BOXING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1371, 3 August 1916, Page 4

BOXING.

DAVE SMITH BEATEN. CROUSE WINS IN NINTH ROUND. The matching of brilliant Dave Smith with the rugged, taller and heavier American mid-heavy, Buck Crouse, created a great amount of interest, and was the subject of considerable conversation and argument in all Australian sporting centres for two weeks past. Many argued that because Darcy knocked Crouse out in less than a round, Smith, who went twelve rounds with the world’s champion, must necessarily beat Crouse easily. It was a poor argument; for any student of the game knows that there is no such thing as logical deduction in boxing matters (remarks the Sydney “Sportsman”), and though

Crouse was defeated almost ignominiously by the East Maitland miracle, he showed dash and a punch during even that short fight, and subsequently went to Melbourne and proved that he is a boxer by defeating on points the really clever Mick King, a man who takes a devil of a lot of beating on points, be it said. A fine strapping man of 26, and close on 6ft., Crouse may be said to have had every natural advantage over Smith, 30 years and sft. 9in. Smith’s weight was given at list. 105& lb., while Crouse turned the scale at 12st. 2% lb. There is no burking the fact that Smith was handicapped in his training by that bad injury to his nose, sustained in the first round of his fight with Darcy; while the beating was too recent for Dave’s good; but, big-hearted as ever, he boxed remarkably fast and well, with Ray Kearney, at the Thursday matinee, and had done good work in the Smith-Kearney Gym. Bath House. Crouse had trained at The Grand, Waverley, and was as fit as hands could make him. Two splendidly shapely men, of wide experience and noted skill, their meeting seemed to prerage a great comhat.

And so it transpired. The hungriest, most bloodthirsty fan could not ask for a more stirring, enthralling fight for his money. From referee Scott’s first shout of ‘ box on” to the moment Smith swung past Crouse, by the impetus of his own avoided right swing, as the bell rang at the end of the ninth round, and staggered, semiblinded with blood to his corner, the pace was terrific and the hitting tremendous; while the very large crowd was kept in an almost unbroken wild surge of excitement. Smith made one big mistake in endeavouring to knock out in short order a man whose reputation for cast-iron endurance is world-famous. He saw Darcy do it and evidently thought that he could repeat the trick; overlooking the facts that Darcy hits with either hand like a blood colt kicking, that Crouse was half licked by nervous dread when he entered the ring to face the champion, and that he'himself was never a knockout specialist at his best. He could batter and bang bigger men into collapse, as he did such stalwarts as Jack Howard and Colin Bell; but to do even that to Buck Crouse, famous for his toughness and the possession of a noted punch himself, would have been an astounding feat at his

best; whereas this time he was past his best in years and by no means at his recent best in the matter of condition. His terrible gruelling at the hands of Darcy was only three weeks old; the wound sustained in that desperate battle had not healed and was reopened nearly every time he sparred, so as to practically prevent serious boxing bouts; and, finally, a “come-back” of thirty, keyed up for several months and then perforce relaxed, needed much more time to train to concert pitch again. Maybe Dave thought his condition might not last, and that it would be well to tear his man to pieces m short order if he wanted to win at all; maybe he underrated Crouse’s toughness, mental as well as physical, and wished to chuck a scare into him, so as to render flattening him out an easier task. Whatever he reckoned,

I reckon that if this superb boxer, Smith, had gone about the thing differently, especially when he found that he could not get the big fellow, and boxed him in the open, he would in all human probability have won on points. For, if he hadn’t got that fearful butt on the eye that opened it so badly, to add to the handicap of the damaged nose he took into the ring with him, there is scarcely any doubt but that he would have stayed the twenty, and well outpointed the bigger and younger man; well and all as Buck fought—foi fight well he undoubtedly did, most of the time, though there were moments when he thought he was sent for, and showed it in his face and actions.

