TUNNEY WANTS HEENEY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 305, 16 March 1928, Page 11

TUNNEY WANTS HEENEY

•PI IK motley series of elimination contests organised by Tex * Rickard to find a challenger for a world’s championship bout against Gene Tunney came to an end in America this week. On top of the more or less valueless victory of Risko over Sharkey comes the news that Tunney considers that Tom Heeney should be his next opponent. That makes good reading for New Zealanders, but unfortunately the final decision does not rest with Tunney. The gentleman who decides these matters is one, Tex Rickard, who has plainly said that lie does not regard the New Zealander as a suitable rival for Tunney—in other words, a suitable box office attraction for Mr. Rickard. What Tex Rickard says carries a good deal of weight in fistic circles. The control of boxing in the United States is vastly different to ours. There are State Athletic Commissions, which occasionally order a stalling boxer to defend his title or forfeit it. but tlie handling of the big championship fights are left to private individuals, who are prepared to accept the ever-present risk of failure in staging these huge public attractions. Thanks to his almost uncanny facility for gauging publicopinion and making huge profits thereby, Rickard is virtually the Mussolini of the American prize ring. If Rickard doesn’t like the way Mr. Heeney from New Zealand parts his hair, then Mr. Heeney is liable to get the cold shoulder when world’s championship bouts are under discussion. The defeat of Sharkey, however, must draw fresh attention to Heeney. The New Zealander recently settled the muchboosted claims of Jack Delaney, and his drawn battle with Sharkey is offset by the fact that this talkative young man has just been eliminated by Risko, whom Heeney has already beaten. There are two alternatives open. Either Heeney will get a fight for the title as Tunney suggests he should, or Rickard may decide to match him. as a final try-out, against the ageing veteran that was once the invincible Dempsey. Despite rumours of his retirement owing to defective eyesight, latest American exchanges contain the news that Dempsey is in training again. In the meantime, Mr. Tex Rickard chews reflectively at his favourite brand of cigars and speculates on the prospects of another three-million-dollar gate. It may even be that the astute promoter is thinking in pounds and not in dollars, because a Tunney-Heeney bout would “go big” in England, where Heeney’s meteoric rise lias aroused nearly as much enthusiasm as it has done in New Zealand.