GREAT BOXING MATCH

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1921, Page 1

GREAT BOXING MATCH

KID LEWIS KNOCKS OUT BASHAM

A CLEAN AND CLEVER EIGHT

LONDON Nov 20

“Kid” Lewis is till the welter-weight champion of Great Britain, as well as of I'juvope, by reason of the fact that at tho Royal Albert Hall last evening ho defeated Johnny Basham, th e previous holder of the title, in the nineteenth round.

From the point of view of the true lover of boxing it was a contest to dwell upon for many years. It was perfectly clean from .start to finish. Only twice had the referee, Mr Eugene Coni any occasion to raise his voice in an admonitory way. 't he combatants behaved towards one another like true sportsmen. Among the first to congratulate the winner was the loser.

Before the contest the leading native experts we re in agreement that Basham was the best welter-weight we had seen since the late Dick Burge. His record proved that clearly, for until ho met Lewis about eight months ago and lost because his seconds gave in for him when perhaps they ought not to have done so, lie had to his name a tally of victories as long as one’s arm. When first 1 saw Lewis perform 1 recognised in him a man who was not to he beaten by anything like orthodox methods. He can take punishment as a fish imbibes water; his most hopeless moment is his best. He is indeed n great warrior, and as a two-handed fighter with the gloves we have had very, few to equal him in this country. Seldom jmve we. seen two men so perfectly fit as Lewis and Basham were when they stepped into the ring. In the old ring language, each was "as clean as a smelt.” 1 have never seen two better-trained men.

From the first moment Basham took th(> eye for cleverness. He used his left hand in the first round in a way that made it appear that the other fellow knew nothing at all about the business. Stepping away Basham’s long left shot out to his opponent’s face with the mechanical precision of a pis-ton-rod, and when they went to their corners we all said. “Well, if ho can keep that up it is a gift for him.” BASHAM’S LEAD ON POINTS.

Without entering into minute details 1 think I can say with safety that Basham had a points’ victory in every round up to the seventh. I do not assert that his lead was a big one, but it was always iinmistakoable. Basham has never boxed better, nor lias lie ever shown finer judgment than in the way in which be avoided Lewis’s temptations to mix it.

Time and again in those first seven rounds Lewis tried hard to bring off the short right upper-cut for which he is famous and which fins brought him victory in many a contest, but Basham always got out of distance, although never by much. Most times he was countered with the. left in a way that must have been very annoying, to say the least of it. In the sixth round there was a little incident which is unusual. 'Lewis split his left glove in the last half-minute and appealed to the referee, but the latter wisely made them continue to the end, when a change was made. The eighth round was by far the best of what was really, from beginning ' to end, a great contest. Lewis went all out to finish, and not once but several times it appeared certain that Basham woutld collapse ujtder his onslaught. To the astonishment and delight of tho best sporting house T have ever "seen at the Albert Hall, the Welshman held on and at the close of the round was giving more than lie received. Prom the eighth round to the finish Basham displayed his old fondness for th(> right lend, and it was from this

point that 1 counted him a loser. Bashant has no sense of distance with his right hand,, and I don’t believe that he delivered one direct hit with that weapon Throughout the whole of the nineteen rounds.

As late as ihc twelfth round they were laying 7 to t on Basham, and these were undoubtedly the odds, provided th(‘ Welsh hoy stood up. His stock went with a “slump" in tlic fourteenth, however, when the lope of his left ear was split and he bled profusely. Lewis also got a “thick One,” which bled, but the fact only showed hnv hard they were punching. . Fiiom the fourteenth to the eighteenth both begun to show signs of tiredness but not of distress. Basham was still ahead on points, but Lewis was now pursuing him with the persistency of a ferret. THE end. Just when we were beginning to think of shouting for Basham the end came. At' the opening of the nineteenth Basham put But a paw-like left, which Lewis avoided and followed up with a ' swinging right to the head. Down went Basham’, dazed and bewildered, but be managed to get to bis feet in the toil seconds. He tried to get into a clinch, but Lewis stepped back aid delivered the coup de grace with what was quite a gentle stroke, and the greatest boxing contest we have seen for a very long time was over. There was not a fault to find with the )iflair from beginning to end. Tt was true sport, and the two men deserve every credit for the way in which they bore themselves.