BRITISH BOXERS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17216, 6 December 1923, Page 8

BRITISH BOXERS

CANNOT TAKE A PUNCH. LONDON, November 25. • Why floes the present-day heavyweight light usually end in a fiasco?” asks Tom Webster, in an article in the • Weekly Dispatch.” He answers his own question in this way: “There is too much at stake nowadays for the men to do themselves justice. Defeat, while it does not exactly mean oblivion, practically puts the boxer out of the running for anv really big money. “Men like Carpentier find the responsibility an incentive but it is a handicap to the men of lesser mental cadi*, re. ol whom the British ring is cord posed to-dav. “Three successful fights of any importance give a heavyweight a cornfort able fortune. There is an instance in Beckett, a mediocre boxer, who was. after defeating Wells and Goddard, immediately matched with Carpentier for a tremendous purse, win or lose. “Jl he had won he would have been matched with Dempsey for the wofld’s championship and a great fortune. There is no equivalent to this in any other branch of life. The position overcame Beckett. He became mentally paralysed, and was spilled all over the floor. Anxiety always weak-

ens the nerve ami muscles of one or the oilier- of the boxers in a big match to such art extent that he is susceptible to the slightest punch. “ Out- men cannot take a punch. ( ook. who doesn’t know how to hit, had Goddard spreadeagled over the ropes in the first round Firpo took more punishment from Dempsey in the first round limn all oily heavyweights have taken in the last five years. Dempsey took lour right-hand punches on the jaw. one of which would hare been sufficient to send any of our heavyweights round to the office for the losing end of the purse. “1 wish we had a fighter like that. Until our men learn to take the punch, until they learn*more of their business, and until they learn to take a smaller purse and so have more fights, we will still have these fiascos.”