SEVERE KNOCK-OUT SEEN AT STADIUM.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18937, 6 December 1929, Page 3

SEVERE KNOCK-OUT SEEN AT STADIUM.

PUNCH ILLUSTRATES VALUE OF TIMING. MELBOURNE, November 25. The most severe knock-out seen in Melbourne for years occurred at the Stadium on Saturday night. Young Palmer, the Victorian middle-weight pugilist, knocked out Pud Segar, zhe South Australian boxer, in the tenth round of an encounter. Segar sustained severe concussion and did not regain consciousness all night. The knock-out punch is the vital factor of boxing, and the very essence c.f the accomplished boxer is to be found in his power of judging distance and of “timing” his man.,

The value of timing may be roughly summed up by saying that one blow planted as the recipient :omes on is worth half a dozen inflicted while he is standing quite still, and a dozen when he is in full retreat. Of course, the two most vulnerable spots are the “ point ” and the “ mark.” The first is the point of the chin, and the other the solar plexus. In his preface to “Cashel Byron’s Profession,” Bernard Shaw says*— , “ There are pugilists to whom the process of aiming and estimating distance in hitting, of considering the evidence as to \vhat their opponent is going to do, arriving at a conclusion, and devising and carrying out effective counter-measures, is as instantaneous and unconscious as the calculation of the born arithmetician or the verbal expression of- the born writer. A man with this gift and no physical infirmities to disable? him is a born prizefighter.” , Georges Carpentier, the French champion, says:— “ If instinct itself is not a learnt lesson, keen practice is an absolute necessity in any case. I know for my part how hard I practised to strike a moving target with the uttermost force. To attain this maximum, a keen judgment of distances is wanted, and therein resides all the secret of my supposedly special punch.” Jim Fogarty, who died in Sydney last week, was known as “ the jawbreaker.” So excellent was his timing that more than once he broke a man’s jaw with a six-inch punch. It is not the big hitter who is most dangerous. It is the timing that counts, as in cricket, golf and other sports, where contact has to be made.