TODAY’S BIG FIGHT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 996, 12 June 1930, Page 6

TODAY’S BIG FIGHT

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOUT AT NEW YORK SHARKEY AND SCHMELING Nearly two years have passed since a fight for the heavy-weight championship of the world was staged. The last occasion, July 26, 1928, was a memorable one for New Zealand, as Gene Tunney, the champion, defended his title against the New Zealander, ; Tom Heeney, the American winning in 11 rounds. With Tunney’s retirement immediately afterward, the championship has been vacant, and the long elimination tournaments to find a new champion will end at the Yankee Stadium. New York, this evening, when the two fighters left in the race, Jack Sharkey, of America, and Max Schmeling, of Germany, will fight out the issue. Opinion in America is divided. The Americans, in loyalty to their countryman. are picking Sharkey to win; but the same loyalists have a great deal of respect for the “Black Uhlan of the Rhine.” Many of the leading figures in the American pugilistic world are picking Sharkey to win, mainly on the score of his supreme confidence in his ability to defeat the ; German, and also on account of the “foreign invader’s” one-handed fighting. The know-alls point out that in every case where Sharkey has been confident in himself (as opposed to his well-known fault of “shooting off his mouth.” a fault that won him the name of the “Garrulous Gob”) and has expressed the intention of beating down all opposition, he has been successful. He is confident that he can defeat the German, they say, and they are backing his confidence with their money.

The contention that Schmeling is a one-handed fighter is also causing some controversy. Sharkey’s supporters say that the German's left hand Is practically worthless, and that the American is too slick a boxer to be caught by the right hand only, no matter how good it may be. The opposite view taken by Schmelirg’s backers is interesting. While admitting that the German is only a one-handed man. as far as boxing is concerned, they say that he does not telegraph it, but rips it in from all angles in short, snappy fashion, and that he is going to do a deal of damage to Sharkey’s ribs, as well as by sending it suddenly in an uppercut to the jaw, as is his disconcerting habit. Another point advanced against Schmeling’s chances is that he has done himself harm by nearly a year’s inactivity, and “that they can’t stay out of the ring for a year and then come back at their best.” But, except for the fiasco against Scott, Sharkey has not had a fight since last September, when he knocked out Loughran in three rounds. So, as far as that goes, the position is fiftyfifty. Summed up, it appears that Sharkey will go into the ring a favourite over the German.