Skill over the decades

High guard boxers block bodyshots with the elbows

Modern boxers circle and use lateral movement where as 1900s boxers like Jack Johnson go back in straight lines.

Looking at Fitz v Corbett we see they throw long looping left hooks and mainly straight punches. Their footwork looks mutually awkward

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Looking at Jeffries-Corbett shows 2 very stiff men who seemed to struggle to bend their knees. Their footwork and weight shifting is very poor and that isn't an era thing.

Johnson is a bit more advanced. At least he feints and uses uppercuts and hooks inside, still primitive overall

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By the time we get to Dempsey, Benny Leonard and Tunney you can see the advancement of the sport very clearly.

 

Yes I agree. He hasn't accomplished what he has by skill or technique, just power and physical stature

 

Many posters on here know more than I do, but to this fan the lack of skill shown here is kind of shocking.

1-----the footwork actually seems awkward. Did either show any lateral movement at all? This might have helped Schmeling at least.

2-----There is very little torso or head movement from Schmeling, and almost none from Baer. Baer looks like a tree out there. In fairness to Schmeling, while he never shows footwork or lateral movement on film, in other films he does bob more effectively and slip punches better than he does in this fight. He seems to have been forced to stand straight to reach the taller Baer, which negated his defensive skills.

3-----Schmeling paws with his jab rather than snapping it. Off other films, that is generally his style, although in other fights he sometimes drives the jab when moving forward. He doesn't seem to have much of a left hook at all. Baer also pushes his jab, but his reach seems to have made it fairly effective against Schmeling at times.

4-----Baer throws wild swinging punches "from outside the window" as Chuvalo put it regarding Foreman. He leaves himself often totally open. I would think a quick handed counter puncher would eat him alive. His strengths are entirely physical. He is big and strong and has stamina, plus a chin that Schmeling at least couldn't dent.

5-----besides a lack of footwork and torso and head movement, neither man seems to have any hand speed. Did either throw even basic combinations in this fight? I don't remember one. Baer flurried now and then when he had Schmeling on the defensive, but nothing I would consider a combination.

There is a posted film of the 1951 fight between Henry and Baker. On footwork, handspeed, combination punching, snapping the jab, and torso and head movement, they both seem far above Schmeling and Baer, but Baker and Henry were only contenders while the two Maxes were the #2 and #3 heavyweights of the 1930's behind only Louis.

What do I conclude from this? There was a tremendous overall improvement in boxing skill with and after the fall of the color line.

 

This seems to be consistent with how their contemporary observers viewed them, even without the benefit of seeing the more fluid and technically sound heavyweights of later years.

 

They were described as such, neither one was a typical fighter from that era. Fitz fought like nobody else and Corbett relied strictly on speed advantage.

Do you have Jeffries vs Corbett? Because nobody else does, could you upload it?


Why don't you look at true boxing masters from that era?

 

Schmeling looks far better in other fights, why should we always pick his worst filmed effort?