BOXING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1150, 25 April 1912, Page 14

BOXING.

The ex-New i Zealand heavyweight, Bill Rudd, has only met with a fair degree of success in his engagements in Australia,. and . last week in Sydney he-; met with a further reverse, his conqueror being Pat Bradley. The latter, though not possessed of any great amount of skill, is a hard hitter. 'and he had Rudd in trouble soon after the commencement of the bout. In fact, the New Zealander looked a beaten man after the first couple of minutes, and on no less than six occasions he was sent to the boards, the last time to take the count in the second round. * * * V Australia’s heavyweight, Bill Lang, cannot keep himself away from the lure of the ring, and within the next few weeks the big Victorian will probably be matched against the Americans, Jim Barry and “Porky” Flynn. Lang’s decision to re-enter the pugilistic arena is another tribute to the pluck of that boxer, for the reverses he met with prior to taking his present spell from active participation in boxing contests were thought to have determined him to dispense with boxing as a profession. * * * ♦ “Should Jim Jeffries come out flatfooted and announce his intention of re-entering the ring (says the “Denver Post”) his Los Angelos supporters will be flocking to him as of old. Jeff hates Jack Johnson as he hates no other man. Johnson has never lost an opportunity since the Reno r.ffar to belittle Jim, and these shafts of sarcasm and ridicule have left open wounds.” In Chicago recently Johnson was quoted as saying that he would like another chance at Jim, and referred to him as “the easiest of the lot.” • * * * The result of the battle between Billy Hannan, who is well known throughout New Zealand, and the South African, Arthur Douglas, which took place in Brisbane on Saturday night, will be awaited with interest, for in the event of Hannan being successful he has stated his intention of challenging the crack lightweight, Jack Read. A contest between Hannan and Read would provide hox'ng patrons on the} other side of the Tasman with an ’ exhibition something out of the ordinary, as it would be hard to find as clever a pair of glove artists anywhere. . ft * ❖ * Word comes from America that Bob Fitzsimmon’s son (by his first wife) is likely to follow in the footsteps of his father, who is most enthusiastic about his boxing prospects. Fitzsimmons, jun., though only 17 years of age, is said to be just on 6ft. in height and 12st. in weight. Bob himself is the lad’s daily tutor. • • • * Despite his recent illness, which has kept him out of the ring for close on a year, Ad. Wolgast, the world’s lightweight champion, must still be regarded as the Wolgast of old by American fight promoters, for he has been offered £3 000 to meet Joe Rivers on July 4 th. As it is since Christmas that Wolgast left the hospital in a weakened state, after a bad attack of appendicitis, it is unlikely that the lightweight champion will be able to reproduce his old form so soon after a serious illness, especially as this will be his first important match for some time. Wolgast has of late been restricting his engagements to short try-out bouts, and even these have sufficed to render him in an exhausted condition at their termination. Though he has a couple of months yet in which to prepare himself for his match with Rivers, he will probably find training operations too severe a tax on his constitution following an illness, and it would seem the promoter of the match, Tom McCarey. has unbounded faith in Wolgast to make him so munificent an offer after his enforced absence from the ring. * * * * According to reports from America there seems every possibility of George Hackenschmidt and Frank Gotch again coming to holds for the world’s wrestling championship. The Russian is particularly keen on meeting the champion a third time, and

is hopeful of avenging his formei’ defeats at the hands of the lo'wa wrestler. Despite Hackenschmidt’s poor showing during his recent match with Gotch, a further contest between the pair is now being regarded as a certain drawing card by American promoters, and there is every likelihood of these two world-famed wrestlers again measuring strength and skill at no distant date. Gotch has i lately signed articles to meet Zbyszko in a match to take place at Portland (U.S.) in July next, which is taken as a sure sign that the world’s champion does not intend to quit the wrestling game just yet. The Polish wrestler, Zbyszko, is considered by authorities on wrestling to be one of the greatest exponents the world has ever known, and the resu’t of his many engagements during the past year or so proves that he is a. worthy aspirant for world’s championship honours.

