BOXING

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1931, Page 4

BOXING

BLAY DEFEATS DONOVAN. .By Telegraph— Per Press Association^ WELLINGTON, January 21. In the most thrilling of fights, as distinguished from a boxing contest, Bobby Blay, aged 19, the Australian, to-night defeated Tommy Donovan, the featherweight champion of the Dominion. Though 4,800 people occupied seat 3 in the new Stadium, 500 people were unable to gain admission. Shortly after eight o’clock, the crowd outside burst like a tide through the outsideturnstiles, and, bursting in the main doors of the hall like so much matchwood, they stormed upstairs, brushing the officials aside like chaff before the wind. Some people even perched on the roof, and a splintered skylight added a thrill to the events of the evening. Enthusiasts were even perched high ,up in precarious positions on the rafters. Eventually the services of the police were requisitioned, and 500 persons were ejected by a strong posse. There was only one man in the fight. Donovan forced the fighting in the first few rounds, and he was the faster hitter. Donovan was more aggressive than *he has ever been. The New Zealand champion, however, got all the fight he was looking for, and he was a little more than dazed in the third round. Donovan was sent to the mat in the fourth, eighth, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth and fourteenth rounds. The referee, Mr Perry, stopped the unqunl combat, and awarded Blay a win. Blay and Donovan have been signed for a return bout at New Plymouth on February 7.