Fighters impacted by Cocaine

I assume they injected before their fights. I'm not sure that this was a widespread practice though. The only fighter of note I've seen mentioned in articles on this is Abe Attel. Attel blamed his loss against Knockout Brown in1912 on having been persuaded to inject cocaine by a club manager named Tom O'Rourke (he also claims that O'Rourke then bet on him to lose).

The articles also refer to a fighter named Al Palzer doing it too.

 

Lidocaine and cocaine basically have the same anesthetic effect (which is why they have "caine" in the name). Lidocaine has none of the upper effect though.

 

The great Jock McAvoy had painkilling injections in his hands before fights but I have no idea what was in them. When he fought John Henry Lewis for the World Title, Lewis kept him waiting in the ring for nearly 20 minutes so that the effect of the injections would wear off during the fight.

 

Interesting. I actually just learned a few days ago that alkaloids with psychological effects end in "-ine" (read it in David Farber's book "Crack.").

 

Please my dear fellow do tell more....

 

Haw haw haw v droll....

 

It was common knowledge at the time. He wasn't as enthusiastic a toker as Kirkland Laing, his old stablemate .