When Tommy Burns was at the height of his fame as a boxer many attempts were made, without success, to bring off a match between the ex-world’s champion and Sam Langford. The similarity in height and build of these two famous box-

ers, combined with their undoubted skill and hard hitting powers, all tended to make a proposed meeting between the pair a Subject for persistent advocacy among sporting writers, but, although at one time there appeared every prospect of these rival boxers being brought face to face within the roped arena, negotiations fell through at the last [moment. Now, however, cable announcements from America state that Sam Langford has been offered a purse of £7OOO to meet Tommy Burns in a contest at Langdon, Alberta, Canada, which offer the Bostonian has accepted, so that a Lang-ford-Burns match appears practically certain. The matching of these two great light heavyweight fighters will cause world-wide interest in boxing circles, and should not fall far short of the Johnson-Jeffries fight in the matter of huge gate receipts, for Canadians have a wide respect for their rellow countryman, Tommy Burns, and can be expected to assemble in thousands to see him do battle against the stocky negro. « * * * The only matter for regret in connection with the Langford-Burns fight is that the coloured boxer has to meet the “Canadian Wonder” at a time when there is little doubt the latter is not the formidable opponent he w'as, say, four years ago. Even Burns’ assurances that as the result of a process of steady training he is his old self again, fail to convince one that the one-time world’s champion is still the tough proposition he proved himself to be in the series of battles which led up to his meeting with Johnson on Boxing Day, 1908. Had he met Langford at that

period the chances are he would have defeated the negro boxer, as at his weight and height Burns, when in the prime of his boxing career, had no equal in the world. The Burns of to-day, however, is not nearly so great a power in the pugilistic world, and were he even to draw, much less defeat, Langford his success would come as a great surprise to close followers of boxing. Langford’s latest defeat of McVea plainly shows that the coloured Bostonian is as formidable as ever,, and atones for his former beating on Boxing Day last, which has formed a subject of much discussion among those who were present at the ringside when “Snowy” Baker gave his decision in favour of McVea. The matching of Burns and Langford can safely be taken as a medium of enriching the promoters handling the project rather than a desire on their part to avenge the terrible beating administered to the white hope, James Jefries, by the coloured champion, Jack Johnson, at Reno in July of 1910.

That Tommy Burns is shaping well in his training bouts is borne out by the glowing accounts in the American papers regarding his re-

turn to form, but it would be unwise to place too much reliance in these reports of the ex-champion’s bouts with his sparring partners, as the lacter are at best a very moderate lot of exponents. Langford no doubt views his forthcoming meeting with Burns as an excellent opportunity of amassing a small fortune without running any great risk of injury to his reputation, for the offer of £7OOO to visit America and fight the world’s ex-champion is by far the best that the “Boston Tar Baby’ has been confronted with. Great fighter as Langford is, it would be suicidal for hm to hold a boxer of Burns’ calibre too cheaply, as despite his lengthy absence from the ring the ex-cham-pion is said to have lost none of his speed, and this essential attribute in boxing encounters often largely counts in turning the tide of battle. Burns’ chief handicap in his proposed contest with Langford will be on the score of stamina, as the constant training necessary to rid him of the superfluous flesh which encases his muscular frame is certain to make inroads on his health after enjoying a fairly easy time of it. With Langford it is different, the coloured man being at present in the pink of condition, and he will want but little training to keep himself up to concert pitch to meet Burns. The latter may manage to keep his coloured opponent at bay for a number of rounds, but when his strength and breathing apparatus commence to fail him, and the great Langford, in all probability growing stronger every round, brings his deadly short punches into operation, then another white hope’s star will have set, and once again the black man’s undisguised triumph will be complete.

Jack Lester, whose ambitious nature, has resulted in a series of defeats being entered up against his name in his ring engagements in Australia, is now fighting in a different class, and, is consequently getting a little of his own back. In both of his last two battles Lester has proved victorious, his defeat of Howard last week being particularly convincing. Lester fought like a demon throughout, and his vigorous tactics were too much for Howard, who was early in trouble. In the eighth round Howard was floored for four seconds, blood pouiing from the Australian’s mouth. He gallantly regained his feet, and battled away valiantly, but he was unsteady on his feet, and was receiving such a severe beating that the contest was stopped by the police in the tenth round, and Lester declared the winner.

