BOXING NO CONTEST ! DECLARED BY REFEREE

Grey River Argus, 20 April 1948, Page 3

BOXING NO CONTEST ! DECLARED BY REFEREE

Sands—Marr Bout Moves Aucklanders to Count Them Out

P.A. AUCKLAND, April 19. Wild scenes .followed when a professional light-heavyweight boxing contest ■at the Town Hall tonight was declared as “no contest.” The boxers were Dave Sands, the champion of Australia, and Jackie Marr, the champion of Victoria, and the .referee was .Mr E. C. Armishaw, of .Auckland. Mr Armishaw .twice warned the boxers, and in the seventh round, while some members of the cr'ov»ied audience were vociferously shouting “no fight!” the , referee stepped between the boxers and immediately ruled an end of the fight. As the boxers' prot'estingly returned to their corners, a chant of counting them out began in the back of the hall,-,and by “five” the majority of the audience was joining.in. Mr Armishaw, in a statement, said that he had called the men together at the start of the fifth round, and had told them that the bout was not an exhibition, and that he wanted to see . more - action. His second warning was given about a minute after-the start ofL thd’ sixth round. “The men were being paid to fight,” he said. “In my opinion they were not’ fighting.”. .’ * - N ■-■. “It is an insult, to . bo.tfi boys,. said Mr Tom Maguire, Dave Sands’ manager. “How much fight did : the crowd want? I shbula like to have seen some’of them take the punches that Marr got. Nothing like this-, has ever happened to either boy before.” . Marr said that this bout was his fifth fight against Sands, and; each of them knew every move of the other. “Each time I led with a left rip,” he said, “Sands replied with a hard left to the side of my head. If I had carried on like that all night, I would have got my head knocked off. I cannot appreciate what • the crowd or Mr Armishaw wanted. I think that, perhaps, he does not appreciate good boxing. Perhaps he wanted to see a bloodbath!” One of the judges, Mr S. E.. Burke said’ that Armishaw, in his opinion, had given a correct .decision. The other judge, Mr G. B. Nelson (a Kiwi Army and Auckland Rugby forward) said that the boxers had sparred for the first five rounds. Sands hurt Marr in the sixth round, but he was still lifting his shoulder when delivering his right hand punches, and was throwing punches with both hands at Marr’s gloves.

’ The president of the Auckland Boxing Association Mr R.. L. Farrell, said that a meeting would be held to-morrow to consider the match, and to make a decision on a match set down.‘»or next Mondav, in which Marr is to meet Darcy Hoffman, at Dunedin.