ABRUPT CONTRAST

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 9

ABRUPT CONTRAST

SHARKEY AND SCHMELING

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXERS 1 The battle between Jack Sharkey of Boston and Max Schmeling of Berlin, Germany, in the Yankee Stadium on June 12, for the world’s heavy-weight championship, will bring together two boxers of widely differing temperaments, says an American writer. For Sharkey and Schmeling are as far as the poles asunder in what might be termed the qualities of the mind, or purely spiritual traits, if they are to be judged accurately by their conduct in the heat of combat. Their meeting will be as much—possibly more—a clash of mental make-ups as a clash of fists, of bone and muscle. In various fights Sharkey has conveyed the impression that lie is excessively high-strung; that he is easily overcome by his emotions. Schmeling, on the other hand, strikes beholders as phlegmatic to the last degree; as a stoic who goes about the business of give and take in the ring without an extra pulse-beat and, with a stolid poker face, as impassive as a penda mask. If Sharkey is to defeat Schmeling, he had better accomplish his victory early. It is a surety that the “Black Uhlan” will get stronger the farther the bout progresses. His relentless boring in, like the ever-approaching retribution in a Greek tragedy, may serve to dismay Sharkey if the gob discovers, after four or five rounds, that he is not hurting the German.