime piece of fighting stuff, in the opinion of the country’s most able boxing experts thoroughly capable of taking care of himself. The American is no thicker-limbed or better muscled than the Fighting Fireman; in a measure-up of toughness Tommy would break even with the, most unyielding; and if he has not a nose that would strike terror into the timid it is at least a good fighting nose. So, physically, this brace of classy glove duellists is well matched; Donovan is as hard a battler as is Sarron; is a good boxer; his evasion is clever; on the score of fitness. no man could surpass the Waitara demon. And if there are a few who w-ould sum up Donovan as so much “cat’s meat” for the little Yankee, let them study the bout from the angle of form. Working it out on the basis that Donovan was a deal too classy for Tom Crowle, that Crowl© outsmarted Johnny Leckie, and that Leekie has proved but little inferior to Pete, Donovan has more than a fifty-fifty chance of carrying off the honours. Inquiries from afar indicate the interest aroused by this New Zealand v. U.S.A, contest, and it is anticipated the greatest crowd ever to assemble at a battle of gloves, brain and brawn in the Dominion will flock to Western Park, New Plymouth, on February 15. Plans open to-day at Collier’s.