IN THE RING,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1623, 14 December 1912, Page 12

IN THE RING,

[11l "MEBcniiY.'T HOW TO MAKE £1200 AN HOUR. December 21.—Ellis v. Taylor, Auckland. December 23.—Murphy v. Fleming, Aucklund. January — .—Jimmy Hill v. J. Hcgarty, Christeliurch. Tho Battle in which the Money was Made. Mention was made last week of the defeat of Ad. Wolgast by "Willie' Uitchio in a contest for the light-weight championship of tho world. 'I'no Sydney publish fuller particulars of tho battle : supplied by tho Independent Cable hervice, anil theso show that the clash it as ' Homeric throughout Uoth w ero I severely punished, but apparently Ritciuo held tho upper hand oil the way, and it would fceem ih/it the disqualification ot Wolgast in the lGtli round for hitting low caino in fciino to save hi m from ft worse fate. , . • Wolgast hos—and witli justice—acquired a reputation for ring generalship, but I oil this occasion ho found himself stackied up against a greater tactician, and i despite tho fact that he fought one of his best fights, ho was out-genera|l(xl, out- ! boxed, and out-punched' How Ivitchie s craft worked for the ox-champion s undoing is well set out in the cablo thus: Wolgast fought a harder.and sterner tight than against "Joe" Rivers, and only Ritchie's cleverness kept the "wild cat" off, and forced him to work out his strength in futile attack. • _ Ritchie covered his body with his elbows, sticking out his arms in such a way that tho ex-champion's famous kidney punch was absolutely ineffec-. tual. Catching scores of high 6wuigs oil his right glove, Ritchie held "Ad/' safe all the time, and was neveT seriously hurt by such punches as Wolgast did got home. . Wolgast could not endure the snappy little jabs to the face. They took ull the steam out of him. ! For tho greater part of the light, Ritchio covered, ducked, jabbed, and stalled, only in'three or four instances letting loose. So much for tho battle. Now for its financial aspect. In this department Wolgast more than held his own. Always a sound business. man, he displayed all his acumen in tho present instance. lie stipulated for a "cut" of ,£3OOO, ''win, lose, or draw," as tho prico of risking his title, and no doubt he finds the outcome 6ome small solace for tli9 addition of the prefix "ex" to the said distinction. .£3OOO is not what v,-e would call poor remuneration for just over one hour's trial and tribulation. The Poor Sweated Boxer, Ritchie's share, too, comes well within the living wage margin, albeit his moiety, although tho winner's "end," was not quite half that of the loser's. His bargain was for 50 per cent, of the gate after Wolgast lias been paid off. The takings amounted to J2553G, so the new champion annexed —in addition to his title —the sum of .£1268. The "head-liner" to tho cable, by tho way, reads: "Winner Gets Small Money." Small money! Weil, the money may have boon small, but to the ordinary toiler in the vineyard there appears to nave been plenty of it for the labour involved. : Diroctly after the contest, and with the honours of his victory fresh upon him, the new champion was interviewed as to his future intentions, and here he showed that he, too, had the bump of business developed equally with the bump of pugnacity. "Sure, I'll givo 'Ad.' another cliancc," he said when questioned oh this point, and told that Wolgast had pleaded for a return battle. "But," he vent on, "I won't meet him until I have made a little easy money around theatrical circuits." *. Naturally, after taking a wholo hour to earn a beggarly pittance of .£I2OB a man would want an opportunity of making some easy money before undergoing such a strain again. v I A Big' Event Nearer Home, Tho big event in. the Dominion for the week was the Porter-Hegarty meeting at Hastings on Wednesday night last. It ranks as the big thing of the season in New Zealand boxing. Porter lost his light-weight championship title, but lost it fighting' to the last ditch, and had he displayed a little more impetuosity in tho opening rounds, would perhaps bo wearing the honour still. He had slightly the better of the weights—some tlireo pounds—and also the pull in height and reach. Hegart-y had nothing o-n him m the way of strength or ruggediiess either, as the (jnal stages proved, but Porter was evidently hoping that the rushing, tearing tactics of his cyclouic adversary would toll their talc on their proprietor's wearing powers, so avoided too close a contest until some of the stiDg had left tho attack. 1 - Then apparently ho got to woTk and appears to nave got a lot of his own back, but Hegarty stayed better ,thnn he expected—long enough in fact to get Mr. Sampson's verdict. , ■ ; A Gold Mine Looking for an Owner. Details of the rounds appeared in Thursday's kisue, so need not bo repeated here. The tiling to do now is to sit back and await the return match, for, after sudh.a close thing, a "return" there is sure to be, and it will be something in the nature of a gold mine—a gold mine as they used to be before the advent, of the Labour agitator—for tine association fortunate enough to stage it. Tho Wellington Association has bean considering a January fixture—what is it goiiig to do about this? What to Think of Keys? The name of "Hock" Keys has been much on the lips of the Australian boxing public of late. Present happenings in Sydney indicate that the idol lias fallen somewhat from grace' of late. . It will be remembered that his projected visit to Wellington fell through because he was considered by the Stadium proprietary as a big drawing card, and to this ernl he was matched up with the French light-weight Jeaii Posey for Saturday week last. . It- has now transpired that he did not figure in this contest at all for reasons hinted at by the Sydney sporting papers, which will bo received with the greatest- regret by all those—and they are many both in Australia and on this side— who had welcomed his return to the front rank again after his lentfthy sojourn among "tho husks and swine." Keys's "come-back" act was one of the most creditable of its kind in the annals of pugilism, and it was one which has put the erstwhile pet of the Australian ring on a pinnacle of popularity from wiich it is to be hoped his present slipping is only temporary.. Fortunately tho defection of Keys did not resuit in a reverse for Australia. His piace was worthily filled by "Frank" D'Ctrady—worthily, that- is, so far as tho result went. The Bewildered Frenchman and the Rabbit. In describing tho contest, some of tho boxing writers of Sydney have waxed' very facetious. O'Grad.v's tactics supplied the point of the jesting. Ho had evidently become imbued with the truth of the adage: "He who hits and runs away will live to hit another day"—for run away he certainly did. . The "Snii" says-.—"Frank O'Grady ran SO miles at the Stadium Inst night while ".Tean" Poesy, of France, could only cover two. Wherefore the decision went against the latter." Again: "O'Grady's running was marvellous. In a 150-foot riii; ho would probably be invincible unless Donaldson or Postlo were against him."

