BOXING TANGLES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 368, 9 March 1932, Page 7

BOXING TANGLES.

Heavies Wrangle Rather than Fight. SCHMELING STILL CHAMPION. The announcement that Primo Carnera and George Cook are to meet on March 17 adds further to the boxing tangle as it appears to the average man. There has been a whirlwind of talking and threats of Court actions, but very 7 few big fights have been fought in the last year. Through it all, Max Schmeling, the German, with the assistance of his shrewd manager, Joe Jacobs, retains the title of heavyweight champion of the world. The latest is that he is to meet Jack Sharkey at New York on June 16. There is still time, however, for the match to be declared off.

Camera, with his 6ft 9in, has been talking for some time of stepping into the champion’s shoes, but he has not been able to secure an agreement worth while. He has optimistically' filed a suit alleging that Schmeling failed to fulfil a contract for a fight. Camera has been mostly in the limelight for what he might do, as against good men he has been shown up as an ungainly giant. At any rate, Jack Sharkey beat him easily enough, and was himself beaten by Schmeling. George Cook, the Australian, with about 14in to give away in height, will have to put all he knows into his match with the Italian, for he is in the veteran stage now. Cook has been a good man in the past, but not quite up to first-class standard. He has fought in most parts of the world, and against most of the good men, his latest victory being over Meen in the Empire championship series. Champion Since 1930.

Schmeling, who bears a remarkable facial resemblance to Jack Dempsey, the ex-champion, gained the title on June 12, 1930, when he beat Sharkey in the fourth round, following a foul by 7 the American. The title was awarded by the New York State Athletic Commission, Gene Tunney having retired. Schmeling met Young Stribling on July 3, 1931, when he kept the title by a technical knock-out. After Sharkey had defeated Camera it was expected that he would have a chance for a title fight, but in the meantime Schmeling had made a nebulous agreement to fight Mickey Walker, world’s middleweight champion. Nothing apparently came of this, and then Sharkey, still angling for a go at the German, offered to fight him for charity. After a lengthy and argumentative session the agreement for the latest fight was drawn up. All the accepted world titles in other weights are held by Americans, and seem likely to stay there while the sport is run on the present lines, which means little control at all. An exception was the win of Kid Berg, a London Jew, in a battle for the junior welter-weight crown.