Psychologically weak elite fighters from the 1920s - 1950s?

This’ll be interesting. Usually this thread (with a later date) becomes the Mike Tyson psyche evaluation thread. I’m not going to assume any fighter is mentally weak at the highest level to do so would be a load of meaningless nothing on my part or anyone else’s here.

 

Though I will add inconsistent performances, self preservation and passivity could also be a matter of the times. You’ll probably fight this guy next month anyway and your shoulders damaged just don’t get counted out- maybe you want a rematch so you take this young up and comer a few extra rounds and make it competitive- give him a name so the gate for the rematch is bigger ect.

In Muay Thai it’s a common thing for fighters not to attempt to finish one another, At the lower levels of the sport it is beneficial for both parties involved they know the person they’re fighting might need to fight next week and if they turn up the heat one of them could get cut/injured and be taken out of commission old school boxing has a lot in common with the way Muay Thai is conducted.

 

I wouldn't call him mentally weak in the conventual sense he obviously had serious mental issues.

I suppose you could argue that the 20s-50s guys were bred in a tougher era and fought so often it was "comfortable"

This could contribute to why they were mentally tougher, or maybe at peace? think about it you lose now you hang your head in shame for a long while and may not get a rematch.

Back then a loss was just the "norm" it wasn't a grand thing you knew you'd probably get another shot and if you lost you'd be excused it sounds a lot less stressful to me in some ways.

 

Galento

 

If we're talking about old-timers with the "Golota syndrome", then George Godfrey comes to mind! He got himself DQ'd 9 times - and you have to wonder, how many of these were on purpose?

As for refusal to engage/passivity, that seems to have been quite common back in the 20s, during the ND days. Someone like Godfrey was (in addition to the DQs) thrown out (together with his opponent) no less than 4 times because of "stalling". These fights were in effect double disqualifications, but are listed as NCs.

Other well known boxers from that time, who were involved in fights that were stopped, because of passivity, include future HOFers like Tunney, Wills, Berlenbach, Stribling, Delaney, Slattery, Rosenbloom, Walker, Shade, Britton... plus lots and lots of lesser known boxers.

 

If, for example, we want to examine, how often a fight ended in a DQ back in the 20s, compared to today - then we must find two years, where BoxRec lists approx. the same number of fights.

If we take 2019 (last full year before Covid), we find 30,900 fights in their database. A comparable year back in the 20s would be 1925, where they have 30,709 fights listed. So pretty much the same number of fights.

In 2019 they have 105 fights ending in a DQ - whereas the number for 1925 is 838. So the DQ frequency was about 8 times higher in 1925, than in 2019.

 

If being contenders makes them "elite",Bombadier Billy Wells,Phil Scott,Jack Sharkey,Jack Doyle,PO Curran.

 

Floyd Patterson maybe or was he a bit later.