J. King, the young New South Wales bantam weight, who journeyed across to these shores in 1910 with the team of Australian amateur boxers, and won the title of Australasian amateur bantam-weight champion at the carnival held in His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland, has succeeded in

again defeating all of his opponents at tne Commonwealth State amateur championships, the finals of which were rought in Sydney last week. In tne final four-round bout, King had a lighter though very clever opponent in Wastie, who at the end of the third lound had a fairly pronounced lead on points. In the fourth term however, King, who fought grimly, was able to make up the leeway, snatching a most meritoriously earned victory on the post. Both victor and vanquished were given a well-deserved ovation, the opinion being that a finer fourround bout had not been seen in Sydney for some time. • • ♦ » Sam Langford’s decisive victory over McVea leaves little doubt in the minds of ring enthusiasts that the “Boston Tar Baby” carries too many guns for his redoubtable rival, but nevertheless the smaller Sam will again have to put his boxing powers to the test in a further match with McVea at no distant date before that boxer is satisfied. Immediately on gaining his victory Langford stated his willingness to give McVea another contest should the latter desire it, which is in marked contrast to McVea’s point-blank refusal to meet Langford in a return match after gaining a doubtful decision over the Bostonian on Boxing Day. Langford’s straight out dealings in pugilistic matters have gained him wide popularity in the Commonwealth, where his sportsmanlike actions have all along been recognised. Mr H. D. Mclntosh has been busy making arrangements for the third meeting of the two Sams at the Sydney Stadium on May 11, but during last week his plans received a set-back as the result of McVea

meeting with an injury which may mean a postponement of the date fixed tor tne encounter. It was while making adjustments to his moto?' car —the same machine which, according to McVea’s manager, cost him the fight, owing to his neglect of training operations to fiddle around with his “buzz waggon”—that McVea caught the top of his forefinger in the mechanism and received a painful injury which is likely to keep him from donning a glove for several weeks. However, Langford . will meet him, even if the contest has to be put forward a few weeks,’ before sailing for America, and as each of the coloured fighters has one victory to his credit in Australia, the third combat will be accepted as a final gauge of their respective merits.

In quoting a number of instances w r here boxers of small stature have succeeded in vanquishing giant pugilists a writer in the New York “World” mentions the following thrilling contest in which John L. Sullivan was one of the participants. Away back in 1888, John L. Sullivan was champion of the world, and a genuine champion. He was always ready to fight anything that walked on two feet —except that he drew the colour line. He took part in scores of des-

perate fights—and most of them were finish fights. He was as savage a man as ever fought in a ring. This was in the days of the London prize ring rules, when men fought with bare fists, and wrestled and caught chancery holds and did various other things now considered foul. The 1888 date that I refer to was the year in which Sullivan met Charlie Mitchell. Mitchell was a welterweight, but he was always fighting heavyweights. He was known simply as the “boxing champion of England.” He boxed a four-round go (stopped by the police) with Sullivan in Madison Square Garden in New York, and on that occasion knocked Sullivan fiat on his back —the first knock-down he had ever experienced. This fight in 1888 was at Chantilly, France, to a finish. The fighters met in a private park, on the wet and soggy turf, for it was raining hard. They fought for three hours and eleven minutes, thirty-nine rounds, London prize ring rules. Mitchell, being only about half as big as Sullivan, had to depend upon his cleverness. He jumped in and out and jabbed and hooked and got clear away, while John L. fanned the air with his swings, until Sullivan was winded and disgusted. The heavy mud made it hard fighting. At last when darkness came the battle was declared a “draw,” with the consent of both fighters. But the honours really belonged to little Charlie Mitchell, who had faced the greatest heavyweight in the world and had fought him to a standstill. Mitchell proved that a man need not be a giant to be in the heavyweight championship class. # • • • The boxing season in Auckland will shortly be opened, and the Northern Boxing Association are now engage! making active preparations.