BOXING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19034, 11 June 1924, Page 6

BOXING

WIN FOR DEMPSEY’S FORTHCOMING OPPONENT Received June 10, 7.55 p.m. (Reuter). NEW YORK, June 9. Harry Wills, the negro heavyweight, won the judge’s decision over Bartley Madden (New York), in fifteen rounds. The ehampionship aspirations of Wilis sustained a setback when the giant negro failed to knock out Madden. A GRIM FIGHT. Wills won the decision by a decisive margin, Madden fighting one of the most courageous battles in years. He stood up under terrific attacks. Wills employed with great advantage his long reach and battered Madden all over the ring, and opening nasty cuts about his opponent’s ears, mouth and eyes, fighting the last four rounds, with a stream of blood blinding his vision. Madden was no more than shaken. Sometimes the crowd of twenty thousand were brought to their feet in recognition of his gamcness in lashing out a counter offensive. Wills had Madden on the verge of a knock-out at least twice, in the fifth and twelfth rounds. BANTAM CHAMPIONSHIP CAPETOWN, June 9. Brown (London). beat Frazer (South Africa), bantamweight champion, on points in twenty rounds. SHORT FIGHTS. SOME SUDDEN KNOCKOUTS A THREE-SECOND BOUT. JACK DEMPSEY’S QUICKEST. The one round match between Sullivan and Modrich on Tuesday night is a reminder that the average spectator at a prize light does not derive any great satisfaction in the sudden termination of a bout before it has really started. There is a positive thrill engendered by an instantaneous and unexpected knockout in the first round, but such an unlooked for contingency is not wholly satisfying to the person who has just accustomed himself to the ridges in his chair and is contemplating an evening of fistic bliss. The fan would much prefer to see the knockout scene enacted after his fistic appetite had been whetted and not when he is drooling at the mouth in anticipation, but the demigods of the hempen square are not always in consonant with the wishes of their auditors, as a review of pugilism clearly illustrates. The history of the leather industry is full of first round knockouts, many of these occurred in championship bouts ere the spectator was given an opportunity to adjust himself to his surroundings. Numerous important fights have also been decided in the twinkling of an eye. And speaking of short fights at fancy prices, what a groan must have gone up from the spectators at the “Battling” Nelson-William Ressler bout held in Harvey, Illinois, on April 5, 1902. Three seconds after the gong rang, Rossler was in a horizontal position on the canvas oblivious to the howls of disgust that filled the air. That is considered the shortest knodkout on record. One second behind it was the Dal Hawkins-Martin Flaherty joust that took place in Carson City, Nevada, on April 17, 1897. Flahery was the sleeping victim. Malachy Hogan, who refereed both of these contests, made an affidavit that Nelson’s knockout was the quickest of the two by one second. THREE CHAMPIONSHIPS. Three championship contests were decided by portentious wallops in the spasm of execution. Joo Gans lifted the lightweight crown from Frank Erne at Fort Erie, Cnada, in one round on May 12, 1902. Terry McGovern deprived Pedlar Palmer of the English Bantam title in one round at Tuckahoe, New York, on September 12, 1914. Al McCoy, the celebrated champion with the camembert aura, won his dairy title from George Chip in the first round of their bout in Brooklyn on April 7, 1899. All three of these titles changed hands before all of the spectators were comfortably seated. The fans who attended Jimmy Coffroth's famous fistic menus at Colma were treated to quite a few sudden exits.

Australia shipped a super-fine cargo of acidulous fruit to Colma in the shape of Bill Squires. No sooner was this international lemon introduced, to Tommy Burns than the latter squeezed all the juice out of him in one punch. Mike “Twin” Sullivan met the same fate at the hands of Stanley Ketchell in the Colma arena. One punch; one round; this way out! Hugo Kelly is another who didn’t give the ushers a chance to make a dime when he collided with Billy Papke’s right in the first round of their Colma engagement. i Jack Dempsey has probably scored the quickest knockout in the heavyweight ranks. It was when he showed Fre'd Fulton that he was a better plasterer than the Rochester man who holds a union card in his trade. Time 18secS. The presen champion has about 25 one-round knockouts to his credit. REINFORCEMENTS. Fight fans abound in witty remarks and ringside conversations are many times more interesting than the actual fights. In New York some time back, a member of the New York police force named Slattery was fighting a gentleman of coloured persuasion, and seated at the ringside were a number of Slattery’s cronies on the force. In the third round, Slattery ran into a right that felled him, and as he lay on the canvas, one of his friends on the force yelled at him: "Now is the time to blow your whistle, Slattery!”