BOXING

Hokitika Guardian, 31 January 1931, Page 6

BOXING

LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE

JOHNS OUTPOINTS LUCK It

AUCKLANDER’S AUSPICIOUS START.

(Auckland Star)

Jt is the lob of few boxers to win a championship of their country in their first professional fight, but that is what Harry Johns did at the Town Hall, Auckland, on Monday night. 'I he nineteen-year-old Aucklander met Hector Leckie of Dunedin, in a match for the New Zealand lightweight title and at the end of fifteen excellent rounds he was adjudged the winner on points.

Johns’ success delighted his admirers who made the rafters ring when the ex-amateur was declared the winner. And the youthful champion deserved all the compliments that were heaped on to him, for he fought better than he has. ever fought in public before, albeit there were occasions when he neglected to close his gloves. In. Leckie the Aucklander was up against a stiff proposition. It was a case of a boy against a man and the boy conquered.

For the first three rounds Johns piled up the points and Leckie must have thought that he was back in thegymnasium receiving a lesson from an instructor who knew far more than he. Johns’ speed allowed him to land his punches and then skip away to safety and lie had Leckie guessing. At close quarters Johns was willing to mix. it, ami when Johns started his ducking and weaving the Otago champion hit little more solid than air. With live rounds gone Johns had a good lead on points, but Leckie then began to make himself felt and Johns slowed down considerably. The visitor pumped a few solid punches into the Aucklander’s body, but was. obviously waiting for an opportunity to put the local down for the full count. Round about the tenth round, when there could not have been much between the points, it looked as if Johns was finding the journey just a little to long, and that Lcckie’s greater stamina and heavier artillery would win him the day. But Johns rallied, got on. to. his toes again, and continued to box his man until the final gong. By that time Johns’ right eye was up like an egg and his body was aching from the severe test it had been put to. Both judges decided in favour of Johns and there was no need for the referee (Mr Dick Meale) to give his vote. The announcement by Mr W. Dervan that- Johns was the winner set the house cheering wildly and some of the local’s more enthusiastic supporters rushed the staging to, congratulate him.

NOT A BIG MARGIN. There were some who said at the conclusion of the light that Johns won every one of the fiiteen rounds; that was absurd. At the time when Johns looked to have used every tiling he had in the way of ammunition, Leckie wiped off a lot of the points -scored by the local in the early rounds. The general opinion at the finish was that Johns had won, but not by a very great margin, Those who claim that the Aucklander won every round should remember that there were punches delivered by Johns which gained him not a single point for the reason that they were delivered with the open glove. The attendance was small, but it made up in enthusiasm what it lacked in numbers. The carnival was certainly the best staged by the Northern Boxing Association for some time. A purse of £IOO was in dispute. Leckie weighed 9.0!,, and Johns was *RI> lighter. In the opening round Johns flashed his left into his opponent’s face and skipped away. Leckie pumped a right for the local’s body, j | but the punch was blocked and Johns, then threw a hard right to the visitor’s head, Johns used his right band j well in the second round and outboxed \ his man in the third. Reekie’s mouth j was bleeding at the start, of term lour, j but this was the visitor’s best. | to date. The crowd was thoroughly enjoying the bout and they applauded loudly at every gong. Johns’ speed was again in evidence in the fifth, but 1 in the sixth tbe southerner thudded both hands home to his opponent s body. Leckie concentrated on the local’s body for the next two or three J rounds and although Johns proved very elusive and showed a good defence he had a lot of the steam taken out of him. Leckie got right down to business in tbe ninth and be sunk a- hard right into Johns’ solar plexus. In the tenth the visitor landed a right uppercut when tbe Aucklander was sunk on his haunches, but the blow was not bard enough to do any real damage. Johns was on the detensive in the eleventh round and his eye was closing rapidly when he came out for the twelfth. A hard left to the body caused Johns to wince and the southerner got home with short arm jolts. In the thirteenth Johns stopped a right to the body and slipped, but he , got up immediately, and for the re- < mainder of the fight lie boxed cleverly. < making his final points when he took ] his turn at attack in the fifteenth , round. I f