BOXING

Taranaki Daily News, 10 April 1928, Page 13

BOXING

POPULARITY OF THE SPORT. INTEREST OF PRINCE OF WALES. The event of the week has been the visit of the Prince of Wales to the Ring, Blackfriars, (writes Eugene Corri) which from the popular, certainly the Society point of view, is rather off the beaten track. But I would have understood that the Ring is very much one of London’s institutions—quite a show place in its unusualness and naturalness. It is one of the most popular playgrounds in town, and you may take it from me that the fighting done there is all blood and iron. It lias to be served up hot and strong. There is no room for the weakling, and nowhere will you find a crowd with a deeper knowledge of the game. There the critic abounds, and his criticism is ever to the point. The Prince enjoyed his first visit to what was once a chapel—a second Spurgeon’s tabernacle—enormously. He came to the ringside like the rest of us, as a matter of course. Of fuss and ceremony there was none. And none was expected. Happily, he saw a fight which, to the expert at least, was as good as anything we have seen in town for many a long day. There were no thrills, nor yet pyrotechnics. It was all a display of skill, and it brought into the ring two arresting opposites. Hood was the winner, as, of course, you know. Let me say that his victory over the coloured Manchester boxer is about the best tiring he has so far accomplished. It it true that he had previously beaten Johnson; about two years ago it is since they had their first battle. A BIG HANDICAP. But in their first fight Johnson was not as heavy as he is to-day. At the 'least Hood must have 'been a stone the lighter man, and it is not necessary for me to enlarge upon what this great physical difference meant to Hood. If Johnson were merely an average fighter there would perhaps be little or no surprise that he successfully carried this handicap, but Johnson, you must know, is as nefir to championship class as makes no matter. Did he not on a recent occasion make a considerable exposure of the limitations of Gypsy Daniels, who, I suspect, will still have it that he is entitled to go abroad as our cruiser champion? That should have 'been enough to have convinced Hood that lie was greatly daring, to say the . least, in going to war with Johnson. Honestly, 1 thought he was unwise to chance his arm against the negro. But, from the first round, he made it plain that he was the master. Johnson pulled out every trick he had, and yet lie could make little or no impression on the young man from Birmingham. And the most extraordinary feature of the fight was that Hood found it possible to win, with ever so many points to spare, without employing his right hand in a serious way. It is little exaggeration to say that Hood beat Johnson with one hand. And In this regard I do not recall such another fight. I would have liked to have seen more of Hood’s right, if only to have an opportunity of deciding whether it is now perfectly sound. However, although my curiousity was not satisfied, I saw enough to be sure that Hood, just now, is right at the summit of his form, and that his show against Johnson compared with the best examples of boxing with which Johnny Basham used to regale us. An entire worthy welter champion, Hood. And now I want to see him against Alf Mancini,' who, as I expected, won without a deal of difficulty against the Belgian 'Seeve at Birmingham at the beginning of the week. 1

A FIGHT TO SEE. The N.S.C. has been fortunate to get this contest to which we have for so long looked. It is to be staged at Holland Park toward the end of April. The probability is that we shall see both Hood and Mancini in the ring before that time. As a matter of fact, Mr. Lionel Bettinson hopes to put Hood on at Covent Garden with a Continental welter next month, and so afford him an opportunity of keep his eye in. Hood is very wise in refusing to keep unemployed until the night he is due to take the ring against Mancini. No amount of training is a good as an actual fight. I am now in a position to state definitely that the N.S.C. will stage a contest between Hili and Pladner, and also one for the featherweight belt between Johnny Cuthbert and Harry Corbett. The fight will take place next month. And I shall be surprised, if Tommy Milligan curies through his fight with Ireland s- sfully, if the N.S.C. do not seek to fii. ..im his next opponent. So much, I suspect, was tentatively arranged when Milligan was at headquarters on a Monday night that was given over to heavyweights. And, about those of the heavy brigade, I hope that sometime soon the club will give a further opportunity to see Robert 'Shiele, who made such an excellent display against Donarld Shortland. I formed quite a favourable impression of this Scot’s boy. At all events I do want to see more of him. With the encouragement which he deserves he should do more than passably well. DRAKE’S PATH. So Phil Scott has gone back io America, there to have a second tilt at Johnny Risko, who, so he would have us 'believe —and very properly so from all accounts —he 'beat. He should be a different and immensely better Scott next time out in the New York ring. His downfall against Hansen might have hurt his pride, but it should be all to his good. I admire Scott for taking another chance, SCOTT AND HEENEY. The gamble is worth it, for, if he gets away with a verdict in his affair Risko, Tex Rickard may feel inclined to match him with Tom Heeney, and I am giving no secrets away when I say that a fight with the big New Zealander would be entirely after the heart of ; Scott. When I saw the former London , fireman at the Ring at the beginning of ] the week, he looked fit to tackle any- , thing alive. But, there, Scott always , looks the part. The trouble with him, as j it has most times been with our big ] fellows, is that he is a very different . man outside than inside tlhe ring. It has been the mind and not the matter, j that has been wrong. However, here’s j wishing Scott all the best! a (He has a rare chance of getting there r

in time. If he will only remember that he can punch with the best of them, and that he has often shown himself to be quite a good 'boxer, ihe would cease to be regarded as something of a pugilistic sky-rocket. I am hoping that ho will return from the States with pockets full of dollars, and able to say that he has stopped the Americans pulling faces at him. The fact that Scott has again gone to America has almost led me to believe that be has lost his sensitiveness. And sensitiveness, rather than lack of ability, has been the secret of the failures that he has made.