BOXING NOTES FROM HOME.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 11, 28 May 1920, Page 10

BOXING NOTES FROM HOME.

(By "X. Z. Y.")

Critics, like A. G. Ilales and J. H. Clifton, helieve that Tommy Burns cari do the "come back," and reckon he can lick anything on two legs in the Old Dart. Tommy freely acknowledges that Jack Johnson was a better boxer than himself,. Timo has altered Burns's bitterness. Joe Beckeit still reta-ins his title as heavy weight champion of Britain. His fight with Dick Smith and Wells ended as expected. Both these boxers took the count. Goddard is his nearest rival. Goddard has the size and strength and showed McGoorty he could also box. Jimm.y Wilde is in demand everywhere in America, and boxing critics there are bestowing tremendous praise on the litfcle Welshman. He deserves most of it. Another champion in oim Higgins, a Scotoh lad, has appeared. Fle beat Matai i Jones, bantam champion, for the title. There has been a lot of controversy amongst the critics about Higgins' ability. Anyway he is reckoned as one of the best bantams - produced in Britain. A real champion ! Wilde's two hardest fights were with Scots — Tancy Lee and Billy Padden. The ..rst beat J immy in 17 rourids and the Welshman won the other fight in the 19th round. In Australia there's a saying: "rle's as straight as Peter Jackson." What man would like a better testimonial than that. A. G. Hales says of Peter : "His left hand flew straight from the shoufder with the accuracy of a piston rod in motion, and his sense of 'timing' was so nearly perfect that he had a style of his own. He 'steppecV in when dealing one of his lightning loft hand blows. He used to glide his left foot along the ring floor like a perfect dancer, and the glide carried the fuil weight of his big body with it-. He dearly lov,ed to fight big men of the rushing, smashing kind and the way he would meet their rushes and drive them back was a caution to see. When he wanted a nest \ ' - soldom side-stepped ; he would draw ■ back like a panther, r.ever taking his eyes i from the eyes of his enemy. He carried b.is head very high and stood up to the f all oi his splendid hcight, and he seldom 'ducked', fromfa swinging blow. He trust - ed those eagle eyes of his, and the manner in which he would just shift his head a b't on one side and let a whiz/.ing punch j go whizzing past- his ear. was a revelation. Thffn as his enemy missed and was being j carried forward off his balance, by the iinpetus of his own blow, Peter would meet him with a crashing left, and those smashes of his would test the strength of the bravest and the st-rcngest. It was his loft hand that won all his baltles, everyone of them, and this is a lesson the youth of Britain should take to heart todry. We have lost every championship, bar that held by Jiuimy Wilde, because the cult of the great left hand and the qnir.k shift of the head an inch or two to one side ha-s gone out of vogue, and the righ.t hand sling puncli, and the miserable i 'Iv.inny hug' liave corce in. We will j have ohaTTtpions enough when we go back | to the fine, fearless old metliod, but not unt 1 then. " Peter was oitly tvvice .oeaten doring his brilliant career in the ring. First by Billy Farnham, the then champion in Australia, I think, when Peter had just started to make a name for himself. Later by Jim Jeffries when he, Peter, was a broken wreck of a man at the end of his rin0* career. "Peter th© Great's" rcputation was as white as hfs sldn was black. Long will his memory be cherished.