BOXING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10536, 10 August 1912, Page 5

BOXING.

NOTES. The Manawatu Association has arranged a match for August 21 for tho light-weight championship between Peter Cook and L, 'Porter. Some unknown friend in London has forwarded me a copy of the " Evening News," containing a special report of the happenings at Dieppe, France, on the occasion of the boxing carmvai there on June 24. The report appears in this column, and my thanks go forth to my unknown friend for his though* ful action. Now that Hugh Mehegan is abroad, Hock Keys and"Jack Read have been matched for the light-weight championship of Australasia. Tho ex-amateur Sydney heavyweight, Al. Thompson, is having very bad luck. Some months ago he was taken ill, and had to go into retirement. On recovering ho was matched arainst Les. O'Donnell, and no sooner had he started training than he was again taken ill. A cable message states that Wolgast has refused to meat Rivers again under mx or seven months from now; he says he is out of condition, and would bo unable to lit himself for what must prove a gruelling contest. Wolgast also states that the operation for appendicitis affected his strength, and ho of the " Dominion,'-' and Mr T. Sampson—are inclined to put the blame en the wrong shoulders for the criticisms forwarded by me in connection with the recent championship meeting. The fact that the secretary of the New Zealand Boxing Council, who is a Pressman, was present at the gathering, may have

misled, them. Another factor is that they know I do not profess to be an authority on boxing. But they can take it ju\t> me that the party responAmerican papers concerning the death of the old-time English pugilist, Tug Wilson, the first man to stay four rounds with John L. Sullivan, turn out to he incorrect. In referring to the matter the London " Sportsman " announces that Wilson (or to j?ive him his real name, Joe Collins) is still hale and hearty, running a small business in Leicester, England. Wilson has not been out of England since his affair with Sullivan.

The game of " set up," like many another trick for getting easy money, originated in America, which is a safe first in the matter of hatching out schemes having for their object the safest, surest and easiest way of relieving the public of superfluous cash. The game has been, and still is, .successfully played by a star boxer and his manager. They plant men, with whom they have an understanding, in various places where people will pay to see boxing bouts. These planted boxers are inferior in skill, but they talk e lot and are willing to stand up to be knocked down for a few notes. Rural athletic clubs readily fall for the game so long as they can secure the drawing cards, and in some instances they have paid a star performer as much as 2500.dollars to whip an inexperienced opponent. This practice is a form of faking, although the star boxers always win, and thereby swell their ring records. Boxing contests between Oxford and Cambridge and between the public schools of England have been in vogue for many vears. ■ the contests being annual affairs. How different in America. For some considerable time there has been a desire expressed to institute an intercollegiate championship, but the periodical waves'of. opposition to boxing which sweep through the States have prevented the authorities from taking definite action. The position in the two countries is simply an indication of two points of view. In England the sport has the sympathy and support of the public and the law authorities; in America the_ sport, being run purely as a commercial concern, has the confidence of no section of the community, except perhaps in New York, where the Frawley Law has provided an opportunity v to effect a considerable clearing up. . It may be due to this that the University of Pennsylvania, one of 4 mer^a,f ' S reat silastic institutions, has plucked up sufficient courage to make a plunge into the boxing game. Professor M'Kenzie, physical director at the 'Varsity, recently issued the following statement :-*--" We have introduced boxing this year as an experiment, and in order to prevent the usual abuses, such as professional coaching and other methods, I have required that there be only one second for each contestant, who must be an undergraduate of the university in good standing, and that he shall at no time be allowed to enter the ring or coach the boxer he is seconding during the rounds.'' Now that a start .has been made, doubtless Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Cohrtnbia and thb others will follow Pennsylvania's lead, and boxing may become as popular as football or baseball.

