BOXING AND BOXERS

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1933, Page 10

BOXING AND BOXERS

SYSTEM OF RING FINANCE;. PROFESSIONALS DISPLEASED. (From Our Own Correspondent) London, Nov. 10. It is not surprising, to anyone acquainted with the inner history of our highly commercialised boxing ring, that the professional fighting men are grousing a little. The novel modern practice is, instead of a fixed purse, to offer the big protagonists a certain percentage of the gate‘receipts. On the face of it, this looks O.K. It is a nice application of the good old co-operative principle to spectacular fisticuffs. But the gentry with the battered profiles and the‘cauliflower ears have, after much heavy and painful cogitation, come to the conclusion that they are not always getting a fair deal. Their share of the rake-off is often grotesquely out of perspective with the crowd they fancied they saw filling the “house.” ' ■ ' So the latest movement is for a regular check of box office receipts on behalf of the man who takes the punches. I cannot for the life of me see how this demand can honourably be resisted by promoters with a clean slate and a clear conscience. In America I believe they have the ring finances audited and supervised by a State official. Which suggests a possible new Ministerial post in this country for eligible young politicians of promise. Under-Secretary to the Ministry of Ring Finance might be a comfortable little job, and by no means a sinecure. Boxing promoters are rather , like , film stars.. They exaggerate financially. We often hear that a fight between two front-line exponents of the fistic art is for a big purse, the exact amount is mentioned. But oftener than not, I am told by disillusioned pugs, it amounts nothing like’ that glittering sum. The most famous and successful British boxer of our generation once assured me, after brilliantly winning a fight for which the winner’s end of the purse was advertised as £5OOO plus a percentage on the gate, that he had got not a penny more than £l2OO out of the adventure, and out of that had to pay all his very considerable training costs antf travel charges. Soon after the war was over there was a still-born attempt made in London to form a regular pugilists’ trade union. I still recall the weather-beaten bleak facial landscape of the people who. rolled up for that occasion.. All the toughest old pugs and ring supers in the game were there. And it was solemnly proposed that the minimum fee for taking the.ring, in the case of an approved and known professional, . should be £5. It seemed little enough to me, but it aroused derision from the battered cognoscenti. We soon heard that most of them would think themselves lucky to get “’alf a thick ’un.” At that time a member of the lesser fry was often enticed into the ring, for a gruelling mill, by the offer of three half crowns, which often enough materialised as one, and that extracted with much difficulty. Boxing as a profession certainly offers nowadays a very princely reward for the real top-notchers, if carefully managed, but for the mediocre artists it is hardly as alluring a line as opening cab doors or selling papers in the street.

THE SPORT IN ENGLAND.

FUTURE OF JACK DOYLE.

London, Nov. 17.

There, is not a trainer, manager, Seconds, or any old timer (writes Eugene Corri) but is wondering, even doubting, whether it will be all to, the future good of Jack Doyle to continue his apprenticeship under Francois Descamps, who, these days, lives exclusively at his country seat at La Guerche, which is some 170 miles from Paris, a quiet little place free from all modem distractions. But I would not throw stones at the idea that Doyle will be better for being under the wing of a truly remarkable Frenchman. Mind, I do hot hold Descamps up as a magician. But he is a very knowledgeable man, deeply versed in all that is demanded of a fighter. But Doyle is not Carpentier— obviously. And the question is whether the Irish lad will take kindly to his new teacher. The average Britisher requires a deal of time to adapt himself to a French home, which the workshop of Descamps is. • Perhaps Doyle will fall in with, the scheme of things at La Guerche. That remains to be seen. But the fact that Descamps and Carpentier represented an extraordinary combination is no_ guarantee that Doyle and Descamps will mould themselves into one—which the good Francois will insist upon for a cerI well remember that St. Patricks night at Dublin when Battling Siki fought Mike McTigue. In one of the preliminaries Johnny Sullivan, of Covent Garden, then little more than a child, and beat him. Descamps and Carpenter who was with him, were so taken up by Sullivan that they decided that, if Sullivan would only consent to join the La Guerche stable, he would furnish a world-beater. - ~ « « Well, young Johnny took himself off to France, had the gloves on almost daily with Carpentier, who was then still a force to be reckoned with, and. he also was put to work with Paul Frietch. I will not say that Sullivan did not benefit But, as we all know, he did not come to be a world beater. Perhaps the fault was his. I would not dare say.. However, to return to Doyle. At the beginning of the week he left to spend a few days with his parents at Cork, and the understanding is that, when he has had a little rest, he will proceed to France. Descamps, without being a Martinet, insists upon his ideas being carried out, and I am speculating whether Doyle will take to the Frenchman. GOOD SURROUNDINGS. This for the ear of Doyle. If he has the gift of adaptability, he will learn much and profit by a course of instruction at La Guerche. There is one thing he will escape in the little town in France, and that is fuss and adulation—always harmful if the fighter has a weakness for that sort of thing. I shall Doyle’s steps with every interest and sympathy. I wish Doyle and Des Camps all that is best, without, however, throwing overboard my conviction that Doyle could have learned all there is to be known about fighting in this country. It is well that those who are behind Doyle should frankly confess that he has a very long way to go before he may hold his own with more than secondraters, and that they are determined to spare no expense on his education. What a fortunate young fellow Doyle is, to be sure. How some of the old brigade must wish that they could push back the clock! What would some of those, who were content to fight for a pound a round at Wonderland, have thought if they had not been left to fend for themselves. But perhaps I should resist a temptation to strike comparisons between then and now. These days be different. They surely re, when you come to think that such

