BOXING

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17906, 23 July 1926, Page 3

BOXING

NOTES AND COMMENTS BY

“ CESTUS.”

The Canterbury amateur champion- ; tips staged at the Caledonian Hall on \\ ednesday night produced some excellent exhibitions, and taken all round the contestants showed themselves to be of a stamp that will in future years uphold the good name that CantcrImrv has earned for herself in rings throughout New Zealand and in Australia. “Twist” Jaggers, who needs no introduction, carried oft the welter-weight, title in finished style. .Taggers gave a display of straight hitting without waste of energy that has not been surpassed by any amateur in a Canterbury ring in recent years. He used a fine mingling of scieive with an ability to hit hard. Taggers is a clever boxer and he should have a splendid chance of winning the New Zealand welterweight championship at^Xapier. Alec” Thompson, many thought, 'va:' the victim of a wrong decision in hi- bout with Pocock. It certainly did look a? if the New Zealand champion had met his Waterloo, for there is no doubt thr. * he was nonplussed by the vigorous attack that Thompson meted out to him. Hut, the slow beginning and the tiring finish tliat Thompson made evidently weighed against him in the referee's count. X. Moulin never fought better in his life than when he met Carey in the light-weight class. Moulin made the contest the brilliant one it was, and he seemed to win by a fair margin, but he

went under by one of those mysteries that arc part and parcel of boxing matches. Other good performers were Howell, j Black and Wright Once again ‘he programme was commenced many minutes after the appointed time. It will be a great day in the history «.f boxing in this city when the first bell rings on time. A great deal more could have been done to produce l»eiter lighting. The ordinary hall light - arc not sufficient j to give all the light a boxer needs. The 1926 amateur champions of Can terbury arc: — Fly weight V. Howell. I ’.antam r Mie < ight--\ Ilowell. I'eather-wcaght —L. Black. Light-weight -W. Carey. Welter-weight—T. .Taggers Middle-weight—C. Pocock. Light-heavy-weight —J. Kirkland. Heavy-weight J. Jeffries. Ilowell was unopposed in the flyweight and Jeffries also had a walkover in his division. J. Humphries, of Invercargill, who learned the game under the capable tuition of Fitz Holland, with whom he was for a period as an assistant instructor. called on me to report that he had just returned from a visit to Australia, where he had been for some three or four months. Shortly after reaching Queensland Humphries fell a victim to dengue fever and this threw him back and disarranged his programme, which was to engage in several contests. He, however, secured two matches, winning against Tacey and losing on points to Hill. feather-weight champion of Queensland. During his stay in Sydncv Humphries visited various training camps, and sparred with a number of well-known boxers, all for the purpose of gaining experience. Humphries proposes to take up his residence, in Christchurch, and is open to accept j an engagement as instructor, and also j jc, prepared to meet arty of the 9st pro- j

Trowern. I understand, has returned to Xew Zealand. He took on Xorkev Fowler at Leichhardt ASvdney> with an injured hand, which received further injury in the encounter. The •Referee” says the contest ‘was very even throughout, and referee Ern Elliot crowned Fowler winner on points amid hoots and cheers.” __ Tom Heeney’s two recent fights against Berry and Scott appear to have given him the lift he was unable ’o get by issuing challenges. Following his splendid fight with Scott, the English champion, he was matched against Madden, an Irish-American. The date of the contest is August 9. nd the cable reports that should Tleeney win he will have a return match with Scott. Of Billy Edwards. *of Newcastle. X SAW. an authority writes: “This boy is surely going to rise higher than an Australian champion. He is the most promising middle-weight Australia has seen since the late Les Darcy. Properlv handled and not overworked, he *»ught to make ring history." Edwards, who was t orn at Auckland on December 23. 1906. of Australian parents. has taken part in thirty-three contests for twenty-seven wins, five defeats and one draw. Ilis last light was on July 10. when he knocked out Alf Stewart, of Melbourne, ex-middle-weight champion of Australia, in the fifth round. For two rounds of the Saturday right (July 10* scrap at the Sydney .. Tom Uren gave “Sunny”

Jim Williams a lesson in the niceties of the noble art (says the “Bulletin”). 1 Then James made up his mind that I trying to box the old master was no game for him. and when the bell rang for the third stanza he rushed in and slammed away in Rafferty fashion. He had been sneaking in illegal punches to the back of the neck earlier: now he simply defied the referee and the ghost of “Old Q." Uren was banged to the canvas. Up at once, he tried to keep away and box. but heavy swings to i the head and body put him down for j the count just before the end of the round. The coon is a dangerous rough-house fighter, but a stricter referee would have disqualified him for using the “rabbiter.” The veteran Rocky Kansas, as anticipated. did not long retain the lightweight title. A cable in Australian paj pers announces that he was defeated on points, on July 3. by Sammy Mandell. in a contset that was “of an unsatisfactory nature and verv tame.” There is a new light-heavy-weight champion of the world. At. Xew York, on July 16. Jack Delaney gained a points victory over the holder. Paul Berlenbach. in a fifteen-round bout. This was their third meeting. In the first, which took place before Berlenbach had won the title, Delaney won on a knock-out; in the second, which was for the title. Berlenbach won on points in a contest ever which Press opinions were divided as to the win-

jack Johnson, ex-champion, who recently scored a win over a big young husky, named Lester, faced a different proposition when be got into the ring with Bob Lawson, a Xew York negro light-rhea vy-weight. Lawson took all that Johnson could hand out for the first few rounds, and then waded in and punched his opponent so often and so heavily that he was all in at the end of the seventh round. The bout was staged, as was that against Lester. at Juarez. Mexico. Johnson is unable to box in the United States, as he cannot obtain a license, commissions having brought in an age limit, apd Johnson has passed the limit by a good many Some authorities sa\- he is forty-eight, while, others go up as high as fiftv-three. An American cable states that Demp-s-y and Tunney will fight at < hicago on September 16. If the information is correct, either Tex Rickards, the promoter. has arranged the match with the consent of the Xew York Commission, or he has defied the commission and transferred the venue to Chicago, which has just passed a law legalising professional contests. Latest advices to hand state that. Rickards had definitely announced that Dempsey would fight on September 16, but that neither the venue nor the champion's opponent had been selected. The chairman of the Xew York Commission stood firmly for a Dempsey-Wills fight, but his colleagues were opposed to the big negro being Dempsey's opponent, on the grounds that the match was not desirable from a public point of view. Rickards, having big financial interests at stake in Xew York, could not afford to defy the Commission, and no doubt a whole wad of strings have been pulled lately to bring about the Dempsey-Tunney match, if it really has been arranged.