Bay Boxing Championships: London, of Tauranga, Takes Three Fights, Two Titles

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 91, 6 September 1948, Page 5

Bay Boxing Championships: London, of Tauranga, Takes Three Fights, Two Titles

Though entries were a bit light, mainly on account of the prevalence of influenza just now, the Bay of Plenty boxing championships staged by the Whakatane Association at the Winter Show building on Saturday night were full of interest. Honours of the evening went to I. London, of Tauranga, who won three fights and two titles during the tour-. | nament. Generally, the standard of j boxing was better than average and | all the boys competing showed fine sportsmanship. I D. Bluegum, Katikati, 9st 41b started well against F| Wilson, Ro- ! torua Bst 741 b in a lightweight eli--1 mination bout, but the latter lasted . better to take a hard-earned points • decision. ! I. London, Tauranga, 9.54, boxing steadily, had a good edge on N. Crawford, Katikati, 9.104, in the welterweight final, which he won on points against a game hard hitter who lacked polish. In the flyweight semi-final, T. I Hona, Whakatane, 7.64, met J. Curtis, Opotiki, 7.54, in (three fairly even rounds, Curtis’s longer reach and more consistent punching earning him the decision. I Lighter by the difference between ' his own 4.13 and his opponent’s 5.8, J. Butcher, Whakatane, put up a game show against T. Foy, Opotiki, in the midget semi-final, but was outweighed and outfought to lose cn points. F. Wilson, Rotorua, won the featherweight title by default. T. Hunt, Taneatua, 8.0, beat J. Hoffman, Rotorua, 7.2 on a T.K.O. in the first round of their flyweight semi-final ,Two hard punches from I. London, Tauranga, 9.54, accounti ed for G. Vercoe, Te Teko, 9.7 in a lightweight semi-final that lasted. a 1 little over a minute. Vercoe was ) •

floored twice—and stayed down the second time for the full count. J. Torrie, Taneatua, 7.0, met and outpointed J. Curtis, Opotiki, 6.9, in the paperweight final by virtue of superior reach, weight and ringcraft. C. Curtis, Opotiki, 8.6£, and D. Rangi, Te Teko, 8.3 staged a lively first round in the bantamweight. , final, but a hard right cross halfway through the second round . spelled “curtains” for Rangi, who <0 took the full count. 8., Magee, 5.9 J consistently carried the fight to his opponent M. Raureti, 5.9£, both of Matata in the shadow weight contest which the former deservedly won on points after they had fought an extra - round to decide the difference. Raureti won a special trophy donated by Mr Green, of the Tauranga Association. y In the flyweight final T. Hunt, 8.0 punched too hard for J. Curtis, Opotiki, who was out on his feet in round two when the referee stopped the fight in Hunt’s'favour. ; The Crawford Brothers, Katikati, . took the heavyweight (Colin Crawford), the light-heavy G. Crawford) and the middleweight (Noel Crawford) titles unopposed. In the lightweight, final I. London, with one title already in the bag and two. wins to his credit for the evening, added a third scalp to his belt by outpointing F. 'Wilson, (Rotorua, 8.7 L the flyweight champion, in a bout and last bout of the evening. Though almost out in round two, Wilson rallied strongly in the third, but too late to make up the leeway. He collected the trophy for the gamest loser. Mr A. Hogg was the referee and judges were Messrs N. Semmens, A. Reeve, P. Bryers and L. Nicholls.