IN THE RING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1360, 10 February 1912, Page 12

IN THE RING.

[By "Jlerci-rt."]

■ MOTION FILMS AND ARGUMENT. June 24—World's Championship. Johnson v. M'Yca. How the Kino, would Settle Everything. Savage difference of opinion that exists over the decision in I ho M'Vea-J.angford contest lias led to a clamour for a ro. vival of the old system of two judges anil a referee as adjudicators in big boxing matches. The matter hns come under the notice of the "Bulletin," the equally savage "I'ed I.ady" .-corns the idea; she brings forward nn alternative proposition as under:— Much bray has been let loose over the idea of substituting a committee • of three or more "experts" at the ringside for the referee in the ring u» at present. It is hard to see what wou.d be gained by such a change, and it. might lend to a free fight among tho experts, who. after all. would be only human. The nearest approach te an infallible decision could be got in this way. Let all fights take place in daylight, and have pictures taken of them from both sides of the ring. Then the pictures could be run through before the committee several times, and where there were divergencies of opinion the iilms could be run through again, more and more slowly, to show full details. They could, if necessary, lie run through so slowly (hat a solitary hit would look as gradual as the Boer campaign. This would at least prevent hasty legislation. Under existing arrangements it only requires one man's sudden blunder to rob the rightful winner of victory. Under the proposed committee method there wo.uld be the sudden blunders of three men to contend with. Every follower of boxing lias his own method of awarding points, and, of course, they are all wrong according to the other fellow; and who is to judge, anyhow ? 'ihe kineiuafngraph method would have this saving grace: it would record even- blow struck. The human eye doesn t see more than hiilf at the most. When "Battling" Xelson fouled Gans, nobody could l>? found to sivrar he had seen the foul blow struck, and it was not tiil the pictures were run through slowly Hint it was discovered. It- turned out to be a right short-arm jolt, in which Nelson suddenly raised the shoulder and dropped the fist, giving it a downward drive, which t'no picture showed landing on the forbidden area. But it wnulil take a lot of the public interest out of the fight if the mob had to wait 2t hours for the decision. Can a Knocked-out Man Win? "Puzzled" writes to say that, in s> recent issue of the English paper, "Boxing," he saw it staled that it was finite possible for a boxer to be knocked out in a competition and yet win, and he wnnts to know how this can be so. Under Marquis of Queensbury rules, of course, such a contingency could not occur—tho reference must have been to the National Sporting Club's code. This is a more modern set of laws for the government of bouts under the N.S.C. jurisdiction, and it is a code thnt, judging from recent happenings in England, finds more favour with (lie authorities than that in the old-time M.Q. rule book. The section of the rule that governs "Plizzlod's" query runs:— "If a contestant is down, he must get up unassisted within ten seconds, his opponent shall meanwhile retire out ot striking distance, and shall not resume boxing until ordered to do so by the referee. A man is to be considered down even when he is on one or both feet, if at tho same time any other part of his body is touching the ground, or when in the act of rising. A contestant failing to continue the contest at the expiration of ten seconds shall not bo awarded any marks for that round, and the contest shall then terminate. Tho refereo fhall decide all contests in favour of the contestant who obtains the greatest number of marks." Thus it will be seen that, if tho boxer sustaining the. knock-out was sufficiently in the lead to be able to dispense witli the points lost in the fatal round, he would still be returned as the winner of the bout. To that ordinary everyday individual— the man in the street—it may seem an anomalous position that a boxer rendered incapable of continuing a contest should win it, and, truth to tell, "Mercury" cannot recall an instance in which it has happened so. However, the rule is there, nnd it is doubtless to its presence in tho book that "Mercury's" correspondent owes his puzzlement. A Gentle and Pleasant Reunion, To-night at the Stadium, Sydney, Langford will be seen in action again. His opponent will bo his old foo, Harry, the latest conqueror of "Bill" Lang. About eighteen months have elapsed since their last clash at Los Angeles, when the victory went to Langford'after 1G rounds of vigorous boxing. Shortly before this little piece of nrgiiiiieiifuni ad hominom they met in Paris, with 11. D. M'lntosh as referee. On this occasion Barry was "onted" on a foul in the fifteenth round. The principal feature of this "wade in" was tho riot which ended the winning. Onlookers w.ere enjoying the performance to such an extent that they resented tho referee's action in ringing 'down the curtain before the scheduled time, and proceeded to express their annoyance bjtearing the building up by thoroots and hurling sections thereof at the offendine official. - This by the way. The present contest should bo a good heavy-weight affair, and as the white man's past performances stamp him as being willing enough to meet tho redoubtable "Tar Baby," ho has at least a fighting chance of retrieving some of tho lost pugilistic honours of mere Caucasian folk. , Mr, M'hrtosh Goes to Law with M'Vea. The why ami whprefor of the abandonment of the M'Vea-Langford return mutch has been made apparent by Hie former's manager, who, in a lengthy statement to the Sydney press, gives details and reasons. Boiled down, these resolve themselves into a question of ,C s. d. on the strength of his recent victory over I-angforil, M'Vea demands the lion's share of the purse for another meeting, and his idea, of the size of the lion's share does not. coincide with that of Mr. M'lntosh's. Hence the fact that there is nothing doing. This is the M'Vea side of the controversy. On the other side Mr. M'lntosh has done with arguing—he' has invoked the aid of the law. The recalcitrant Samuel lias been served with a writ for breach of contract, and the subsequent proceedings should bo full of interest for the public upon which both boxer and promoter live—and live very well at that. Printed for What it is Worth. Johnson is still contriving to get his name in print. His latest bid for publicity was to announce I hat he intended trviiig for lihe wrestling championship, apropos of which a cablegram which appears below was received in Sydney last NEW YORK, Tuesday. Giovanni Kaicevitch, an Italian heavyweight wrestler, and Zbyszco have been matched to wrestle to a finish at Madison Square Gardens on February 12 for a purse of .fciOOO. Zbyszco's manager regards Johnson's declaration to take on wrestling as being serious, and says the Pole will meet him privately fora sidebet of ,I'IOOU. In the event of that oiler not meeting with the approval of tho world's boxing champion. Zbyszco will guarantee to throw him twice in an hour in public, and give the proceeds to charily. Another American cablegram is published by Ihe Sydney '-Sun," which al-o ! throws J.ihiwm into the limelight:— NEW YORK, Wedne-d.A.v Flynn ha? refused an oiler of .fcU'Oti lo meet Al Palzcr in a ieii-iouiids bout on February 1-5- The critics siimmd-i; the l'ucblo man »f cowardice, ami dccleru I that his talkod-of match with Jolmson

