BOXING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10927, 17 November 1913, Page 4

BOXING.

(From "The Bulletin,") The evil luck that has dogged Danish boxer Waldemar Holberg ever since he arrived in Australia hit specially hard on Saturday night, when, at Sydney Stadium, after a heady fight which, in the opinion of the pressmen and most of the audience, he absolute, ly won, referee Soott awarded the verdict to Young Nipper. To this writer, it seemed, beyond all question, Hoiberg's fight for 19 of'the 20 rounds. Nipper's astonishment when Scott' placed a hand on his head was comical. Then his expression turned quickly to.„one of intense elation. For a moment the audience was dumb with amazement; then it found its breath, and there was a terrific demonstration of disapproval. Men of most perfect odour and high commercial rank stood up and hooted like hooligans. It is an unfair and foolish thing, though, to hoot a referee no matter how wrong his decision may seem, unless there is reason to doubt his impartiality; and not the wildest hooter of them all questions Mr Scott's probity. To hoot a referee for giving an unpopular decision in all honesty is merely a crude way of demanding that he shall in future give the verdict to the more popular contestant, regardless of his own judgment. And the admirable thing about Scott is that he gives his opinion every time regardless of what anybody else thinks. All the same, this appears to have, been Arthur Scott's dizzy limit in blunders; it is almost impossible that he can ever cap it. Writer has thought hard, but can't recall any circumstances on which the referee could base his decision—which only shows how different the same thing may appear to several sets of eyes. Young Nipper was in a bad way more than once, Then, also, the great majority of his blows were either effectively blocked or evaded altogether, and many simply missed through bad timing. Over and over again, when he was going to hit, Holberg anticipated him with a straight left to the face, just as Dave Smith, did Bradley.. The Dane, being unusually short in the reach, has to take a certain amount of punishment in order to get in close enough to hit; but on Saturday night he took the most of it on his gloves and forearms. On the other hand, hardly a blow of his but made impact. There was nothing spectacular about it, but it was a good hardworking boxing contest. The crowd has of late, however, been so accustomed to see Jerry Jerome unfold cyclones of blows and hurricanes of wallops that it_ voted this performance dull, and ironically counted the men out. It looks as though the popular taste is drifting to that of New -York and Pennsylvania, where six-round and ten-round bouts are put on, on the understanding that they shall roar from the jump. If that plan were adopted here it would be had for the boxers; so those gentlemen will, if they are wise, go in for hurricane lighting, regardless of risks and the ethics of the sport. * * .* * * In spite of rain before and' during the mall, about 10,000 people rolled into Baker's Melbourne Stadium to watch the return Mehegan-Wells scrap. The wild riot over the decision in the last one, and the loud wrangle over the question whether Wells displayed " ring generalship " or merely skei daddied, had aroused considerable interest in the disturbance. Either lured on by his extra Boz of weight or stung by the criticism of his style of fighting, Wells took his 9st BJib into the fray with the fixed determination, apparently, of putting things beyond all question by knocking the Australian out. But when he got into the midst of the battle he found Mehegan out of reach behind the famous smother, through which he tried in vain to break. Mehegan was like the famous/ Roman tortoise, which, though it could be hit only on the shield, could wallop back to the heart or head. After landing a few ineffectual blows, Wells began to stop something him think hard. He is, however, so superbly light on his feet and quick with his fists that he repeatedly hit Hughie very hard when that slower but hard-hitting warrior was coming out of his smother. For several rounds he managed to land quite a lot of lefts at that juncture; but the obdurate Mehegan. regarding them no more than thistledown, walloped back hard and often, and Wells had to break away before the fury of his blows. As the fight progressed, in-fighting became more frequent. In this Wells was clearly out-pointed, and Mehegan, like the avalanche; was gathering speed as he rolled round the ring, following up better and hitting more viciously. In the eighteenth round Mehegan cut loose and gave Wells a very torrid time, catching him in corners and bashing him unmercifully. Still, Wells's marvellous footwork stood to him and enabled him to minimise the injuries. It was the same in the nineteenth, when Mehegan pressed the Hebrew very hard. Wells tried to gallop, but Mehegan had been training very hard for sprinting. In the final Mehegan walked straight in for a knock-out. Wells showed some superb defensive fighting; yet Mehegan had just got him corraled when the bell rang. Thereupon the referee handed Mehegan the loaves and fishes, and with them the championship. Some opposition was shown; but the winner had found favour with the best judges and the majority of the crowd alike. Anyhow, Wells is no squealer, and took his defeat like a good descendant of Judas Makkabi should.