PURSE OF £800

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 29, 15 November 1940, Page 6

PURSE OF £BOO

Maurice Strickland And American BIG BOXING CONTEST Articles were signed at Wellington on Monday for a heavyweight professional boxing contest for a purse of £BOO, the largest yet offered in New Zealand, between Maurice. Strickland, the New Zealander, and the Alabama Kid, an American negro. "The bout is to take place in the open air at the Show Grounds, Palmerston North, on Boxing Day night. The Manawatu Boxing Association is pxomoting the fight. Articles now having been signed, application will be made to the New Zealand Boxing Council for permission to give a purse of the size offered as it is above that allowed by the rules of the council. The articles were signed in the presence of Mr. Charles Lucas, Sydney, acting on behalf of the Manawatu Association in assisting in promoting the bout, and Mr. E. Walters, Wellington. The capacity of the showgrounds for such a contest will be approximately 40,000. An endeavour will be made to run special trains from Auckland and Wellington, and intervening stations. It is also probable that a moving picture will be taken of the contest. An important stipulation is that there must be a winner; there will be no draw. Mr. Lucas said yesterday that he was opposed to draw decisions; the public paid to see a fight and were entitled to a straightout decision. Another feature will be (that the referees will be announced for the first time from the ringside just before the start of the contest. There will be a double bill, in that the main bout will be preceded by one between Johnny Hutchison, the American negro lightweight, and a New Zealander, yet to be decided.