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Interest in Fight Game Is Growing Video Converting Additional Fans George Carter, Nat Fleischer Both Insist Boxing Has More Followers Than Ever Before By JACK CUDDY United Press Sports Writer NEW YORK. N. Y., May 3.— Two well-informed men insisted today there is more public interest in boxing than ever before. One was George R. K. Carter, head of the new fight corporation that plans~to buck the International Boxing club. The other was Nat Fleischer, editor of Ring Magazine and president of the New York Boxing Writers association. Each said television had been an amazingly strong stimulant to interest in the sport during the past three years-a period in which the fight game had suffered from scarcity of attractive talent. "Im returning to the fight game at the age of 61 — after an absence of 11 years — because theres an unprecedented general interest in the sport today," Carter said. "And I intend" to cash in on that interest, which is increasing every day." Chatting today in the new outfits offices at 1630 Broadway, Carter said, "Ive been a promoter all my life — in real estate, mining dog tracks, pleasure piers, gambling casinos and boxing clubs. I was a born promoter. Yes, I still operate a casino at Santa Helena Island, Md. I discovered many years ago that the successful promoter markets only a commodity or an entertainment that the public is eager to buy. Well, the public is eager to buy boxing now." Criticizes IBCs Methods Carter criticized the International Clubs methods of promoting boxing. The International, which controls big-time boxing in New York, Chicago and Detroit, is the most powerful organization in ring history. Nevertheless, Carter said Jim Norris and his associates were trying to run boxing like a "stock exchange." He said, "Ill promote fights like Tex Rickard did. I was associated with Tex for many years in many enterprises. Why, I was his close friend even in Alaska — the Klondike — before he promoted his first fight in Goldfield, Nev." Fleischer, in his offices in the Madison Square Garden building, approached the interest in boxing from a different angle. He said he had at least two sources of proof of the unprecedented interest. They were 1 the number of inquiries received each day at the Ring Magazine offices, and 2 the all-time high in circulation achieved this year by his magazine. "Our circulation now exceeds 140,000 monthly," he said. "In addition, next month well begin publishing, for the first time, an edition in England. Well start off there with 40,000 a month." On May 15, Fleischer will fly to Johannesburg, South Africa, to attend the Manuel Ortiz-Vic Toweel bantamweight championship fight, scheduled for May 20. From Johannesburg, he will go to Madrid to address the convention of the European Boxing Federation, during the last week in May. Next, he will attend the Bruce Woodcock-Lee Savold heavyweight fight at London on June 6. After visiting in Denmark, he will return to New York.
