How did Corbett change the sport?

Corbett was the first and last heavyweight champ to routinely wear a thong during his bouts.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/sports/year_in_sports/photos/08.14.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Fitzsimmons_Corbett_1897.jpg

And he's the first and last heavyweight champ to take the count on his knees because he got the wind knocked out of him from a body shot.

Hopefully, his style wasn't ahead of its time ... or all those guys we don't have film of were utterly terrible at boxing - because Jim Corbett telegraphed every punch he threw, didn't hold his hands up, held his chin high in the air, didn't bring his hands back after throwing a punch - just left them out there totally out of position.

I think Jim Corbett beat an aging, overweight drunk in John L. Sullivan, and Corbett wasn't as good as anyone who came after him. He was among the worst champs ever.

(I'm not a fan.)

 

A young Gene Tunney was a good sport for putting up with that nonsense and for humoring the older guy. Tunney was ten times the boxer Corbett was.

"Gene, this is how you throw the worst uppercut possible -- guaranteeing that your opponent can nail you with a short punch to the face before your uppercut ever gets there."

:good

 

He was being nice.

 

Marvin Hart, who defeated Jack Johnson also wore the thong.

There 20+ minutes of Fitz vs Cobrett, Corbett vs Courney, and Corbett sparring with McCoy and Tunney.

If you watch these films, you'll see plenty of skills.

 

I don't agree at all. I've seen the Corbett sparring footage, Corbett-Fitz is a ton of holding, and the Corbett-Courtney fight is a total embarrassment. (It looks like Deontay Wilder vs that Internet Troll Charlie whatever). Here's a clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpDhbpmtpvo

Shannon Briggs is one of the worst heavyweight champs ever. He's pushing 50 now (or looks it). He's got asthma. He suffered brain damage against Vitali Klitschko. He's fighting knockover tomato cans right now.

Corbett wouldn't last two minutes with the current version Briggs. Not two minutes.

Everyone who came after Corbett was better than. All of them. (Maybe he'd beat Hart, who I never saw fight.) But every champ who came after beats Corbett.

Like I said, if he was considered scientific for that time, then all those guys who we don't have film of must've fought like Courtney. And if that's the case, they were all truly awful too.

Because Corbett wasn't good at all by any standard following him.

 

Corbett looks tremendously fast on the footage available we have of him. He is cat like quick that much is apparent.

 

Here's a quote from a special issue of Ring (I believe) from 1981 focused on the careers of every heavyweight champ to that point. It seems that everyone has a similar "unimpressed" opinion the first time they see footage of Corbett.

I recall famed fight film collector Jimmy Jacobs showing a film of the Corbett-Fitzsimmons bout to a group of boxing people in a Boston hotel room back in 1962. He didn’t identify the fighters and everyone laughed at the clumsy, awkward, inept figures on the screen. “Who are these bums,” laughed Jose Torres, then an aspiring middleweight. “Corbett and Fitzsimmons,” Jacobs replied. Laughter shook the room.

It was a cheap shot. By today’s standards, Corbett and Fitzsimmons were laughably crude. They spent more time stalking than punching and Corbett’s “clever” boxing consisted mainly of thrusting his arms up to block punches, like a fencer. You’d laugh if you saw the film, too.

But James J. Corbett was an original.


It's almost like people have to talk themselves into seeing something that isn't there. You can watch the films and see what Corbett was.

IMO, Corbett outlasted an overweight binge-drinker for the title. He was in the right place at the right time. And he spent the rest of his life milking that one win for all it was worth.

That's about it. Boxing/boxers got much better AFTER Corbett.