BOXING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10924, 13 November 1913, Page 4

BOXING.

4 1 GOSSIP OF THE RING. (From the Sydney " Sunday Sun.") That there was a large number, of people who thought Pat Bradley had more than a remote chance of beating Dave Smith the betting at the ringside indicated. No one cared to lay more than 5 to 2 on Smith, and when the boxers entered the ring nothing better than 2 to 1 could be got by the Bradleyites. Stones about the laying of 4. 6j and (J to 1 on our cruiserweight champion were the outcome of imagination. Those.who wanted it looked in vain during the previous several days for G or even 4 to 1. . Bradley says the bad eye affected his lighting a good deal. The other one was *in such sympathy that he could not judge distance at all, and consequently or ten hit wide of the mark. Hock Keys looks uncommonly well. He has taken a pull, he says, and will now keep going straight alxead all the time. The fact that. Hock and Bob Turner are matched to fight next Wednesday recalls that the pair met as far back as 1905 in a twenty-rounds bout, and Keys won on points. Twice in the next year and once in the following twelvemonth they were apponents. Turner thinks he can call the turn on Hock this time. He says he was able to do so when they were training together on the mountains. CLABBY AND PETROSKEY. Writing before the Clabby-Petroakey contest, which Clabby won on points, a San Francisco correspondent says:—, " Jimmy Clabby may stow Ed Petroskey away when the pair hook up Portola week. But if. he does he will have to hit the sailor harder than he has ever been hit since he has been in the game as a professional. The fact is that the sailor is rapidly coming to be recognised as a second Battling Nelson, says the San Francisco ' Bulletin.' He takes punishment and boxes a great deal like the Durable Dane, and his punoh, like that of Nelson's in the latter's palmy days, lands upon an opponent at most unexpected times. Petroskey's ability to assimilate punishment was shown in his recent fight with Bob M'Allister. _ The 1 Olmpian for eighteeen rounds, including the twentieth and last, fairly rained blows on the sailor. He sent them in from every conceivable angle, and most of the time in bunches. M'Allister, though not a hard hitter, can wallop hard enough to mark up any ordinary pugilist. But he didn't mark Petroskey. At the conclusion of the fight an examination of the sailor showed that his \v9rst injury consisted of a slight abrasion over one of his eyes, which may or may not have been caused by a glove-encased fist. That he did not knock Petroskey out is nothing up!against .M'Allister. Frank Klaus couldn't do it, in the .same number of rounds the Olympian had to turn the trick.'' "OUT OF RANGE" CLEAN BREAK. For the information of the uninformed who have been talking " clean break" in connection with the Brad-ley-Smith contest, as they talk other things of which they know just as little, I wish to state that the break is clean, according to the Marquis of Queensberry rules, by which all ooxing contests nowadays are governed, when one man has both hands free. No break could be cleaner. The idea that the fighters should "step out of range, as was stated in one quarter, before a clean break could exist, is i nonsense. The men are boxing, not •making passes at each other. What a nice spectacle some of the professedly learned in the game woudl provide for us were they allowed to have their, ways. If an "out of range" clean break were compelled every time comclinched, the untrained, the inferior, the hurt, or the scared would see that he and the other fellow were " out of range '■ as often as possible. There is no great difficulty in forcing a clinch with the cleverest boxer. I mean a clinch as defined by the out-, of-range advooate who thinks, poor fellow, that when one contestantcatches hold of another a clinch is effected, in face of the fact that the rules differentiate between a clinch and a real clean break by providing that a clinch can only occur when both boxers hold at one and the same time Boxing will be settled when the out-of-range clean, break arrives, because the less inclined to fight of any pair will see to it that he makes the most of an old womanish provision. Bradley never delivered a blow in the breakaway, as breakaway is understood. Smith was, each time he caught tße punch, far enough off to have gathered his wits and his weapons together in time to defend or evade. The blow which Smith told a "Sun" interviewer was landed in the breakaway caught himi when he was at least full arm'slength clear, and it probably would not liavo made contact at all had not Dave been excessively nervous at the moment.' It has been published that the recent boxing conference "shirked the question of defining a clean break and left it to the referee." It was because the conference knew what it was doing that it " shirked" (nasty word—why should it have shirked anything?) countenancing the introduction of an altogether unnecessary and wowserprompted provision which all with knowledge of the game were aware would be fatal to it. The truism that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing i 3 often these times exemplified by the critic of boxing. The idea in allowing a boxer with both hands free to strike a clinging opponent is so that clinging may be stopped and boxing pure ana simple enforced. No contestant will keep his hands idle as they would be while he hung on, and thus present an absolutely open and completely undefended positionTHE FALL OF PALZER. How much A 1 Palzer, the lowa farm hand who once threatened the_ white hope brigade with complete extinction, had fallen ere the latest defeat suffered by him, and of which we have so far had only cabled information, may be gathered from_ the following communication, dated New York, September 15:—"Charlie Miller, San Francisco, got a draw with A 1 Palzer in a ton-round bout at the St Nicholas Athletic Club last night. Each weighed 2201b. ' The Fighting Motorman ' fiom the Pacific Coast put the finishing touches to the lowa farmer as a ' white hope.' Palzer was slow, lacked recuperative powers, and went through the rounds on gameness and an occasional straight punch. In three rounds Palzer had the upper hand, but he was too weary to take advantage of wide openings " Miller is a big boob as a fighter. Palezr has evidently gone the way of .the athlete who has not a t tight rein upon himself and allows hie nead to. bo turned by the allurements and temptations which best one placed as he was, and with little knowledge of the traps and pitfalls of city life. With the dropping out of Palzer that other much-boomed white hope of a few years ego, Carl Morris, is getting into the limelight again and doing things which impressing onlookers very much.