a novice as Doyle can pull down £757 for his end of his recent fight with Bouquillon. Good luck to him, say I, but is it not astounding that there is so much money for a beginner? Still, he might well say that he had most to do with filling the Albert Hall on the occasion of Jeff Dickson’s last show. And, after all, a man is worth what .he can. conjure into the till. I see that Jack Petersen is back home. My Cardiff friends tell me that he has benefited enormously by his long sea trip; that he is now round about 13st; that the trouble he had with his nose, which interfered with his breathing, has been cured, and that he looks more like a real champion . than ever. Splendid. There seems some uncertainty as to whether Hans Schondrath will be his first encounter. Petersen declares that he does not mind who serves as his opponent. He has given it out that he is all eagerness to restart. Jeff Dickson would like to put him on at the Albert Hall before the year is out, and I understand that Petersen is willing. It has been suggested that he should go to war with Walter Neusel, the German. If Petersen, after he has had a spell of serious training, feels that he is completely ready for action, he will be quite willing to take his chances against that very workmanlike Teuton. QUICK WORK. Fighters, having attained championship rank, do not, as a rule, willingly; risk their title. At least, it is seldom that they are in a hurry to do so. Seaman Watson, in that regard, would seem to be a fighter apart. For no sooner had he taken the feather-weight title from Nel Tarleton than he agreed to a return match. That will ever stand to his credit. And, as if to strike a new and refreshing note, Len Harvey has come back, all on his toes, to prove that there is still no middle-weight within measureable distance of him. I do not think there is, if Harvey could be depended upon to draw to the last ounce upon his fighting capacity. If If he were the soul of aggression he would now be a world's champion. For it was as plain as a pikestaff at the White City that he had the full measure of Marcel Thil so long as he fought without compromise. A most tantalising fellow, Harvey, for whenever I have seen him he has been all too apt to curl into his shell at a moment it has been demanded of him that he should get go his best and most vicious punches. NO TIME LOST. It would seem that he has learned his lesson. At all events, on Monday nighA • when he appeared at Bradford in. an affair with Thoe Sas, the Belgian cruiser, he allowed for no half-measures, and almost in the time it takes to record the fact he had knocked his man out. And now, I take it, he is all ready for Jack Casey. They will soon be in the ring in a battle for the; title, at Newcastle, I suppose, for the Geordies have offered the best* purse. It will be a fight for. everybody to see. It will decide definitely whether Harvey has a mind for fighting as well as boxing. You will have seen that Young Dan Crowley beat Billy Lewis at the beginning of the week, and so qualified to meet Johnny King for the bantam title, I assume that they will fight at ManChester, King’s home town. Manchester and Liverpool are in a fair way to making a corner of fights that most matter these days. ■ _ - How sorry was to learn that Johnny Cuthbert, who on a recent occasion had his jaw broken, had decided to retire. We shall much miss the little Sheffielder. If only for his thoroughness, he was a joy to behold. But he was more than thorough. He was highly accomplished. I hope that for the rest of all his days he will never want. He was in all ways one of the;paragong of the Ring.