BOXING.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 966, 5 November 1910, Page 12

BOXING.

(By "Mercury."! Papke and Williams. For the first time for very many years, if not absolutely the first time on record, has the middle-weight championship of tho world been decided on Australian soil, and once again has tho title stayed with a representative of the U.S.A. We were briefly, informed by the cables that in the present conflict, Papke, the holder of the title, defeated AVilliams, the Australian aspirant to tho honour. Particulars are now to hand, and the "Sydney Morning Herald's" account of this important engagement is appended: i The benches of tho liushcutters' Bay Stadium were lined by a crowd numbering in the neighbourhood of 10,000 people last night', when "Billy" Papke, middleweight champion of the world, put un has' hands for the first time in an Australian ring. He was opposed by "Ed." Williams, of Victoria. About 17 minutes after the contest began the Victorian was seated in his corner sadly disgruntled, whilo Papke was receiving tho congratulations of his friends. A fierce left swing into the stomach put Williams down in tho sixth round, and it was whiic the count was being told off that the towel canic iu from his angle. Papke, very solidly set up and beautifully proportioned, was inches shorter than Williams, but he was 21b. heavier. Tho champion's weight was given as lis. 01b., so that the title was involved iu tho contest.. The betting was at ridiculous odds on the American, but tho way t'lifi contest went certainly justified them. Right from the start the crowd was in a state of seething excitement. As soon as the gong sent tho men together, Papke walked in in a lackadaisical manner, and pumped a straight left into tile face. Williams had some difficulty in keeping his footing, and- once slipped down. There was repeated and frenzied instructions from ono of the Victorian's seconds to "claim his muscles." meaning that Williams should pin Papke's arms and preveut him from punching. These tactics brought dire results to Williams. He was carrying out the command to tho letter, and for a while Papko tolerated tho action. But suddenly he cut loose, and nushed Williams off—he was finite justified in doing so—and Williams found himself seatrd in the middle of the rim:. Some of tho crowd hooted, but Papko was perfectly right. Every time the men mt into a olinch, Williams's second would *rrc'eoli for a foul, nnfwi'tWniiljng that tho champion was boxins'fairly. .

In Uio second round Williams used his loft: and richt to some advantage for a time, but Papke seemed to bo ablo to (and. wherever and. whenever be dcsir»d to. Tho third au<[ fourth rounds were brimful of interest, but Williams 'was outclassed, albeit ho bravelr tried to lsecp. his end up. It was in tho fifth round 'hat n right sent Williams spinning round tiio ring,, to finally fall in n hear), and '"'re xiort'on of tho count. Hardly 1-ad he regained the pcrrend'cular than left " n d right landed on Jiis jaw, and down he went asein—this time for nine ?pconrls. Williams was a tired man when he faced the music for ("be sixth round. ■\ solid loft rin to tho body, and a ricrht nn the ia'", sent him down for eight second.s, and the crowd began to leave their sents. and make towards the exit l -- 'Pnoke bored richt in. Williams was, hurt and he cradually sank to the hormlr "Eight" had been counted when the towel , was <-'>rown iu. "Reminded One of Burns," Papke proved himself- a fighter, pure and simple—ho does not lay claim to being anything else. He reminded ono a good deal of Tommy Burns in style. The way he danced, and shot out his left hand was almost similar to the ex-world's heavy-weight's best. Papko is very cool, in fact, nothing seems to worry him. 5 A perpetual smilo plays ■ across his face, except now and again, when something of an extra-serious nature is contemplated. Tile "loop-the-loop" blow, first shown to Australians by Endio Unholz, who, by "the way, is matched to box "Cyclone" Thompson on November 9, was , used a good deal by Papke, and proved most effective. Williams was puzzled by. it", no doubt wondering where it sprang from. Very often Papko was open, but the probabilities are that ho leaves himself. that \i"ay, in order to entico.his opponent 1 over, and so got in and deliver, a punch himself. At other times, he was extremely clever in "stalling" his head, and once Williams missed him so badly with a left swing that the force of the - blow swung him clean round and off his feet. To Williams must, bo given the credit o f putting up a good showing. Undoubtedly, lie was badly beaten;.but when the calibrt of the man opposed to him is considered,' excuses can bo made.

"Snowy" Baker was referee, and Mr. W. J. C. Kelly time-keeper. Tho champion's next opponent is to be "Dave" Smith, the Now Zealand examateur, who recently defeated Arthur Cripps, the Australian middle-weight champion, but who failed to annex tho title on that occasion through being lib. overweight. Dovitt in Australia, "Gus" Dovitt is still finding, and winning, matches in Australia. True it is that so far he has dealt mostly with sec-ond-raters, but 110 has dealt with them so summarily that ho must be working his way up towards tho bigger men and money. His latest exploit is tho knocking out of one Ed. Russell, at Bundaberg, Queensland, in tho second round. Ray Bronson, ono of the American boxers now in Sydney, defeated "Tommy" Jones on points at Brisbano recently. There does not appear to bo much honour and glory'accompanying tho victory, however, as tho Indiana man weighed right upon the light-weight limit, whilo tho Australian was well under tho feather margin. "Billy" Elliott is now after Bronsan's scalp, at 9st. 21b. ring-side, for JKO n-sidc, or at catch-weights for the "gate." ' An Illuminating Paragraph. An Auckland sporting papor, in chronicling the sailing of "Ted" Green back to Sydney, after his second loss'to Wenand, in the northern city, has tho following illuminating paragraph. Surprise was freely expressed here at Wcnand's two victories, and the sniff of incredulity was loudly heard in tho land—anil, as inferred in the paragraph referred to, not without reason. TIIO paragraph runs:— "A correspondent writes all sorts of things about the rccent Grccn-Wenand contest, but I have 110 desire to stir up tho mud still further over tho affair. 'Least said, the easier mended,' is an appropriate motto that may bo suitably applied to tho alleged bout iu question. As Mir correspondent contends, there is 110 doubt that such exhibitions as that thrust 011 to the Auckland public last week must necessarily kill all interest in fistic pastime ill our midst, though no ultimate good can really come from still further creating the unsavoury feeling tho battle between tho visitors left behind. As. our 'correspondent avers,' 110 doubt it would have been a much more satisfactory decision had referee Burke declared tho mix-up 'no fight.' Then, certainly, the boxers would have been placed in a

tangle, but it is 110 use suggesting these thing now. The battle is over, the purse lias been paid over, and thoso who wero foolish enough to stake their coin or. 'two men' battles must accept the inevitable and smilo off their losses, if they had any."