BOXING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20085, 2 March 1928, Page 5

BOXING

NEW ZEALANDER’S FIGHT ON THE WAY TO PRESTIGE. HEENEY AND HIS ASPIRANTS. In view of the impending bout between Heeney and Delaney, the following, by Air A; J. Daniels in tho Sporting Life, London, on January 1.1, just before the Heeney-Sharkey fight, will be interesting:— Curious, isn't it, how circumstances all er men and cases? says Mr Daniels. If Tom Heeney, the New Zealand heavy-weight champion, had stayed in England, tho best he could hope for m the way of money-making engagements was a further contest with Phil Scott, the British champion; now', in the States, Heeney is swimming with the tide of fortune that may land him on the million-dollar shore along with Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunnoy. As a contrast, Scott, though he beat Heeney in each of their contests in Tngland, and probably would always have beaten him had tho two remain-

cd here, did very little good in the States, and, should he return, as he says positively he will, may have missed the tide altogether. This much consolation can be drawn I from the contrast —that although tho j recognised British champion was a i comparative failure in America, an- , other Britisher in Heeney is making good. Irsh Parents. Heeney, born in New Zealand of Irish-born parents, is as much an allBritisher as was tho late Bob Fitzsimmons, born in Cornwall but taken to Australia by his parents at a tender age an 1 we can, thereof orc, regard his exploits abroad with interest and a sense of national pride. Air Bernard Mortimer, Heeney’s manager, has been giving New York newspaper men his views on the different ring regulations in force in England and the States. Because of this difference British boxers are at a disadvantage when they go to the States, Reuter reports him as saying. “It seems to inc,” said Air Mortimer, “that too much holding is allowed here, with punching with one hand in clinches. Where I come from a fighter is permitted to punch on the break, and, as a result, he manoeuvres for tho break. In the United States if a boxer gets himself in an awkward position under the ropes, or with his back turned to a punch, the referee steps in and stops the contest until he is out of difficulty. “Our men have to defend themselves at all times without the help of the referee.” Air Mortimer favoured one referee at a fight, as in England, in preference to judges and a referee, as in America.