BIG FIGURES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5166, 17 August 1927, Page 3

BIG FIGURES.

SUMS RECEIVED BY BOXERS.

PUBLICITY EXAGGERATION.

Figures cannot lie, but there is 4 strong suspicion thqt those who use them occasonally do (says- the Cambridge Independent). When one reads of a boxing match in which the winner received £59,000 and the loser £40,000 —those are the figures mentioned in the mail newst in connection with the recent world’s championship boxing contest —one feels that there has been at least gross carelessness on the part of someone in allowing several ciphers to slip in unawares. It is not unreasonable to suppose that impressive stories of huge sums hangiirig in the balance on- the issue of a -prize-fight would induce patrons of boxing to pay more at the box office to witness such an epoch-making conest. It is also possible to believe that blood-curdling tales of speculators buying up £5 seats and retailing them at £25 each would have some influence in causing the thrifty person to book early at the paltry figure of £5 rather than miss his chance of seeing the battle. If all the expansive talk of boxing promoters’ press agents were : accepted as truth it would appear that a promising boxer’s fortune was ■made once he received fin important before a blow was struck, for he would be a wealthy man, win or lose. But a habit of exaggeration for publicity’s sake lias grown up. The “big” figures quoted to a gaping public are frequently as illusory as the acrimonious cross-talk which is supposed to pass between the contestants before- a match. It serves its puipose in hoodwinking some people, and morally is no worse than the old tarradiddles about a prima donna’s fabulous salary.