will not materialise. Johnson, by the way, lias olVeroi! I'nlzer .£IOO for every round alter thu third ho can last with him. J'alzcr is n husky young farm hand who ha- >pnii\' o ' inl.i prominence by a decisive win over Al. Kaull'man, in Now York, on December 2S Inst. Ife knocked him out in (lie fifth round. No Naval Prohibition. II will he remembered that, a short while ago, it was cabled out that the Admirally hnd issued an order forbidding British ii:\v;<l moil from taking part in prof(".si(iml boxing matches and that the iikaso was made much, of by the autiImxiiiff party. Tho report is now flatly contradicted by English papers t.i whom tho report has reached, and in support of this deui.il, one of thorn prints the following answer to an inquiry addressed •to the War Office on the matter:— "War Office, London, S.W. "Sir, —I am commanded by the Army Council to inform you that they understand that no such orders iis those to which you refer in your lettor have boon issued by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in the matter of boxing contests. 1 am to add that the Council have not in contemplation the promulgation of any instructions of this character to the Annv.—l am, sir, your obedient servant, B. K. BRADE." Birds of a Feather. An argument regarding the outcome of which we have not been advised, took place in Sydney on Wednesday last unless something untoward intervened to prevent it. This was the Lester and "Cyclone" Thompson meeting, and i 1 promised to be a wild and woolly affair while it lasted which, from all indications, would not bo long. Tho "Cycloiiwas giving away something like 201b. to his compatriot from "the States,"- which would appear from newspaper form to be more than he coidd do wick any prospect of success. It is true that "Dave" Smith did it. and ho was, if anything, lighter even than Thompson, but this cannot be taken as a criterion. The New Zealander succeeded through his belter long-range fighting. His cut-and-come-agaiu style enabled him to snap up points and evade the consequences. Thompson, on the other lnrtd, is no long-range artist—guerilla warfare does not appeal to his nature. He is a borer, pure and simple, and report should show I hat, in this respect, he jvist suited ]>ster, who also revels in the clc.se work. Wherefore it would appear that, unless complications set in, the "Cyclone" should have blown in to his own destruction at the hands of tho now temporarily blasted "White Hope." The complications referred to were liable- t» occur from the police. Under the N.S.W. regulations governing boxing contesL* in-fighting is absolutely prohibited which on Wednesday would lib responsible for a rather peculiar position. Thus, neither of the combatants is any good nt all at out-fighting and the referee, backed up by the police, would not have allowed any in-lighting. So, altogether, it looks like an excellent contest to have stayed away from.