In the in-fighting he bested Smith completely, his left hand being his best weapon in this department; a few’ hooks when breast to breast being amazingly hard and the uppercuts severe, while he worked “the Sham-

rock” overtime. Smith’s form, however, even at the end, was such as to more than suggest that had not that fierce bump from the Yankee’s head badly opened his left brow and under the eye, just before the end of the seventh round, he would have been returned the winner. All throughout the eighth session the ruby ran down into that eye, and he took more than one punch while trying to wipe it away with his glove. The final rounds are described as folloAvs: —In the seventh round Smith again attacked, and they got into a clinch. Crouse’s eyes showed signs of damage. Smith went round him, jabbing the face hard, and Buck got one home to the nose himself, and as Smith put the right to the short ribs, Buck hooked him with the left to the corner of the mouth very hard. The American tried countering the

left, but had all the Avorst of that p-ame; but in close he again uppercut with the left several times. When they broke from a clinch Crouse hooked the jaw very hard, and Smith Avas evidently shaken, though he stalled and blocked the attack, and attacked : n turn. Dave appeared still more handicapped by his opponent’s youth and physical advantages. In the close Avork at the end of this round Crouse’s bottle-brush skull crashed on to DaAe’s eye, and a stream of ruby trickled dOAvn his cheek immediately. Crouse shot out a great left at the commencement of the eighth session, but Dave beautifully blocked him with the palm of the glove. Smith Avas handicapped now by the blood trickling into his eye, and he kept Aviping it off. Buck chopped down one very heavy right to the short ribs, and while Dave Avas wiping his eye Buck drove the left hard to the nose.

They landed simultaneous hooks to the ear, the Yankee’s being the heavier, and Dave, though evidently Aveakening, beautifully ducked smashes at the jaAv repeatedly. He blocked two left drives, and sprang after Crouse with desperate vigour. Buck grinned at him, and allowed him to hit him repeatedly on the javzs, till he felt the effect of a couple of them, and fought back furiously. Smith had evidently shaken him for his imprudence, and, be it said, bad taste. In his corner, Axford applied collodion t,o the eye, which new bled profusely, and the referee was called over and asked to A\arn Crouse about using his head. The ninth and final round opened Avith Smith dancing round, jabbing the face, Aviping the blood out of his eye, and swung a very heavy left to the jaw and a right to the cheek. Smith backed to the Avestern ropes and stood there, allowing Crouse to bang at the side of his face, just moving the head. Then he broke out, driving Crouse away to the centre, where the American, however, landed heavy punches to body and face. Smith fought with amazing courage; but he was quite blind in the left eye through the continual stream’ ot blood, and it appeared now as if his chance was a very poor one, though he still made Buck miss continually by his cleverness. He missed himself Avith his last right SAving as the bell rang, and staggerei as he went to his corner. Mr. Baker, Avho sat with Inspector Jones, consulted with the referee, and the latter went over and spoke to Smith, and Dave’s towel came in, after he had put up one of the most gallant fights possible to see. The convincing manner in which Battling Levinsky outpointed Jack Dillon in a ten-round no-decision bout in Ncav York —a recent cable stated that the bell saved a knock-out — made him a desirable quantity for Mr. SnoAvy Baker to possess, and consequently the Sydney promoter cabled him asking him to visit Australia. The cruiser-weight, for such Levinsky is, was offered a series of matches, including one with Darcy, an inducement that ought to look particularly good to the American, especially in vieAv of the extent to which the Australian champion is in the public eye m the United States at present. Mr. Baker saAV Levinsky in action Avhen he was touring, and describes him as a good boxer and fighter, who stands up Avell and punches strongly. “Just the type of man to put up a great fight with Darcy,” he says. When Dave Smith Avas in America Levinsky Avas fighting as Barney Williams, and the Australian met him in a six-round no-decision bout in Philadelphia. * « « * Rudie Unholz, tne Boer boxer, who lived in Australia for over two years, between 1908 and 1911, and made many friends, is a very sick man, and has been so for quite a long time. He ran a “health” farm at Colorado for a good while, and, later, resided several months in Chicago. During the past couple of years Los Angeles had been Unholz’s home. There he assisted in the management of an ex-

