FIGHT OF THE DECADE

NZ Truth, Issue 1186, 23 August 1928, Page 10

FIGHT OF THE DECADE

Two Scrappers Who Tore In With Their Battle Axes

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) On the showing of Tommy Mclnnes and Lachie McDonald on Monday night it is m order to say that nothing but a sledge hammer could put either, man out.

WHEN Scot meets Scot something tough may be expected, but nothing so tough for many a year has raised an Auckland crowd to such a pitch of excitement as the fight. For fight it was when the Home Scot met the Dunedin Scot. McDonald had had his left eyebrow opened up by Charlie Purdy while sparring a few days ago and, before the second round was far gone, Tommy had opened it up again and for the rest of the fifteen hard-fought rounds, Lachie was losing a quantity of blood. And blood and stinging stoush was the order of the evening. Both men's gloves and shorts were saturated. Lachie had the advantage of ;Some inches m reach and he made the best use of it and drove his bulk at the shorter Tommy from the word go. Most of the Dunedin lad's blows were aimed for the head, while Tommy retaliated with short crosses, hooks and upper-cuts to the jaw and heart, or solar plexus. Sharp exchanges and telling, gruelling punches were interspersed with brief cllnche s in which both men strove for an advantage. They gave and took stern punishment at close quarters, while each, m turn, would drive the other on to the ropes. Both men fought savagely and while, for a moment, one or the other would seem to have an advantage, the next they ..would be m the centre of the ring piling m the punishment m such a way that it seemed impossible for them to last the distance. Momentarily Lackie appeared to weaken under the rain of short arm jabs which connected again and again with his damaged brow or chin, but, stooping, or with his back to the ropes, he would come out of trouble to drive Tommy across the" ring, crashing into

him double-fisted, and as game as ever. Rourids eight, ten and eleven stood out as the most punishing of the fifteen. From the eighth, Mclnnes seemed to have the advantage of the Dunedin boy, who ln spite of loss of blood showed stamina, using his left with great effect, and following up with his right at close quarters. In the tenth it looked as if Mclnnes had got his man on the run, when, with a succession of right and left hooks and jabs to Lachie's jaw and head he had him reeling over the middle rope doubled up. But for the grit and staying power Lachie showed later, it might have been thought he was a gone coon. In the next two, Lachie showed what stern stuff he was made of, coming back for five of the most hard-hit-ting rounds probably ever seen m the Auckland ring. The ' in-fighting was tough, but Tom, When they broke apart, used his right to Lachie's eye and repeatedly connected with his left to the neck and jaw, while, with a telling left, he caught McDonald towards the end under the jaw artd drove him half-way across the ring. The thirteenth was the, Devil's round indeed, but despite the severe punishment meted out to him, Lachie was still plugging into the hard-hitting Tommy. When the final gong went there was a doubt as to whom might be awarded the decision. Amid wild demonstrations it was given to the Dunedin lad, but as a fair decision on actual merit It might be questioned, for most of the honors seemed to be with the visitor. However, be that as it may, the Northern Association has at last staged something, which could be called a real, he-man fight.