The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-28
Extra Sporting Page

hold the honor Of England and Amer ica in the lighter divisions. At that
 time boxers truly practiced the art of
 f-defense and not the admixture of
 hugging and wrestling so common
 nowadays. The above mentioned writ
 CT based his gloomy predictions upon
 the huge financial considerations insep-
 arable from championship contests,
 feeling quite convinced that the public
 would not continue to fork out big ad-
 missions. It would be interesting to
 have his opinion upon the state of the
 boxing game as it Is now carried on.
 The value of purses has increased to a
 remarkable extent during the past l6
 years and even the sport itself has un-
 dergone many changes. Nowhere has
 the game so much altered as in Eu-
 rope England is still the leading coun-
 try on that side of the Atlantic, but
 her position is being seriously chal-
 1enged by her nearest neighbor, France.
 Boxing has taken hold Of the popular
 taste there to a wonderful extent and
 can boast of an even more aristocratic
 patronage than England. Continued
 successes by F'renchmen in England
 has helped the game in the old country I
 by compelling the Britishers to- take
 more care of themselves and it Is no- 'ticeable that when a British boxer is l
 now opposed to a Frenchman, 1t is the
 latter who assumes the cockSure attf- |
 tude. The French people have learned |
 their boxing mainly from Americans, l
 and to British ideas have assini1ated |
 American faults. These faults consist 1
 Of a tendency to cltT1ch at every op-
 portunity and to whale away when in ]
 holds. The latter, of course, i6 a dis
 tinct breach of the rules governing l
 boxing, but it is openly permitted by 1 nearly all the French referees and nat- |
 uralIy the boys take full advantage of 1 their 1enfency. This indulgence puts | French boxers to a disadvantage when they box in England, America, or any
 where else where boxing is conducted
 to the strict rules of the game. French l
 boys are all innocuIated early in their l boxing career with the idea. that the l main thing is to punch hard and off, |
 ten. This they can nearly all do, but
 the direction of their punches is rarely !
 under proper control. English boxers' ideas run quite contrary. The vast ! majority are well grounded upon the | first principles of self defense, but few | of them know how to deliver heavy | punch The average Britisher consid- ! CTS he is doing well if he keeps skip- ping about, dabbing snowflake blows | at his opponent and fmpreesing the ! crowd and the referee by his clever ness. Against one of his own country | men this style of boxing is usually | successful but opposed to the vigorous | methods employed by Americans 1t is f seldom efrective. One good hard punch r on a vital spot nu11if1es ali the points | gathered by several rounds of brilliant l boxing and it is just beginning to dawn upon the conservative Britisher that the time has come for change A new school is spr1nging up and be- fore long the old country, which first | saw boxing carried on as a profession, may again come into possession of it's lost 1auTels. Boxing amongst amateurs is gaining ground in Europe, and though at present there are not enough countries pract1cfng the game to justify it's inclusion as an item of the Olympic | games, the. experiment of 1912 ought to be repeated at the Berlin games of 1916 If for nothing else, it would show l whether amateur boxing has progress ed or gone back. Atthe London games of 1912, five nations were represented, but the bulk Of the entries came from England, and it is certain that if box ing was included at Berlin a fairly large British contingent would go over. Sir Conan Doyle, an ardent patron of the ring, has written strongly against the inclusion of boxing in the Olympic games, on the ground that the com petitors would breed bad feelings be- tween the nations. It Is difficult to un- 1erStand how boxing can have s1ch an effect and in any case 1t could be no worse than wrestling, which Doyle Is anxious to retain aS an Olympic event. The old brutality charge has long ago been exploded, else why is the sport to go on without 1nterr11p- ton in many civilized countries7 The only thing that can really kill the game effectively is the b0xers them selves. They have only to disgust the fans by a succession of paIpab1y fake shows and the deed is done. The mod ern tendency towards millionaire purses is not calculated to help the game over much and the champions would do well to remember the story of the goose and the golden eggs. Very few of the really big scraps have turn ed out to be worth the money paid to witness them, notable case being the hasco. Esnthustasts are usually long suffering, especially In sports but 1t is not advisable to try their temper too high. In Europe the biggest purse ever fought for did not exceed $15, ,oOO,azad that resulted in one of the poorest contests ever seen. The conditions on the other side of the At Iantic are all against huge purses such as are fought for in America, and it cannot be said that the American az-ti- ,1e is worth treble the sum paid in Eu- rope A first class football match can ,e witnessed for 24 cents. and a similar sum procures an admission to the best cricket, hockey or lawn tennis match. Most entertainm erts are charged at similar rates, so that Is not surprising to find that boxing admissions are ab- 'OI01y 1(sW O14R0A O0b bO SAAOSSC All <A4ACE~ 1 lea. As a consequence purses do nC rule so high, but taking the game aSs a whole, the quality of the boxing is Llite up to the average of an American how. Nowhere in Europe is there any ign of boxing failing to draw, iD fact, he game may be said to be on an even 5ounder footing than at anya previous ,eriod in history. Both in. London and 'aris there are more clubs in existence G -han there were thre years ago, and Is where one goes down there are two to g Ike its place. Its legal status has been E retty well made clear in England test cases in the courts establishing that ye m rno1..er. int l