tensive place where Americans, run down through the heavy exactions of severely strenuous business lives, went to undergo bath, massage, and other treatment. By and bye (writes W. F. Corbett, the well-known Sydney boxing critic), I heard from Unholz as the manager of a large farm in California, the property of Jim Jeffries, ex-champion of the world; but illness compelled him to give that up. He writes me under date May 7, from Los Angeles:—“l am still with Keystone film people. I have been ill again, and I am now under the doctor’s care. Six months must elapse before I am in. good enough shape to work hard. I only weigh 1141 b. (Ist. 21b.). I lost 161 b. in four weeks. During that time I was in bed. My wife gave birth to another daughter on the day that I was compelled to become a patient. She and all the youngsters, as well as brother George, are in good health.” z

The well-known English welterweight, Tom McCormick, who spent a season in Australia two years and a half ago, has taken the final count in France, having been killed in action. He visited Australia in search of Johnny Summers, and in the two battles they fought there he came through on top. But McCormick will be best remembered for his fight with Milburn Saylor in Sydney, when, weak from punishment, and on the verge of being battered to the boards from sheer weight of punching, he refused to give in. It was a wonderful display of pluck. McCormick was a reservist, and rejoined the colours at the outbreak of war. He was placed in charge of an army gymnasium at Plymouth, but subsequently went to France/ In a postcard he sent to Mr. Baker recently he asked that at the conclusion of the war he should be given another contract for five fights in Australia.

Had Dave Smith wanted to lose his recent match with Buck Crouse at the Sydney Stadium—and he did not—he could not have fought with worse judgment (says the Sydney “Sun”). With the exception of a couple of rounds he floundered badly, mistimed, and over-reached himself in a manner that astounded his friends, and had. he gone down to defeat in one of the first four rounds instead of having to give up at the end of the ninth it would not have surprised. He was badly at sea, and in view of the punishment he received and the way in which he was rattled, he did remarkably well to recover and fight back as well as he did in the later sessions. Even when Arthur Scott found it desirable to call a haV there was plenty of fight in Smith, but it was a good thing that a brave fellow should not have been allowed to continue, as Smith would have done, despite that the injury to his left eyelid would have handicapped him seriously. The wound was a nasty cne, and must have been very painful. It was an old cut inflicted by Les Darcy reopened, with the difference that the contact with Crouse’s head made it more severe and more troublesome. That Crouse showed improved form on his display against Darcy there is no doubt, and it is possible that Smith underestimated his ability. But although he boxed well end punched in fine style, it is not by any means certain that he is so much above Smith as the meeting suggested. Anyway, the question of another match might be worth consideration. There is one thing, however, that the American might remember if he wishes to remain popular in Sydney. Exhibitions such as he gave in the eighth round when, with a sickly smile on his face, he held out his jaw to an apparently beaten man are not appreciated. There is nothing clever or manly in “rubbing it in.” Mr. Baker announces that he has decided to arrange a return match. To his way of • thinking both men made a great showing; but apart from that he was satisfied that Smith would have done much better had he not had his eye damaged. The lid was split clean through, and after the figh.t Smith had four stitches inserted in the wound. Crouse is willing for another meeting, out Smith has not yet given his consent. August 5 is the date open

A fistic dispute was recently settled by Chairman Wenck, of the State Athletic Commission when Manager John Weissmantel, of the Broadway Sporting Club, New York, alleged that Phil Bloom, a fighter, would not ( appear, as per contract, to box Freddie Welsh, on a fixed date. Bloom claimed that he was not well. Chairman Wenck decided that Weissmantel was entitled to claim Bloom’s 300 dols. forfeit,

but advised the manager to book the bout for a later date and not insist on payment to Bloom. Following a conference with Harry Pollok, manager for Welsh, the bout was then set for a later date in the Broadway Sport ing Club, and the forfeit was not collected. Tommy Burns’ decisions in matches in the United States have not given satisfaction, judging by the following paragraph which appeared recently in a New Orleans paper: —After many poor decisions on the part of previous referees, which incensed local fight fans, Dick Burk has been engaged to referee all New Orleans fights in future. Tne decision of Tommy Burns in the Dundee Mandot fight was the last straw.