THE BOXING RING

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 325, 10 April 1928, Page 11

THE BOXING RING

Notes From Far and Near

By

“LEFT COUNTER"

The subscriptions for the Cleverley Olympic Fund have now reached £6O, and this has been augmented by about £4O. This leaves £3OO yet to be collected to send Cleverley to the games. Only three weeks remain in which to collect the necessary amount.

Spirited bidding for a light-weight title match between Sammy Mandell, the champion, and Jimmy McLarnin, the Irish lad who bowled over Sid Terris in a single round, ended in a victory for Tex Rickard over Jim Mullen, Chicago promoter. Eddie Kane, manager of the title-holder, will return to Chicago bearing with him a “satisfactory” offer for Mandell to fight McLarnin on May 17. Rickard said he would announce Mandell’s decision later.

The professional feather-weight boxing contest between Jack Green and Billv Melton, who did so well against Johnny Leckie, last Tuesday at the, Wellington Town Hall lasted exactly five minutes, Melton knocking his man out with a left rip to the solar plexus early in the second round. Green has held three Australian titles in his time —fly, bantam, and feather. The bantam and feather he held simultaneously. In winning the fly-weight elimination bout in 1919 Green took the championship of Australia. He did not hold the honours over-long, Jack Finney taking it from him about nine months after he won it. The bantam title was won from Vince Blackburn, and the feather from Sid Godfrey. Bert Spargo took the feather title from Green at a later date, but Green was never defeated for the bantam title. He surrendered it on finding he was no longer able to make the weight. Green also defeated Jamito

in his prime, and fought the renowned Eugene Criqui. The Australian went four rounds with the Frenchman, but Green outboxed Criqui while the contest lasted. The two ex-Wellington boxers. George and Alby Curran, have entered in a £SOO competition which will he conducted by Stadiums, Ltd., this month. Battling Levinsky, one time great heavy-weight, who commenced a comeback some months ago. and won a number of bouts, recently gained the decision over Earl Blue in a feature bout in New York. * * * Bud Taylor, recognised by many American States as bantam-weight champion of the world, easily defeated the clever Filipino feather-weight. Ignacio Fernandez, in a 10-round bout in Los Angeles recently. * * * I The fight between Jim Broadfo* t ! and Harry Casey at Greymouth on Saturday evening resulted in a win for Casey on points. This was the third occasion on which the pair had met. The first fight, which was for the title, ended in a draw, and the second in a win for Casey on points. On Saturday the middle-weight title was involved, but Broadfoot was unsuccessful in his second bid for honours. The report states that Broadfoot fought well, but that Casey was his superior both in attack and defence. The Auckland boy has never troubled very much about defence, relying mostly on his ability to take whatever comes along, and no one will j doubt liis ability to do that. He has proved a good draw' ever since his fight with Ern Mac at the Auckland Town Hall, and his success as i crowd-pleaser is mainly due to hie

willingness to go in and fight. His bout with Lachie McDonald will long be remembered in Auckland. The defeat of Eric Harley at the j hands of Johnny Leckie has given j rise to much speculation as to the outcome of the match (says a. writer in the “Otago Daily Times”*. Harley has a win or two to his credit over Gillespie, but it at must be remembered that these victories were gained several years ago, j when Gillespie, who is still a young man, was at the foot of the ladder. Four notches on Johnny Leckie’s gun now represent defeated Australian boxers. The first was Darby O’Connor, the second Billy Melton, the third Teddy Green, and the fourth Eric Harley. Those who watched Dunedin's , fighting feather-weight smash through ; Harley’s aggressive battery, and reduce him to a helpless condition in j the sixth round on Monday evening, are wondering if Norman Gillespie, j feather-weight champion of Australia, j will be the fifth. “ The big fight in the Drill Hall dis- j appointed that section of the 3.000 on- j lookers which expected to witness :> ■ closely contested bout of 15 rounds. ; but by the same token it was not the . runaway, inevitable victory from the J L first gong that many ardent LecK. I supporters appeared to expect. Harlev proved himself a strong, clean. one. aggressive boxer, with a dangerous . right, and although he went down j rapidly to the faster, cleverer, and bet- j t ter conditioned Leckie. he put up a i game showing, and did everything m i his power to give the spectators the-r e money’s worth. Harley jeopardised , I his chances of becoming really fit by j r reducing from 9.2 to 8.13 in six days, e Although a bigger and heavier built 1 lad than Leckie, he entered the ring e onlv his equal in weight. Xeverthe- - less, he is not Johnnie’s peer as a r, and I am satisfied that under - any renditions the bout would have s resulted in much the same manner. - At the ringside during the bout was r Norman Gillespie, who was introduce 1 j . I to the audience a little earlier in the e i evening. Needless to relate, he folII [ lowed every session very closely, and s although he was inclined to blame n.is s colleague’s condition at the c-los*. I d | noticed throughout his obvious appr*a i ciation of Leckie’s speed and general s 1 tactics.