THE BOXING RING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 266, 31 January 1928, Page 11

THE BOXING RING

Notes From Far and Near

By

"LEFT COUNTER”

Gene Tunney has been admitted into the Millionaire Club, in recognition of the fact that he always fought like the idle rich.

The Hamilton welter-weight, Nelson McKnight, is getting plenty of fights in Seattle, America, where the distance limit is only six rounds, and where willing fighters may have fights every few days. McKnight won a fight by a knock-out, lost one on points and drew in another, all in the space of seven days. He was signed to meet another opponent 10 days later. Jack Delaney advanced his stock a hundred per cent, in the heavy-weight eliminations on January 17 by cleaning up Sully Montgomery in exactly 20 seconds. Six thousand people saw Jack, weighing 12.12, shake hands with Sully, who scaled 15.6, then plant one lone, solitary right on Sully’s jaw. The referee counted 17 for good measure before Sully moved again. It was a poor night for second-raters. In another arena Uzcudun knocked out Ed Keely. * * * It was recently reported that Lin Robinson, ex-feather-weight champion of New Zealand, and Johnny Leckie, the present champion, were being matched by the Gisborne Association, but the bout will not now be staged, negotiations having fallen through. It is hardly likely that it would have been a good contest, as Robinson is long past his best, and it needs a strong and active boxer to go the distance with Leckie. let alone get the decision. No one has succeeded in getting the better of him since he turned professional and Robinson would have had a hard # George Godfrey, the “black menace” of the present pugilistic era, continues on his winning way, and added another knock-out victim to his long list when he put Soldier Jones of Toronto down for the count, after 55 seconds of fighting in the first round of a scheduled 10-round bout in Pittsburgh recently. Jones, rated as a heavy hitter, came from his corner at the bell and missed with a left swing. Godfrey went in close, ripped f>iree hard rights to the soldier’s body and sent him to’the floor for the toll. The club physician had to be called before Jones could leave the ring.

Tommy Milligan, who was badly knocked about in his bout with Mickey Walker for the middle-weight championship of the world, wants a return contest with the champion. Milligan recently defeated Kid Nitram, "the French champion, and he thinks he has improved to the extent of being able to get the better of Walker in a return bout. The Englishman was on the verge of being knocked out by Nitram, but his managing to puil through was mainly due to his pluck. * * *

A New York message states that Tex Rickard is leaving for Florida to confer with Tunney, as Dempsey has notified the promoter that he would not box Tunney in June, preferring to wait until September.

Gene Tunney spent a quiet and rest - ful Christmas Day. He attended church, read a pile of telegrams of congratulations, then got into his bathing suit to spend the rest of the day deepening his coat of tan on the warm sands. He is adhering rigidly to his announced programme of intensive rest and light training, shunting off the many social invitations he receives daily. The reports of Charlie Purdy’s improvement which have been coming across to New Zealand appear to be true in every way. He put up a great performance by drawing with Ernie Izzard, of England, and a large portion of the crowd thought he had won. Purdy must have been at the top of his form. In the report of the fight it states that Izzard was a shade ahead up to the fifth round, when Purdy forced the fight, concentrating on his opponent’s body. It is very pleasing to hear this. When the Auckland boy was boxing here he was not in the habit of forcing a fight, and more often than not sent his blows to the face and head and not to the body. In fact, the only time he touched the body was in the close stuff. A return contest between these two boxers should prove popular on the other side.

Sam Langford, one time “Boston Tar Baby” of the prize ring, is beginning to think he has half a dozen “doubles” scattered around the country, states his employer, Jim Toland. Boston gymnasium owner.

Langford, who some time ago, suffered a serious infection in his eye, was given a Christmas benefit in New York about a year ago and “since that time he’s been reported blind, lame, and feeble from all over the country,” Toland asserted.

“As a mater of fact, he’s going to work for me as a boxing instructor in my gymnasium,” added Toland. “He had a gym. of his own out in Cambridge, but it didn’t go so welt, I guess, and I can use him mighty well. The latest story on him came out of Palm Beach. They had him almost blind in a poor house witft somebody trying to find him a pair of number 13 shoes. “As far as that goes, Sam has exceptionally small feet and they, are mighty light and shifty, too, as any old-time heavy-weight might tell you. And he’s far from blind. I remember just after he helped Maloney train for the Delaney fight last winter some one had a story about him being operated on in New York. I asked him how the operation was and he told me he heard all about it over the radio out home in Cambridge.”