Sam McVey v Jim Johnson video adjusted for real time

Hard to conclude much because the contrast is so low as well as the resolution, but it is clear that they both have a very primitive, bare-knuckle like style. One swing, hold, wrestle, seperate, throw another wild swing, wrestle, etc etc.

By the way, any idea which of their fights this is?

 

It is possible to watch a fight and observe verry little.

There was certainly some combination punching going on there.

 

Counter-punching, feinting, combination punching, footwork, hooks, infighting, body-work etc. etc. Yawn. Nothing new here: everyone who knows anything about the old-timers knew they were capable of this kind of scientific boxing.

I'm not really sure what you were watching. :think

 

In order to understand a peice of footage like this you have to watch it multiple times and each time only look for one thing eg head movment.

One thing that is aparent is that virtualy all the clinches were initiated by Battling Jim Johnson. I think McVea might have initiated a clinch only once. We can infer from this that Johnson was trying to nulify McVeas ofense by holding constantly and that he was largley sucessful in doing so. He basicaly holds on every time McVea tries to open up un him.

McVea shows good footwork and some head movment but is perhaps a little one dimensional and is unable to thwart Johnsons constant holding though he does show decent infighting ability and punishes Johnson in the clinches. I think that McVea shoulder rolls at one point though it is hard to be certain.

One aspect of McVeas style that is modern is the way that he keeps constantly moving his head and upper body so that he does not present a stationary target see 2.57-3.12

 

Have you seen them in a high guard for a second? One out, one home? Combination swinging you mean? Jabs? Straight punches? Having measured footwork and coming in behind a jab instead of lunging in asif your life depends on it? Maybe it's not all the time like that, but certainly abnormally much compared to a modern style.

 

Now you're just changing the goalposts. Also, it was impossible to tell how straight the punches were with that kind of footage, let alone see the details of their footwork.

 

I have a MUCH better version, and it runs a few rounds. Its been on loan for a while, but my notes on the fight were Battling Jim Johnson was getting the better of it on the rounds I have.

 

they must have been talented IN THERE DAY but they look very amatuerish

 

Not all look amateurish. My grandpa is in his 90's. He saw boxing pre Joe Louis. In his opinion, the intangibles of the old timers were the difference.

When you have got two nearly evenly matched people, the person who wants’ it more is likely the winner.

 

There are a few nice things and many not so nice things here in reference to modern boxing. A lot of chin up high flailing. If you want to call that combination punching, go ahead. But some nice inside work with uppercuts. Very little control of the ring, cutting off or pursuit, more just throwing really horrible, pawing jabs to initiate the action. You can see hints of what boxing was to become but this is certainly crude.

 

You have a remarkable talent for watching a fight and missing everything important.

 

McVey was a crude slugger type. I would not use him as a benchmark for the skill level of that decade. Some of the other heavies of the time were skilled. Watch Langford. Langford did not paw with anything.