BOXING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 95, 12 October 1911, Page 7

BOXING

HOW LESTER .MET McVEA. AND H'OW HE EARED.

Regarding the recent battle between "Jack'' Lester and ".Sam" McVea at Sydney, the Daily Telegraph's account makes interesting reading. It states:— There was never a more lop-sided light seen at the Stadium since Johnson performed the cat-and-mouse act with Burns. It was simply a. case of McVea jumping out of the barrier, leading at every post, and pulling up hard held at the. winning post—and Lester also started.

Th# black is beautifully proportioned above tne waist-line. Although heavily muscled be is supple as silk. He was like a huge eat. He used his left—his principal weapon o,f oll'ence—just as quickly as a cat uses its paw. He continually jdayed on the right side of Lester's head with it. It was no butterfly tap, either. You know how you look when in front of a concave mirror? That's how Lester looked after the 20 rounds' battery. He knew the punch ■was coming, but he had not the faintest notion how to stop it. For some time he held botli gloves over his face, but some punching downstairs brought his gloves down, and the fusilade was again trained up aloft. Lester merely showed that he can stand heavy punishment without caving in. .He confirmed the statement previously printed that he lias yet to learn a lot before he can hope to be a champion. That fact was, however, so sufficiently obvious that it needed 110 confirmation.

It was a case of a pea rifle being up against a 0-inch gnu. The pea rifle was certainly made of good stuff, for it stood enough cannonading to put a rack of rifles out of action, but its own fire was ineffective. The bullets went wide, or were easily dodged, and the few that did get in might have been so many pellets of butter for all the harm they did. McVea, on occasion, gave Hashes of what lie is caipaWe of, supposing he was up against a stiff proposition. He conserved his strength because he was not tuned up to a fast 20 rounds. For the greater part of the time he had the soft pedal on. In the fourteenth round he cub loose and at bewildering speed knocked Lester with right and left, a couple of particularly heavy body punches taking more steam out of Lester than all the head punishment had done. As a matter of fact, if he had from the outset directed his punches to there instead of to the head Lester could hardly .have been on his feet at the end of the scheduled! term. In the concluding rounds MeVea's amis, working like piledrivers, were sending the gloves plump into Lester, and the effect was patent. Lester had no further thought of being offensive. He merely clung on to his opponent as if his very life depended U]x>n it. The black c6uld have prised him off easily, but lie was content to let him stick for quite a time, closely as a postage stamp gummed to a letter. The contest was always a clean one. Until the last few rounds, when Lester was- bugging his opponent, both broke at Referee Baker's command, and neither show&l"ft desire' to'sneak in a punch in the break.

There were a couple of curious happenings. • In the second round Lestei I rushed liis opponent clean over the ropes. McVea was out of the ring altogether, J lying on his hack, with Lester on top ] of him. Even in that position McVea ! was grinning widely. A grin appears to be a part of the stock-in-trade of a negro-boxer. McVea grinned unaffectedly as the majority of the crowd, numbering probably 15.000, give him a rous- ' ing reception as he stepped into the ring. Once Lester swung at him. McVea "ilodiged lightly as a thistledown. The force of the blow swung Lester off his feet, and lie fell in p. heap. McVea. shaved"every, tooth in his bead as he assisted him to liis feet. And the grin ■ was still there when lis left the ring. rrrie crowd was the biggest seen at the ( Stadium since the llurns-.Tohnson conteat; 'Some of the onlookers received more knocking about in getting into the enclosure- th.'in McVea. did in the contest.; All the channels of ingress were choked with a struggling mass, who fought hard to retain their position. Numbers of policemen tried to keep them back, and institute some form of order, but in vain. One officer held one gate in a style suggestive, of the young fellow who hell) his own at a bridge 011 a certain historic occasion, but. he w.is a badly wilted policeman when he had .finished his job. Probably 5000 persons failed to get in at all.

McYe;i. meets Lang in a month. Pro-j mot(• r 'Mciliit.o-li believes tlmi McVca will j not lie able to liit him as easily as lie' did Lester. |