FAIRGROUND FIGHTER TO BOX MENSAH

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31092, 22 June 1966, Page 15

FAIRGROUND FIGHTER TO BOX MENSAH

K. Langford, a full-blooded Aborigine from Sydney, who will fight E. Mensah over 10 rounds at Canterbury Court tomorrow evening, began his boxing career with a sideshow boxing troupe travelling from town to town and challenging all comers.

Langford, who has won his last eight fights, including two in one week, is a veteran of 30 professional bouts at the age of 22.

He was born in Wyndham, Western Australia, and was working in Darwin at the age of 19 when he joined R. Bell’s boxing troupe. “They are known as tent boxers. There are several troupes in Australia,” he said yesterday on his arrival from Australia. “You are attached to a circus or a sideshow and travel from town to town for farmers’ shows, festivals, industrial fairs or other celebrations held annually in the towns visited. Member In Crowd

“I was six months with Roy Bell’s troupe. We fought in Darwin, Mt. Isa, Cloncurry, Horsham, Wangaretta and other towns right down to Sydney. “There were 10 to 14 of us in the troupe. Of course, most of it was jacked up. Some of the troupe are standing in the crowd. When the barker calls for challengers a member of the troupe in the crowd comes forward to accept a challenge—to egg the local lads on. ‘Geers’ the boxers in the crowd are called by us,” Langford said. “1 got the offer to join the troupe when I accepted a challenge in Darwin. I learned a lot, and enjoyed it. Bronco Johnson, a former middle-weight champion of New South Wales, was in the troupe and taught us a lot. Tough Bouts “When we were fighting a ‘geer,’ well, it was put on. But very often we had some tough bouts with local lads. They are not all mugs, by any

means. Usually it was three or four rounds. We were paid by the hour, so we were all looking for business.” Langford found a job and became a professional boxer when he arrived i.i Sydney about three years ago. About six months ago, he gave up his job because he could not get the time off to fight at least once a week.

Most of his fights have been in the Sydney Rugby League Club’s gymnasiums. He said that he “cleared” £2O to £3O for these fights. Langford is a light-weight (under 9st 91b) but will weigh about 9st 121 b, the limit, in his catch-weight fight with Mensah, the Ghanaian boxer imported from England by the Canterbury Boxing Association. It will be the first bout staged by the C.B.A. for 10 years in which both opponents are overseas boxers. With Langford’s fairground experience and seven successive wins, and Mensah’s bruising style, the fight should be a punishing one.