RINGS AND RINGMEN. INTERVIEW WITH MR. W. W. NAUGHTON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 85, 11 April 1911, Page 8

RINGS AND RINGMEN. INTERVIEW WITH MR. W. W. NAUGHTON.

There is a lot of Mr. W. W. Naughton, of San Francisco, who is best k«rown here as the American sporting commissioner for the Sydney Referee, and the first authority on all matters pertaining to the "ring." Mr. Naughton, who arrived by the Aorangi to-day, is big enough to be the long-looked-for "white man's hope," but he is content to sit back and let such as Lester, Carl Morris, and the rest of the hothouse "heavies" burst into bloom. Mr. *■ Naughton was an Aucklander some i thirty years ago. To-day he is sporting editor for Hearst, distributing his copy from the San Francisco Examiner office. All branches of sport are covered editorially and otherwise. j _ THE "WHITE MAN'S" HOPE. ] Mt. Naughton spoke interestingly to a Post representative to-day on ring- ' matters- and ring-men. Boxing in the West is practically standing still, and in other parts where glove contests have been- confined to six-round contests, with -large gloves, there is agitation (and not i a little hope) for the return of the old ' twenty -round trouble with five-ounce ■ gloves. Again, other centres seek the , "no-decision" six-round "turns," and altogether the committee of morals and other bodies administrative are looking J •for a way out. Mr. Naughton was present at the Ad. Wolgast-George Mem- ! sic fight at Los Angelos recently, when tha principals were arrested for having | participated (in California) in a prize- j fight. A test; case is to be made of this-j happening. As to the booming of Carl Morris, who has been taken up by a millionaire, to qualify for a clash with Johnson (in time), the American says he knows little beyond that Morris is a big fellow. The search for the "hope" has become quite a hysteria in the States, and all sorts and conditions of men are put forward, so long as they are big, hulking fellows. "I have been long enough at the game to know that no man is of much use to himself in the heavy-weight arena unless he has had at least two years' experi--ence," commented Mr. Naughton. In reply to a query as to the apparently rapid jump of Johnson to the top of the tree after battling for years among the easier "marks," Mr. Naughton said: — "Johnson has been a great fighter for years now, but he was too 'tricky.' I saw him in action at Los Angelos ten years- ago, and he was as good then as he is to-day — a really grand heavyweight. But he was too ' uncertain.' too fond of the class he was in, too fond of easy matches. But once he got his foot on the ladder, and^his ambition was roused, nothing could 6top him. Previously he felt like a negro, that he was 'crowded out,' and though a fighter all along he was too ' uncertain. ' and not ovei'fond of going ' clean, 1 "" said the visitor. MACE VERSUS THE "ALL-IN." "It is useless," he continued, "to try and compare Johnson with Peter Jackson. There are too many years to bridge ; one man is gathered to hia ! fathers ; and (chielly) because Jackson j was of the Mace school. Johnson is a natural fighter. The men had nothing in common, hardly a blow alike. All our best fighters are natural fighters, who have got away from the old style, made popular and successful by Mace. Both Johnson and Langford are two of our very, best — they are both natural fighters. Put a man like "Battling" Nelson in the ring with a Mace pupil, and the former would, under severe punishment, bore in and in all day until he had exhausted his man." So Mr. Naughton accounts for the wonderful predominance of American pupils today — they are fighters who have departed from the old precise style, and have cultivated the natural ability to hit and be hit; to work in close, practically to eschew straight hitting, and to weave in upper-cuts, loop-the-loop half-arm jolts and hooks. Mr. Naughton contradicts the rumour that has got about that Lester, the American "heavy," who is on his way to Sydney, came out in his charge. He has had nothing to do with this pugilist, or any other, for that matter.