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Harry Laing
Harry Laing (1885-1894)
Born - Blenheim, New Zealand
33(32)-1-3 (5 NC)
Laing was an early fighter in both Australia and New Zealand. He holds wins over Joe Goddard, Dick Matthews and Starlight Rollins. He held the New Zealand and Australian Heavyweight belts at various times and suffered only one defeat, a sixth round KO to Paddy Slavin.
Laing died young at the age of 33 only three months after an exhibition bout with down under boxing pioneer Larry Foley.
This is the fellow that took the New Zealand title from Dick Matthews (who I rated earlier). He died shortly after his last bout, but I have not been able to locate any information on the cause. I did find a NZ police report from 1888 that mentioned Mr. Laing in connection with a robbery, the police dropped the matter as they simply considered it a case of two thugs squabbling with each other.
If anyone has more information or a picture of Harry Laing I would love to hear about it.
Cheers
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