Poesy, too, was unable to refrain from some comment 011 his opponent's mobility. On returning to his corner nflnr the Mill round, in which lie hfxtl run a bad seeond, ho remarked: "What is the use of fisrhtin? iiim ? This is not n boxer, but a rabbit." However, ho longest who IrnHis last, mid after all O'Grnd.v could do 110 'more than win, and this, in (he opinion of the referee, lie did sntisfactorilv. In short. O'Grady fousht the bitttlo to suit himself, however "little the public and the press critics liked his retiring ninn1101'. His justification o:\mn with the result of tlies? tactics. _ Ho had about Jib. the . worst of the weinhts and . is b- no means huskily built, so was wise in not mixiw! things with the' hard-sin ■»£, flre-satlna 1 Frenchman—and as said befaro ho won the oontest.

More Sorrow for the Froticli Camp. Since last week's notes wero written thore is another reverse to the French camp to chronicle. This is tho defeat of Loon Bra-refcein, their welter, by Herbert Jl'G'oy, by a knock-out in the tenth round As a contra to this thero ctimo word oil Monday that on Saturday night "Jimmy" Hill failed in his mission nrninst I*«n TruO'ior, who just paid to (he little Australian's account in tho seventh round. Then again comes another entry to the credit of tho Australian side. On Wednesday last "Tim" Land squared the HiH defeat by bcatini? Amlouy, tho middleweight of tho French detachment, on Apropos of "Jimmy" Hill, tho Christchurch Sports Club, which body had Fdhedulod a meeting between Hill and Hegarty, for January next, has received word from the Australian that ho will not b» available until February. This is iro late in tho season for the Christehiireh people, so the match has been abandoned. Devitt Doing Things. After a long lapse of time wo hear a?ain of our old friend "Gus" Dovitt. Tho story of the ex-Wellingtonian's latest exploit in Adelaide is told thus in an Australian exchange: The mectintt of middleweights Gus Dovitt i nnd "Jack" Willis attracted a capital crowd to WilHams's National Stadium. , From the outset it was palpable that Devitt's idea was to gain a verdict on noihis, and. ho save one of the best exhibitions of clover nnd neat boxing seen in this city for somo considerable time. Hβ was the attacking party from tho moment the gong sounded, nhd for round nfter round tifterwards. And then, having aroused the veteran, he was content to guard himself against Willis's vicious blows. i ii Devitt was particularly nmnrt on nls feet, and up to tho tenth round honours were clearly with' Devitt. But in tho eleventh round, however. Willis let himself Ko. Ho fought with his old nrdour and forcefulness, and chased Devitt from enrner to corner.- But the yountr man 9 clevetness, coupled with the veteran's failure to accept onn.. glorious opportunity, saved the situation for the New Zenlander. That round was really Willis s. But it was his last kick, for ho simply hung on until the end of the fourteenth round in the hopo of landing a nick.r blow nnd gaining the verdict. Devitt, however, was altogether too careful to allow of such a honpening, and, what is more, he kept rocetinp; the veteran' with Miort jabs and half-arm stabs. At the end of the round Willis walked sfqirgilv to iii's comer, aiid "Micko" Walshi ih whose charge ho was, threw in the towel. A Heavyweight Surprise. . An item of considerable interest is supnlieil in the cable message' received on Thursday advisiner that "Jim" Flvnn, ".Tuck" Jihnsrm'p last onnonent, had been defeated bv "Luther" M'Carthy, the cmar-ter-caste Tndiaft, whose career has been noted in this column, in the Ifith round of a clash at 1.-os Angeles. This came to hand too bio for lenjthy comment this wook, but it .will be reserved for fuller discussion next Saturday.