CAN’T GET MATCHES MOHAMMOD SUNNI

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 53, 25 May 1927, Page 7

CAN’T GET MATCHES

MOHAMMOD SUNNI

N.Z. Wrestlers Won't Meet Sunni —

Indian Champion to go to Australia

Is Promised Several Bouts In Commonwealth

HOHAMMOD ALI SUNNI, brilliant Indian wrestler, is still in Auckland. But not for long. He will be leaving shortly for Australia, where the new Boxing and Wrestling Association has promised to match him with five or six of the best grapplers on the other side of the Tasman Sea.

“It is no use my staying here,” said Sunni, when interviewed by THE SUN yesterday. He has waited a long time to get a match, but that -wait has all been in vain. He has issued open challenges to wrestle all comers on any terms and under any conditions, but our champions have not responded to the call of this Indian. He is barely over eleven stone when stripped, so it cannot be his weight that troubles them, but his eel-like clever methods, which literally tie his opponents in a knot, seem to make the big men think that he is not really human. In New Zealand Sunni has had quite a good run, and out of his 22 matches in this country he has had only two losses and two draws; one of these losses was due to him being a sick man, suffering from a strained heart which forced him to rest for some six months. A WRESTLING EPIC The greatest of all his feats took place in Napier in 1924. He was matched against Anderson, of Palmerston North. The wrestle started, but within ten minutes Sunni had the Palmerstonian on the mat and defeated. The fans gaped with surprise, but little realised that a still bigger surprise was in store for them. The whole thing had been short and sweet, and they naturally wanted to see more of this wonder who hailed from overseas. Sunni therefore gave the referee permission to call on any one from the crowd.

Then among yells and cheers the last person on earth expected to come forward moved up to the stage.—lt was Ike Robin. The huge form of the Maori towered above that of the Indian, whom for a short time he tossed and played with like a feather.

But Sunni was only awaiting his chance, and he; took it when it was offered. Attacking Ike, he obtained

the scissors hold around the head. Ike moaned and groaned, but he was a “gone coon.” and could not release himself. To continue that match would only mean serious injury to the New Zealander, and the referee seeing this, stopped the match and Sunni was considered the winner. GIVEN A WIDE BERTH This performance of defeating two heavy-weight champions in one night meant really the ruination of Sunni's chances for many more matches in New Zealand. He was given a wide berth and since then he has had great difficulty in arranging contests. Sunni is anxious to meet allcomers, of any weight (or size), and he undertakes to beat any man in New Zealand who is eligible to wrestle light-heavy or middleweight, and undertakes to defeat them within 30 minutes for any stake they like to produce. In Australia it is being arranged for Sunni to meet Millar, an American, who is the present holder of the mid-dle-weight championship of the world, while in order to arrange a match for Stecher, who is the recognised heavyweight champion of the another Indian by the name of Aziz is to be imported into Australia. Sunni says that his fellow-countryman Aziz will never be beaten by Stecher. Sunni has done his best for wrestling, in New Zealand, but since New Zealand will not do its best for Sunni he cannot be blamed for leaving. Since 1926 he has had eight matches, one in this country and seven in Australia. He has won them all.