BOXING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19048, 27 June 1924, Page 11

BOXING

ENGLAND’S BOXERS Mr. Eugene Coni, the well-known English referee and critic, pens trfe following interesting review on boxing in tho Homeland. Wc are expecting quite a small army of Scotsmen at the National Sporting Club on Monday night, when George McKenzie, nephew of Taney Lee, the old champion, will appear in the s’emi-final of the Lonsdale Featherweight Belt competition against Billy Palmer, son of the renowned “Pedlar.” It is a bout of immense' interest, especially to old timers, but, unlike many of my friends, I have not as yet been able to discover in young Palmer qualities that remind me of his father. The son has a great deal of the perkiness of Pedlar—so much you might expect—but he is far from being a wonder, or ever likely to develop one. He has not the extraordinary mentality that was once the Pedlar’s; merely he is given to racing around at a high speed, very much after the manner of present day youngsters, who make a fetish of sprinting, and I shall be surprised if the well-trained and clever Scot does not march into the final and ultimately carry off the belt. It is all to the credit of Palmer that he has defeated Jack Slattery, and I am reminded that on a occasion in the East End he went 20 rounds with the young man of Leith, but after a close study of them, I have come to the conclusion that Palmer is nothing like such a fighter as McKenzie, who, as was his famous uncle, is particularly effective at close quarters. At his poundage Scotland has no better boxer than McKenzie. He was, as most of you will remember, in a class almost by himself as an amateur, and since he joined the professionals, he has gone on improving. FIGHTING SCOTS BROTHERS. I “He will certainly be favourite on Monday, and, as I have suggested, he should justify his favouritism to the full. It is possible that he will go very far, and it is not unlikely that his younger brother, Jimmy, who made a tremendous fight in the final of the bantam at tho amateur championships, will Via much distinction if he turns professional. His contest with E. Warwick at Alexander Palace stood out as one of the brightest features of the meeting, and he came very near to wining the title in the first round. “I am expecting that some day soon we shall? all be talking and writing about "the fighting McKenzies.” I see in both of them the practised hand of Taney Lee. OUR BEST HEAVYWEIGHT HOPE. “I do hope that now he appears to have got a fair distance along the road which leads to uncommon success, Phil Scott the London fireman will not take on bad ways; that is, that he will not, as so many of our youngsters do, once they have got their foot on the ladder, develop a weakness of holding and mauling. I say this because, at a charity show at the National Sporting Club on Tuesday, in an affair with the Belgian heavyweight, Humbeeck, he helped to make up a business by clinching. If Sept is to realise the expectations which he himself has built up, he will have nothing to do with tugging and holding. “It is true that the Belgian, who came to headquarters, with a record most imposing, made it difficult for Scott to be his natural self, but he nevertheless, helped to spoil what promised to be a very interesting and illuminating bout. Scott must remember that clinching has nothing whatever to do with in-fighting. It is natural that he"should try to get close, but, having done so, the idea was to punch. Scott is on the threshold of what should be a highly successful career, but he will find himself in a rut if he does not improve his work at close quarters. “Had I his youth and splendid physical qualities, I should make the most of reach and known punching power. I should not reduce my natural advantage by kind of sprawling on the top of the other fellow. Scott has a very fine right hand, but he will be more certain of becoming a top notcher if he places greater store in his left. I am mightily interested in this young man, and he has convinced me that he has it in him to get right to the front. But he has quite a lot to learn, and I trust that he will not be influenced by those who are telling him that he is ripe for fights with the best in the business. It will be all to his good if he continues to jog along in the same way he has pursued since he surprised everybody by his performance in the Crystal Palace Tournament some months ago.

“My advice to him is not to forget that in the fighting business it often happens that more haste makes for less speed. He defeated Humbeeck all right on points, but if he had made more use of the ring, and drawn to the fullest extent upon his boxing and fighting, he would probably have knocked the Belgian out. If Scott does make a slide backwards, he will only have himself to blame, for if ever a man was made for fighting that man is Scott. If he fails us, I do not know where we may look for a possible heavyweight champion. “Jack Curley, whose acquaintance I first made when he was a ring promoter of wrestling in America —it was Curley, if I remember right, who brought Frank Gotch (he of the terrible toe hold) and George Hackensmidt on to the mat—was in Paris at the beginning of the week, and took himself to the Velodrome Buffalo, where you will recollect Carpentier met with his inglorious defeat, by Battling Siki, who, by the way, is not heard of these days, and made final arrangements with Descamps for the much discussed trip to the States. The presence of Curley in France rathe,r suggests that the Americans do not intend to take any chances. I do not think they feared the possibility of Carpentier backing out of his cabled agreement, but with Major Wilson still in the field, there was really no telling what might have happened. It is Tom Gibbons whom Carpentier is first to fight

on the other side, and I am wondering whether, if he goes down, his engagement with ‘Gene Tunney’ will hold good. The Americans would have little use for Carpentier if Gibbons beat him, and, knowing Descamps as I do, I am surprised that he takes a victory for Georges for granted. I have it from Dempsey that Gibbons is a formidable proposition, and since it is agreed, as well as it is obvious, that Carpentier is not the man that he was, he might be about to bite off more than he can chew. I cannot shed the idea that Carpentier should have cut America out of his immedate reckoning and toed the line against Jack Bloomfield.”