NEW ZEALAND has had its heroes of the boxing ring as well as of the football field. Bob Fitzsimmons, though not a New Zealander by birth, brought fame to his adopted country by winning the world’s heavyweight championship at an age when most modern champions would be living in moneyed retirement. His rise was the outcome of a period spent in New Zealand by Jem Mace, last of the great English bare-knuckle fighters, who in the eighties promoted tournaments throughout the country. Fitzsimmons won the Dunedin tour­nament, and thus his ambitions were fired. Then Billy Murphy, of Auckland, won the world’s featherweight championship. These successes gave a great impetus to the sport, and there were boxing schools in every town. Amateurs as well as professionals rose to a high standard, but it was not until 1928 that Ted Morgan, welterweight, secured the only world’s amateur championship so far won by a New Zealander.

The amateur standard is still very high; the professional standard has slipped. There is no one promising to win the same prominence as the courageous Tom Heeney, who fought Tunney in 1928 for the world’s heavyweight title. Nor is the present interest in professional boxing sufficient to warrant such liberal purses — £713 in one instance — as those for which Pete Sarron, of America, and Tommy Donovan, a New Zealand railway fireman, fought in their memorable outdoor matches.

Professional wrestling has begun to attract
larger attendances than any boxing match, and a New Zealand wrestler, ‘Lofty’ Blomfield, has become a national figure. Amateur wrestling has
always had its place, though recently it has been overshadowed by the great vogue of the professional contests.