Boxing.

Southland Times, Issue 18840, 5 June 1920, Page 9

Boxing.

Intending competitors are reminded that entries for the Southland Boxing Association’s annual championship tourney on June 10 and 11 dose this evening.

At Westport this evening the crack cxamateur Dick Redwing will meet the Westport champion Jack O'Neill in u professional bout. An exciting fifteen-round match is anticipated. It is hard to say how the entries for the S.B.A.’s tourney will pan out, but indications point to full lists. The meeting should prove a very interesting one, as many new boxers have com? into the game of late. Ihe English boxer Joe i-'ymnnds has caught the fancy of Sydney ringsiders as a clever boxer and hefty fighter. He proved too good for Digger Evans in their recent meeting and is evidently a man who will take a power of beating. An American message to England at the end of March desorilted Carpcmier's wardrobe in detail;— One hundred si.k shirt? of various hues, st.iipes and nots, with collars to match; 20 overcoats, three fur coats and one fur robe; 75 suits; 75 pains of shoes; 200 neckties.

Writing to Grrymouth Star from Sydney, the West Coast boxer, Frank Griffon, lightweight, who is at present a member of Da\e Smith's school, says that the boxing game is a very' hard business over there. There arc hundreds of boxers, and they will fight for anything. Really good men will go six hard rounds for a sovereign. Griucn says that he now scales 10.10, and expects to get a fight at an early date. Having been declared medically fit to return to (lie ring with excellent prospects of success, Tommy Burns has been holding forth to an interviewer in I^ondon: —My intentions now? Simply this; 1 am prepared to meet any man in England, preferably' the best. Whom do I consider be=t ? Well, 1 do not wish to hurl anybody’s feelings, hut having seen them all 1 should select Joe Beckett. I have watched keenly the work of your heavy-weights, hating seen Beckett, Wells, Goddard, McGoorty, Met an, and Cowicr in action, and I have no hesitation in .suggesting that the best of the bunch is Joe Beckett. 1 heard the other day that Jim Driscoll was taking up Beckett's cause and was letting him into some of the secrets of the art. 1 congratulate Beckett, for, with such tuition as Driscoll can impart, your heavy-weight champion ought to stand alone in this country. Because I think he is the best of them, and might well be better, 1 would tatlicr met! him in my “come back’’ 1 ban anyone else. I know what I am asking for, but I would rathe;' beat, nr be beaten by. the best than succeed or fail to a second-rater. You have to remember, too, that though I was beaten by Jack Johnson for the world’s championship I have never been beaten for the* championship of the British Empire, mar have I relinquished it. It may be said that others have a better pi esent-day claim to that title, but i woidd remand you that whilst 1 defeated the champion of every Englishspeaking country in my day I tin nut know of one of your heavy-weights with stick a record. Beckett may be thought by some to be entitled to the Empire c:;t-.r.,(.ioiiship, but he has n:\cr been out of tins country’ to fight, nor has hu me! anyone from• oiher countries with the exception of Carpcnticr. I am not attempting to belittle him —it is merely’ fact, and perhaps no fault of his that the opportunity Ims not presented itself owing to the war. Not being able to g. I a match anywhere with reputab.it* tig. u*rs. Jack John-on, cx-i;e;\\y-\vcic!d < lampion of the woil', has taken to lighting bulls in Hex. can 1 ud rings, lie is being hailed in Max.co as the

