THE BOXING RING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 190, 1 November 1927, Page 11

THE BOXING RING

Notes From Far and Near

By

"LEFT COUNTER”

According to Jack Kearns. Miokey Walker, middle-weight champion of the world, will have one more fight in defence of his title. After that he will join the light-heavy brigade. In America, promoters are spurring on their referees to be more active in the ring and call on the boxers to fight hard all the time. A slow referee generally causes a bout to become uninteresting. Last Wednesday evening Lacliie McDonald defeated “Tiger” Cline, the American. Cline is one of the best in Australia at the present time, and McDonald is to be congratulated on his win. Reg Trowern had his second fight since his return to Australia at the Newcastle Stadium on Friday night when he defeated George Pringle on a technical knockout in 11 rounds. Trowern had his opponent’s measure from the start. The Napier Boxing Association has received a letter from Norman Radford, the English feather-weight, who is in South Africa, stating that he intends returning to England to try for a contest for the feather-weight title, but if sufficient inducement is offered he will come to the DominionWhen Tom Heeney defeated Johnny Risko, he beat one of the toughest heavy-weights in the game. Risko, who is an Austrian, has met both Tunney and Sharkey. If the New Zealander had met defeat at the hands of Risko, it would probably have meant that his match with Sharkey would have been cancelled. * * * Johnny Brown, winner outright of the barjtam-weight Lonsdale belt, can still make the bantam poundage of Sst. Gib., and is willing to tackle Teddy Baldock. Since he returned from South Africa and the States, Brown has been boxing round about Sst. 91b. He is undefeated for the British and European titles. The announcement has been made that Stadiums, Ltd., has almost completed negotiations with Johnny Dundee, the ex-world’s feather-weight champion, to make a tour of Australia at an early date. Dundee was the fighter, who defeated Criqui, the Frenchman, whom Bert Spargo boxed a few years ago. Recently Dundee showed a return to form by obtaining the newspaper decision over the world’s junior light-weight champion.

Tommy Milligan has been spelling: since his bout with Mickey Walker for the middle-weight championship of the world. He has now returned from a holiday in Ireland and is looking for matches. Jack Nelson, the Greymouth welterweight who won the amateur title at Napier last year, has decided to join the professionals. He has a good record, 47 fights with only six losses. Tom Heeney is certainly putting New Zealand on the fistic map of the world. The latest advice is that Heeney is bracketed with Jack Sharkey for the second challenge of Tunney for the title. If he continues as he is doing, Tom will be able to come back to New Zealand and buy the country up. A few years ago he was boxing in New Zealand for a purse of £IOO, and now Tex Rickard values him at £IOO.OOO. If Dempsey, who lias the first challenge, does not fight again, the Sharkey-Heeney bracket will take his place. Heeney is matched to meet Sharkey, and the outcome will be watched in New Zealand with interest, as the winner will more likely than not be matched with Tunney for the title. When Heeney left these shores how many thought that another Bob Fitzsimmons was going abroad? An Australian writer cominents as follows on Charlie Purdy’s fight with Jack Pilkington: “Between clinches, Purdy revealed himself as a defensive boxer of great skill and subtlety. He has the gift of prophetic evasion, his feet are oiled lightning, and his head ducks and dives with the swiftness of a swallow and the elusiveness of a snipe- His trouble is that his fists cannot keep pace with the rest of him. His offensive consists of a poky, scratchy left jab and a namby-pamby, stingless right, leavened by an occasional left rip to the body- When, at the end of 15 rounds, referee Joe Wallis gave his decision in favour of Pilkington, a section of the crowd howled like a wolf bereft of its red riding hood. The referee’s verdict was perfectly correct. To win a fight one has to hit something or someone. ‘Pilk’ hit everything, including Purdy, the wind, and even Joe Wallis. Purdy’s constant clinching and utter lack of devil robbed his greater skill of its reward. As a defensive boxer, pure and simple, he is in a class by himself, and his knack of side-stepping to the left, to avoid a right swing, was as pretty a piece of work as one could wish to see. As I said before, his chief fault is centred in his fists. They are the only uneducated portion of his fistic make-up.”