BIG BOXERS NOW HOLD LIMELIGHT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18467, 19 May 1928, Page 7

BIG BOXERS NOW HOLD LIMELIGHT.

LIGHT HEAVY-WEIGHTS ALSO PROMINENT. By TOMMY LOUGH RAN. (Light Heavy-weight Champion of the World). Different classes are popular with the .boxing public at different times. Twenty years ago the light-weights were the drawing cards, and it was with a pair of light-weights. Battling Nelson and Joe Gans. that Tex Rickard made his start as a promoter. After Jack Johnson beat Jeffries, interest in the heavy-weights died down until the “ White Hope ” craze began. The interest then continued until Dempsey had cleaned up the class and stopped fighting for a couple of years Now the big fellows hold the limelight again. And the light heavyweights get into the picture, too, be cause a number of us have boxed successfully in the unlimited class. This slimmer will see a lot of action among the men i: m 175 pounds up. In addition to the ivy-weight championship fight there will be a bunch of other bouts. Tex Rickard will have several big men featured besides Tunney and Heeney. Humbert Fugazy and Jim Mullen have combined to put on an elimination scries ot their own. They are going to play' up George Godfrey. Knute Hansen. Paulino Uzcudun, the big youngster, Roberto Roberti, and others Tex left out of his series. Regardless how much or how little class there is among these fellows, they’re going to make a lot of money out of the interest in heavy-weights. It will be a g«-od break for men like Hansen, in particular. Knute hasn’t had a fight in America since he stopped Phil Scott in a punch. . He beat Bertalazzo. the Italian, in ten rounds at Copenhagen, but that was his only fight. And Knute can't live on the newspaper clippings telling about his win over Scott. Charley Harvey, good old Charley, who is handling Tom Heeney, may get a break for his Maine lumberjack. Rosy Boutot. too. This Rosy is a giant who got a lot of strength in his shoulders by laying into trees with an axe. lie's a hard hitter, and he has scored knockouts in ail his ten fights. Of course he doesn’t know much vet but a fellow who can punch the way he does always attrac ts attention. Rosy should get lots of work this summer in preliminary bouts, and may be ready for Vetter things in 1923. I’ve said before, and I say again, that it takes at least three years to make, a fighter You can't rush them in over night and expert them to get anywhere.

When I was starting exit in Pliila delphia a young light heavy-weight named Andy S« hmsder w< n a couple of fights with knockouts. In his third bout thev tosred bebmader in with Bill Brennan, then cnc of the best heavy-weights in the g;,me. Andy was fairly murdered, and never amounted to anything afterward. Ilarvev isn't going to make that mistake with Boutot. So far as attendance, big purses and everything go. tin's ought to be the biggest summer the boxing game ever saw. even though a heavy-weight fight doesn't, take in as much as the TxmneyDempscy fight at Soldier Field last NANAI