THE MILLIONDOLLAR PURSE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18396, 24 February 1928, Page 3

THE MILLIONDOLLAR PURSE.

WHAT IS IT LEADING TO? The following article appeared in the “ San Francisco Chronicle ” of January 2. the author being Westbrook Pegler, ope of the leading sports writers in America:— Mr Tex Rickard is making haste very slowly in his preparations for the heavyweight championship prize fight of 1928, but he always works in mysterious fashion his wonders to perform and there is no doubt that he will produce a third showing of the Dempsey-Tunney spectacle. I have no positive idea nor any particular curiosity as to where this show will be held. My only interest in it concerns the amazing trustfulness of the customers which will remain a marvel to me until that inevitable when some of the boys in the racket pull off something so defiantly raw as to cause the abolition of all prize fighting even in its subtlest disguises and pretexts everywhere in the United States. The tremendous multiplication of money involved in the heavy weight championship has been accompanied by a corresponding advance in the the sister science of burglary and the time is bound to come when professional zeal in this department will produce a master fraud which will turn the customers from the ring and relegate the cauliflower to the category of odious fungi. When one considers man for man the personnel intimately involved in the perpetration of a heavy weight championship fight nowadays, and then considers the amount of money involved in the championship, the wonder is that a Nation which prides itself on its business is the only Nation on earth where million dollar fights are feasible. I don’t suppose it ever has lx:en definitely pointed out that the boys in the ring are under absolutely no obligation to put up an honest fight but are strictly on their honour to deal squarely wdth the customers. There is nothing in the articles of a championship fight which forbids one or the other of the boys to take a jab on the elbow and fall down for a knockout count. There is no clause to prevent a faker from faking. From what I have seen of heavyweight champions in my time I should say that the strain on the honour is too severe.

Neither is there any redress for the customers after they have contributed, say 2,000,000 dollars, to see a fight in which the referee, at the instigation of a poolroom championship one way or another contrary to the merits of the fight as waged in the ring. A referee who may be down to racking pool balls for a living for 5 dollars a day, finding himself appointed to judge a 2.000,000 dollar fight' for a fee of 1000 dollars, might conceivably be impervious to a bribe of 100,000 dollars for deciding against the favourite or otherwise distorting the natural result of the battle but only in the prizefight profession will you find such question able men honoured with such child-like trust.

If, after a discreet lapse of time, the referee begins to drive to his work of racking pool baths in a 15,000 dollar car manned by an engineer there may be some doubt that, he saved the money out of his wages but by the time the last heavyweight championship fight has been forgotten, the champion making speeches about the impeccable hon-

our of the officials concerned in it and Mr Rickard is again sticking pins Into the map in search of a soft spot in which to hold the next one.

Of course, the rest of the industry is subject to the same criticisms in proportion to the money involved, but. the money involved there is insignificant as compared by every championship bout in the heavyweight class. My point is that the heavyweight championship fights can’t be straight any more unless it so happens that in the struggle of opposing factions of thieves to steal from one another they strike a perfect balance and offset one another’s efforts. With so much money at stake, and such skilled and determined crooks in the business, it is childish to go to the ringside or twiddle the knobs of the radio with a belief that one is about to see or hear the story of a fair contest impartially decided.