Steve Lott not a Mike Gibbons fan

Tiger Jack Fox also used a style which is reported to have been somewhat reminiscent of Canzi's, hands down by his knees "like he was lugging a pair of suitcases," drawing opponents in for haymakers. Jersey Joe Walcott for one called Fox the best opponent he faced, the one he learned most from. [It does merit mention that JJW dealt twice with a prime TJF, while post war Louis was in decline by the time he defended against JJW in December 1947 and June 1948, over a decade after TJF-JJW I & II.]

 

Jim Jacobs was considered one of the finest all around athletes in the world at the time D'Amato was planning that.

 

Yeah, people keep forgetting that.

All right, K2! The question must be asked! Jimmy Jacobs versus Harry Greb in handball! Whoya got??? [Answer carefully now! Peak Jacobs was no middle aged Philly Jack O on the court!]

 

Steve Lott himself was one of the finest handball players. He was national Champion I believe.
And Jacobs at one point was regarded as the world's best handball player. Steve Lott (around 20 years old) made a practicum at one point at Jacobs' company or whatever it exactly was.

 

If you understand distance/range, then where you hold your hands is determined by where it is easiest to punch from. If you are out of range, he can't hit you. When you get in close you turn your shoulder and pull in tight and he can't hit you.
It is only when you are fooling around in that mid-range area that you are in danger. You don't see many of the smart fighters hanging around in that area. Modern fighters seem to spend all their time standing around in effective punching range.

 

Athlete or not he would still need to be able to fight. WIth all his connections, given his interest in boxing, the relationship he had with Cus there must be a reason why Jacobs never even took on a journeyman in a real fight?

 

A quick off topic question, but does anyone know how many films there are of Mike Gibbons?

 

Well its funny. I have a great story about that. As you may know handball was Greb's favorite form of exercise. He was in Philadelphia once training and happened to be playing handball against the national champion. Greb was extremely competetive and despite trying his best he lost the match. Afterwards he sauntered up to the guy and said "well, you beat me at YOUR game, now its your turn to take me on at MY game. Lets put on the gloves" as you can imagine the handball champ declined. Great story that didnt make the book.

 

There is a training film with him training with tommy, footage of him training the troops in WW1, his bout with McFarland, his bout with O'Dowd, film of him at the johnson-willard bout, and a film of him with golf player jimmy johnstan. his fights with bartfield and ahearn were filmed but dont exist anymore apparently. i wouldnt be surprised to hear of a few others.

 

Thank you very much, i would love to see the fights between McFarland and O'Dowd, but I don't know of anyway to get/buy them. :think

 

A debate where Jacobs presents a convincing argument why modern (the 1960s) fighters were superior to those that Fleischer went on about. Nat's argument was basically old anecdotes and comments like "Jimmy Johnson said 'how can you compare Joe Louis to Jack Johnson'" and the like, he doesn't really respond to why old timers had a poor style and looked vastly inferior for the most part, other the the usual "the film was bad" crap.

It's the same on this site, make a match up, with a modern fighter vs one from 100 years ago and they've, loads to say. However, show some footage from 1914, ask them what they think's good about it, to talk throuhg the fight, and they avoid it like it's the black death.

 

We don't have enough footage from 1914 unfortunately.
I kind of think the film is pretty bad from that era, honestly don't you ?

 

I know he played something called handball (not the Olympic sport of the same name) but what else did he do ?

 

Jack Johnson vs Frank Moran?

There're plenty of silent movies, made during that year, that have survived though. Counting what I have in my collection, it's close to 50 movies; 35 of them with Charlie Chaplin.