EMPIRE TITLE BOUT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue CXXIII, 10 April 1937, Page 22

EMPIRE TITLE BOUT

FARR BEATS BEN FOORD

(From "The Posts. representative.)

LONDON, March 17.

The British and Empire heavyweight boxing championship '. changed : hands after a dull fight at Harringay,; when the Welshman, Tommy Fair, ex-miner and waiter, beat Ben Foord, the South African, on a.points decision after fifteen rqunds. It was an ungainly and poor exhibition of boxing and Max Baer, former world'champion, who meets Farr. on April 15; declared in full-blooded American, "I gotta say I didn't see anything that: sent me to town in this bout from start to finish."

Farr and Foord were evenly matched. The : Welshman weighed 14st 71b and is 6ft lin; Foord was 31b heavier and an inch higher. Foord collected £2000 for his performance, but this'will not console him for the loss of the title, which he won only last August from Jack Petersen. Farr's share was £750 out of a gate of £6000, but he will re.ceive more after his fight with Baer. WON ON TACTICS. Farr won the bout on tactics and it was'a'fight between a man with a big punch and little else, and a challenger with footwork and a punch of

no consequence. ■, In a dull fight what little credit there was to: be awarded must go to Farr. He was magnificently trained, his defence was always better than his opponent's attack,-and he did on occasions manage to score with his left hand. His right was employed so rarely that midway in the proceedings it looked as though he had damaged it. When he was at his best— and even that best was not of a high standard—he did look like a fighter, which was more than could be said of Foord. ' ; :

The South African had never been more disappointing. His condition and his endurance were not what they might .have been, and the end of his short championship reign was signalled in the thirteenth round when he cavight Farr thrse times on the point of his jaw with a right without makint; the Welshman even give ground. Foord was back to the erratic fighter he was a couple of years ago when he dropped decisions to fifth-raters. His crouching stance was amateurish in the extreme, for it meant that he had to uncurl his lengthy figure before he could shoot a blow. . :

It was not an exciting fight by any ■tretch of imagination. It was inter-

"estirig, .because.it presented;th'e picture of aichampibn being beaten:and strainangvwith desperationitp"avoid ri£KThe■'. referee, Mr. Jack Hart,,-had,X-'task almost as perspiring^asYithat.; of;: the boxers in tearing;;theitwo^giantstapart many- times in each^round.-; -There were :no knock-dowrisj iexcept/'upoa one-occasion when FoorcUsUpped/awk-; .w'ardiy, and no th'rills;(apartfrom:!the two.'.attempts by- Foord,;:lateAinv ■«/.the : ■fight;":!-to" press !;hom"eV-jaw--punches! \ih.'' the hope of a knock-out. ■ :..-•■.' WHAT BAER SAID. .. ; .... "Well, folks, Tommy, Farr won th 9 •fight an,d I'm saying -that ,he looked like the winner from the:: fifth round, anyway,", said Max Baer. '"Now both those,- guys- fought 'open,' according to American ideas, and it looked as if they .each gave awhole.lot of.chances. Still,; I wasn't in the' ring—l was just watching. Foofd had' a: 'sleeping draught' right;. Punch—but ■r, he.-.' don't keep:"it dark, so.Farr. got'prior notica to duck every: time. -What's more, Tommy Fair was fresh right through and ;breathir\g easy. \«Jiii»;J"oord. ,who