JACK HOOD

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18643, 21 December 1928, Page 6

JACK HOOD

BRITAIN'S BEST BOXER

That boxing champions are born, not made, is an article of faith with veteran students of the game and of men (writes A. J. Daniels in London “Sporting Life”). The knowledge of boxing can be implanted in any youth: but unless he has hardihood of spirit, as well as of physique, innate courage, and combativeness, boxing skill alone will not avail him. Fighting, or boxing, must be in the blood; to achieve greatness in the ring it must be born in one. The combative instinct must be there to begin with, though that primal gift is not in itself the only quality needed for the making of the complete boxer. Men such as Jim Driscoll, Jimmy W ilde, Ted (Kid) Lewis, Carpentier, Jack Dempsey, Pedlar Palmer, Owen Moran—-to mention only a few moderns—had the combative instinct in large measure. Force of character and the gift, or acquisition, of what is called boxing brains were other qualities which assisted in making world famous the group of boxers named.

Sometimes, but not alwat's, the “born fighter” is given ambition as an added driving force; sometimes it is vanity that spurs him on. Looking over the list of names of men who stand at the head of British boxing one stops at that of Teddy Baldock as the one possessing in the highest degree the naturally combative | spirit.

He* is the born fighter: one who, in the heat of battle, becomes almost careless as to blows he may receive as long as he can get one in upon an opponent.

Baldock is more of the Jack Dempsey than, say, the Gene Tunnev type, and for that reason he is one of the best-beloved idols of the British sporting public. Jack Hood, the British welter-weight champion, and Johnny Hill, the flyweight champion, are others of our boxers who have that in them which appeals to everyone who goes boxing. They fight back the more determinedly the more things are going against them. But they have cool boxing brains as well as the primitive instinct to fight, and native caution makes them at times less spectacular to watch than Baldock.

As a combination of boxer and fighter, I am disposed to put Hood at the head of the list of British boxers. I remember well the first time I saw him box in London., He was meeting the foreigner, Verrett, a hard, welltrained man. a typical Continental fighter of proved class and ability. To watch Hood beat him by a combination of science, ringcraft and fighting power was a sheer boxing delight, and for a week afterwards I went about telling everyone that T had looked on the best all-round boxer seen in

Apart from his first contest with Harry Mason, Hood has done nothing to alter a first-formed opinion and everything to confirm it.

Hood's defeat of Len Johnson in the presence of the Prince of Wales and a host of other notables was, in my opinion, a ring classic; the crowning achievement of a great boxer.