JOHN L. HIS EXAMPLE AND HIS ADVICE. Sullivan's place in pugilistic history is firmly established, remarks a writer in an American weekly journal. Ho canuofc bo dislodged from his niche as the most worshipiul pugilistic idol of his time. Does he owe iliat proud placs to his achievements in the ring? His most ardent admirer will not contend that he does, in fact, in the most respectable judgment of fistic ability Sullivan was nothing better than the best of a poor class. It is admitted even by many of his most devout worshippers that'oven in his best days men ike Oorbett, Fitzs mm ns, Jackson,. Choynski, or even Kid M'Coy could have walked aroun! him like coopers around a barrel. Tho eternal question, " Whom did .Srllivan ever lick?" has never had any other answer than an echo. . As a hghtinj; proposition simply he cannot be inv sted with immortalily. To what, then, does he owe his enduring popularity? He has told in the tale of his life. He trampled under foot every athletio conventionality. At ihe time "he was achieving and holding the chunp.onship of America —not of tho world, if you please—he the personification or riotous living, the incarnation of "hoo-rah." He went the limit and "then some" with everything no other man in any line of endeavour ever made pay. Sullivan outlived ;hi'. He has liv d to look back to what h.e calls his misspent life, and bui d up another fortune through his enduring poyularitv and tho soundness of his views, expressed with all the zeal of a convert. 01 'he proper mode of life. The pugilists who were contemporaneous with Sullivan and took their pace from i im as reckless livers are all dead —or nos. of them are. If they couldn't i ■ itatf> tho hi" follow in the.main thing they could in the concomitants, as far as' their means permitted, and they p;ii: ! the price. Snll'van. he demipod of the ''ead same fraternity, worshipped at the shrine of Bacchus, and it seems t-o have been the proper thin.' fo- other fi liters who wished to win a following to do 'ikewise. The list of rovstering fighters Sullivan h;\ o .tlivd who took the full cunt from John Barleycorn, is appal In'. The fiorhter who di ! not snV w'nTs to his money as soon as lie got it in hoso ays was a ."are exc ption. To save f r put by for a broken les was not good spot. It w-'is vrass'y unfashionabl \ Sullivan blew his, and to question the wisdom or propriety of Sullivan'- line of conduct meant in most case 1 ? to take on a mat"h. The convincin - defeat of Su'livan in hisi battle brought not only a new c'-ampion but a new line of thought. Gradual!'.- tho booze came to be repa ded as a s ok r's game. Successful fighters '-ventiiaJlv came to regard it as v holly unnecessary to make the rounds of th" pretentious gin palaces every time thov mado a new town.

The problem of " how to be a rentleman r, n-l n prize fighter" without telescoping began ?o '-'--oris itself out. Eventvallv it became evident that a standing oor.ld be established without boosting 'he rap~. market. A canny, frugal. arrl more business-like set of gladiators sf>en cams to occupy the bi" ! srots. Pugilistic values increased s'eadilv even in the face of more strincreut 'aws, until w''at would have seemed a fabiOous, prre in-Sullivan's day wo Id hardly be _ considered. Th" br- wl r rnd 'he pictures ue spends? d'ed out of the game until now he is onlv a memory and, except in Sullivn's ca : e, not a comfortable memory, cither.

Ever" fi"hter who amrmnts to anvthin;* now has money. Ho must save oven" in snite of hr"Hf. for it is ;'. paH of the trade, the recognised and e tabl-'s'-ed way of g~in v . The profes F.ional -u-nlist of t/i-da<- has a rational wav of himself. Ho "in';« n«ie rf himself than in ar'vertis-v-rf boozing kens. i The bvr fellow and his imitators usee, to do that. He doesn't lutv out newsboys r .nd hootblaeks nor embarrass beggars with larfress as ho makes his iov ons rounds That, too, was John L.'s distinguished pleasure and therefore <> " --et stunt'' wrh the lessor Tirrhfy. Whether rn is a be l ter fighter than his predecessor in tho same class is a ernestion thfit must remain onen. Tf it b? an ayiom the mar. who ke ps booze ont of him and Hrea rationally can do things better than the man who doesn't, ho is. There wo-.M be no monev in the game now for svich as Pn+?y Cardiff. Vat Fillers, tho St Jon Fkl. T!i" Bredhurn. Jnrk Ash ton, B-ooklvn Jimmy Carroll an 7 "ho tried to o-t S Hivan S 11' van. They wouldn't Inst en on eh to strip in front of the s+eadv-troing ficrhters' of thee timrs. Only one or two of thos- 5 I have' named are living. The other:* rr>r>TS"nt notches on the stick of John Fa J-yco^n.

The ad ice that John L. is now jr ; v ine; i 3 bnt the example he se-' vl-ilo he was an active participant ; n the rivr, affairs wes had. Th--could sot hand'e the fire-water as well

as he c .u'd. and it threu them " There never will be another Sullivan." T.at's true. It is also comforting.