Ebullient U.S. boxer has easy win

Press, 9 April 1979, Page 26

Ebullient U.S. boxer has easy win

By JOE HARNETT I Maurice Betts, an ebullient United States serviceman, had his first win in New Zealand when he comfortably beat Mike Keenan (Barrys) at the Canterbury i Boxing Associations tournament |at the Caledonian Hall yesterday afternoon. The colourful Betts, resplendent in bright red boxing gear, was like a wraith in the wing and Keenan found him almost impossible to hit. Betts walked into a hard right cross punch late in round three, his only blemish of the bout, and took a standing eight count. In spite of this Betts was a clear winner and greeted the decision in his favour with an hilarious

Jig. Another American, Clint McDaniels, fighting for Crichton Cobbers, showed impressive style i early in his bout with Papanui’s Noel Gleeson, but displayed a woeful lack of defence, particularly against Gleeson’s right ; cross, and was repeatedly staggered with this blow in round ione.

The tempo slowed in the second and third rounds, and McDaniels tightened his defence enough to take a narrow points decision. Avon Placid (Crichton Cobbers), a classy Maori fighter, carried too many guns for the tough but raw Kevin Birch (Papanui). Birch was burnt with a hard left hook late in the second round and retired at the start of round three. Clive Bishop (Crichton Cobbers), an ever-active boxer, took the fight to Temuka’s Peter Jones and built up a narrow points lead in round one. The taller Jones was a slick mover and often made Bishop miss in the second round, while himself scoring with straight left punches.

Round three was all action with both boxers displaying good technique and a fine range of punches. Bishop was a unanimous and popular winner. Papanui’s Ken Clearwater met Leslie Gallop (Crichton Cobbers) in an interesting bout. Clearwater used a snappy and effec-

tive straight left punch to build up an early lead on points, but sadly abandoned this in favour of some wild swings towards the end of round one. Clearwater re-established his fine left punch and his superiority early in round two. Gallop fought back very well, often scoring with hard right rips to his opponent’s body, but Clearwater, because of his pointswinning left hand, was a major* ity points winner. Other results were:

Ruben Morreha (N.8.R.5.A.) beat Andrew Miller (Ashburton); Chris Schwaiger (Barrys) beat Steven Cole (Temuka); Steven Lawrie (Papanui) beat Barry White (Ashburton); Mark Vincent (Temuka) beat A. Toomalaitai (Barrys); Craig Keeland (W.W.M.C.) beat Anthony Hart (Ashburton); Andrew Wallace (Ashburton) beat Bill Bedford (W.W.M.C.). The referees were Messrs M. V. Drury, J. May, and D. Wilson, and the judges were Messrs Wilson, May, W. Lightfoot, H, Lloyd, and E. Platt.