UPROAR CAUSED , AT BOXING BOUT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18467, 19 May 1928, Page 2

UPROAR CAUSED , AT BOXING BOUT.

SPECTATORS QUESTION REFEREE’S COUNT.

(Special to the “Star.’*) AUCKLAND, May 19. "Nine—out,” counted the referee, Mr R. Meale, raising Artie Hay’s glove in the fourteenth round, and Nelson noted for knocking out his opponents, was himself officially outed at the Town Hall last night, amid an uproar of surprise, and dissension from a considerable body of a very large crowd of spectators. It was a dramatic final to a bout which did not in any respect go according to anticipation.

At the moment the referee crowned Hay there was the officially-knocked-out M’Knight on his feet alternately protesting and doing a sprightly pirouette in evidence that he was master of himself, while the whole body of the audience rose, many of them yelling, either in protest or in accord. Undoubtedly the decision came as a genuine surprise, for M’Knight, after going down to a right cross to the jaw, was obviously waiting on his hand and knee preparatory to rising when he had taken advantage of the count to eight or nine, and was rising when counted out. Seen later in the dressing room, M’Knight, keenly disappointed though he was, made a fair sporting statement. “There was a mistake somewhere,” he said. "I’m not saying Mr Meale was wrong. I may have made the mistake. I got up at the count of nine, although I could have got up at three, and was just waiting.” Clearly the referee ruled chat at the count M’Knight had not got up. He was in the act of rising from his left hand and knee, but whether or not he was late in getting his knee clear of the floor is the subject of highly conflicting opinions among the onlookers. The referee, however, evidently had no doubts. As to the fight itself, Hay decisively won every round to the seventh. The remaining seven were more even, with M’Knight fighting back strongly. The Hamiltonian was at his best in the tenth. In the fourteenth he was sent down twice previous to the blow that ended the fight so sensationally, first with a right hook to the jaw and on the sedond occasion by a straight left, followed by a right cross to the jaw The match was for a purse of £IOO