BOXING

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 18, 16 July 1920, Page 11

BOXING

By "X.Y.Z."

Ted Lewis and Johnny Basham were fixed up to meet each other according to the last files from Blighty. This has been Lewis's ambition for a long time, and boxing patrons are sure to turn out in full force that night for this scrap. Lewis says,- "If I succeed in beating Basham I shall know that I have accomplished one of the best performances of my career, outside beating Jack Britton for the world's welter-weight championship." Just read what A. G. Hales says re Lewis in a home sporting paper : ' juewis is, in my estimation, the finest fighter for his weight and inches Great Britain has turned out since Charlie Mitchell was in his prime. Born in London, of English parents in 1894 he is now at his zenith, and I am of opinion that fit and well he can whip any man his size of any kind or colour in the world. What is more, I am confident that, he can .give away stones in weight and beat most of the much advertised middle-weights, light heavy-weights, and even heavy-weights, now basking in the sunshine of super-advertisement. He may yet have a shot at the heavy weight championship. Why not? He is heavier to-day than Charlie Mitchell was when the "Lion of England" crossed the Atlantic to do battle with Tohn L. SuIIivan, in America, and there is something about Lewis that reminds me very forcibly of Mitchell. He has the same dauntless never-say-die spirit, the same contempt for mere size and weight, the same punching power with both hands, and a good deal of the same speed of head, hand, and foot. Is he as good a general as Mitchell? No, I do not think so, for Mitchell was feerless in that respect, but Lewis is no mean tactician. He is not Mitchell's equal, but he has more brains than most men. He is a savage punisher when he thinks the moment has arrived for him to open his batteries, and the wa.y he hurls his punches into bcdy and head of an opponent is a caution to see. He rips the left hand up the belly as George Dixon used to do, and sends in pile-drivihg rights under the heart in the real Fitzsimmons style, whilst his 'inside cross' for the point of the chin reminds me of Jim Hall at his best. Amongst the rnultitude of present fighters I think few will live in ring history as Kid Lewis, of London, will live. He is great. Lewis won the feather weight championship at Home and then sailed for America, and there he cut a wide swathe in the ranks of the American fighters, giving away all kinds of weight to all sorts of men. His American record is dazzling. He does not only beat his men but makes hacks of them, for he has all the cunning and skill that came to him when a feather-weight. Ring tradition says that any man, who has been a crack "feather" in boyhood and has grown too big for that class is always dangerous, for a real top-notch d eath er- w eight has almost invarlably to be a great ring craftsman and master of tactics, and Lewis was all that when quite a little fellow. Had Lewis done as so many other fighters did, had he forsworn his nationality and become a citizen of the great U.S.A., as he could easily have done, the Yankee press would doubtless have acclaimed him the greatest fighter of his size anywhere. Lewis was British and proud of it and stood by his gnns. It is refreshing to know tms for so many British fighters have become American citizens. In Lewis's career the figures six and ten seem to be very much in demand, for he has knocked out a small army of fighters in either the sixth or the tenth round. When a "feather" his fancy seemed to run a good deal towards the third or the fifth round. Now and again in his wonderful career his fights have run twelve rounds. Twice Johnny Coudon made him travel the full distance of 20 rounds, as also did Young Brooks. Alex. Lambert lasted seventeen rounds before Lewis found Alex'-s chin, and Duke Lynch and Joe Starmer, bcth made him go all out for fifteen rounds before he won from them. He was more brilliant in America than in Britain, and the way he trounced' those Yanks who could be coaxed into the ring with him miist have been a real eye opener to them, and to those critics who avcrred that the British are a played out breed as far as fighting is concerned. I was asked the other day if Charies Ledoux, the Europcan champion bantam, had ever heen beaten. Sid Smith, Digger Stanley, and Galliard, heat him, and in a brief American tour he lost to Eddie Campi and Kid Williams. When Jim Driscoll lost to him several months hack at the N.S. C. , the Welsh-Irishman was not efcrictly beaten by the Frenchman,

rather was it Anni Domini who intervened. For ten rounds Driscoll made Ledoux appear an absolute novice, and if the Cardiff boxer had only managed to have the necessary stamina Ledoux would never have found a spot to upset the retired champion. In fact., Driscoll seemed to collapse in a most unaccountable manner. Driscoll as a boxer was fearless.