PROMISING YOUNG BOXER

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1932, Page 11

PROMISING YOUNG BOXER

ACTIVITY IN ENGLISH RING.

THE HEAVY-WEIGHT TITLE.

(By Eugene Com.—Special to News.) London, February 25.

Jack Petersen goes on his way rejoicing. He appreciated his stock no end at the Stadium Club by beating George Slack, of Doncaster, in the fifth round. He remains very impetuous, however. But I would not condemn him for seeking victory in the shortest possible time. A youth who can hit with the speed and the power of Petersen would invite the sharpest criticism if he did not fight without compromise. I have to sav that he is distinctly the best and most promising youngster we have had for years. I have seen no lad who so surely looks like a cliamPI< He has pretty nearly everything—a rare physique, a natural aptitude for fio-hting, and rare mental balance; and he is in most excellent hands. No youth could wish for more generous training facilities. He has his own gymnasium, and could desire no better trainer than his father, who in his day ranked as one of the best of all amateurs. Before he got into the ring with Slack, < who served as a substitute for Donald Shortland, Petersen signed articles to fight Charlie Smith at Cardiff on Easter Monday for a purse of £550, to be divided equally, and a side stake of £l5O.

I shall be surprised if there is not a deal of money on offer for Petersen. Smith makes no bones about his certainty of victory. He is to go into strict training at once, and neither he nor Petersen will engage in a fight before they get to grips on the 28th of next month. The winner will at once go all out for a. meeting with Reggie Meen, so that the champion is in for a particularly busy time. Dan Sullivan, who manages the affairs of Smith and Len Harvey, believes that he has a heavyweight champion of the almost immediate future in a young guardsman named Doyle, who has, during the past •few days, been bought out of the Service, so as to be free to make a wholetime job of the ring. I must say that Doyle looks as though he will go far. 'He is nothing like such an efficient boxer as Petersen, but he suggests th kind of material to lick into shape.

Tom Tucker is still in the limelight. He beat Bernard Cooke, of North London, at Hanley on Monday night, but only, so I gather, by a very narrow margin of points. Hickman, like a

sensible fellow, was at the ringside, and challenged Tucker to a return match, which the splendid Preston veteran at once accepted. It is proposed that they shall meet at Hanley.