"Toreador Premier,” and made his debut recently before a huge crowd. Ho scored a technical k.o. over I ivn bulls. aikr t ;uv:'; bat I Ip, during which he won; down \,t U-f, oner, almost for the i cun;. He piowd himself an adept jumptr, on a couple of occasions, by clearing the high wall ol (he enclosure with an enraged bull’s horns perilously close '.o him. Johnson : ppi-arod attired in a huge still collar, plenty of stiff -bin linen, white lle.nnri tr.-users, an;! multicoloured sports -f A lla.-hy ;■are;.dor's cepe was, thrown about bis ,-Jioiil Hi.. His head was bale, and the sun pou.w; down on him, illuminating his gold tm-tii. The bull Irotled in, and the h.aek waved a red flag. The animal rushed. Johnson feinted and jabbed with re- M.-t me cle’ ernes:-, 'ilia bull found an op: ;o;r;, and eharp, ; at the ..olar I’lcMi- ol his eoAureii oppon --at, Johnon eiinciii-d with ii.e hull, catigni him by the horns, and la.-sed iooi to sue mound. After several mote looms in t't.s ia.-luon the blaekfeilow ran the ;pear :i:io the bull's neek, and b: other bud look lb- full count. John -on st’om i about the r.-ri as only a 'sink of his type ran s’-id!, in triumph. nil sweeps v.Ma jus arm.', a bull : barge:! at him from the rear. The bb vs was a foul one, hut John-on dir! not dispute it. He vent for his hfc. and. toed; a (lit harp, landin': well on Pi one of the bvve.- out of and ,lohns(.n returned to the arena. but could not make it iitthl, He plated round with it, hut it would not lip’ t. so Johnston "rode away, auie'-l a not o; anpiau-?. It i- easy to picture this hi:; darky in the moment of sitos--. for m tr union lie was the ino -1 i! v• ■ ■•. .Me iivtvido i tn be found. For real, iai.l: fbohnu s—va 11, you've got to hand it to Johnson. AFTER 50 FIGHT*. TOMMY BURNS WITHOUT A MARK. As the result of a complete examhiaiion and a slight operation by Hr William Moyd, the throat specialist (says London Daily Mail'. Tommy Burns has decided to return to the riii;;. "When Burns came to me he complained of a si ir lit difliculty m brr at’) ovrrunull'd him thoroughly and d:.-' i. s.-red a. thickenin': of the ti.--u n . 1 sissi-i-I a ■'niple oprra.l 01., which he acre'.: to, and the te-till will be that hr- will base no on! ticulty with his hi cat/line in future. He i - ,en ext rrm; !y mt; re-tine snipe;! ; and I

found myself becoming quite fa-rinatnl I>y his powerful personalty. Among boxing lorn he is fin exee)itsonal type lioln inrat ally and physically. The first thing I was hi’erested in was the penetrative power of Ids eyes. They are semi-deep-set, with a murkea fixation and concent nil ion. ’ton see in the eye every evidence of detrrnnnata n and keen observation. I might almost describe them as Napolcomc. “The most remarkable discovery 1 made in regard to his physiognomy was Ihe unmarked condition of his nos-?. The bridge is perfectly flraighl. and had 1 not known hit was a champion boxer 1 should have said he had never been hit there in his life. Not one boxer in five hundred has a perfectly straight nose, because that organ is so delicate as to lie susceptible to the slightest knock. In the case of Burns there is no evidence that the nose has over been struck. "Turtherniore. there is not a -a n trie in-uk on his head that would indicate participation in boxing; yet I am told That lie had appeared in nearly seventy contest;*. IBs shin is clear and his hands - and feet are relatively small. This I think makes for greater activity and accounts for his rapid footwork. “Burns was very anxious,” added Dr Lloyd, “to know what I thought about his general condition. I tested his pulse and blood pressure, and could not discover one mark of degeneration. The tone of his

arteries is that of a young man. I would say that as fur as the elasticity of his bloodvessels is concerned he might be twelve or fourteen years younger than his actual age (38 years). I have seldom come across a man so well preserved and so free from all signs of bodily wear and tear. At the present time I believe he is carrying about 1-llh of excess weight, hut as he is solidly built and has '-cry little soft I suppose a month wady training • H bring him into spl.n did condition. '...lever over-

weight he carries now is distributed evenly over the whole of his frame.

‘‘Summed up, I can best describe him in type as a ‘battle-cruiser’—compact, extremely active and mobile for his wtdfi&t, and having that solid bulk which is so great a set-oil against sustained strain. Bat I must revert to the eyes—they are devoid of fear, imperturbable and impenetrable. “I was not surprised,” the doctor concluded, “to hear that he is very abstemious, indulging neither in alcohol nor tobacco. This abstinence, coupled with simple living and his natural physical equipment, accounts for the boxer’s fine state of preservation and freedom from flaws.”