Jimmy Cannon Talks To Louis After The 1st Walcott Fight

I will turn the question around and ask you why a heavyweight Louis would dry out to make 4 pounds lighter on the scales?

Was Louis lying? frankly i do not know.

We know Ali did crazy stuff with thyroid meds to lose weight pre Holmes bout, that he and or his team would have known would been detrimental to his in the ring performance, but that was not to shed a mere 4 pounds.

A heavyweight boxer knowingly putting himself into a negative state internally for the sake of 4 pounds, which would have been mostly 4 pounds of body fluid, is most definitely strange, even non athletes know they do not perform as well if thirsty/dehydrated, so a athlete like Louis most certainly would, and so too his team.

If you view this last minute weight loss as fact and that a intelligent heavyweight would do so with no weight limit to make, then so be it.

I always viewed the champion Joe Louis as a perfect fighting machine, it appears i was wrong, as he did intentionally mess up on the basics of maintenance of that machine at times.

 

@djanders was literally in the crowd from memory.

 

They know that NOW.

Not only did they NOT know that in the late 1940s (75 years ago) ... they didn't know that 20 years later, in the 1960s.

Athletes routinely avoided drinking water for long periods during training into the 1960s because water was supposedly going to make you feel bad and sluggish and hurt your workouts ... and drinking it showed a lack of "toughness" ... that's according to the documentary THE SWEAT SOLUTION, which is on the ESPN+ app right now and on YouTube (if you purchase it).

The documentary is about researchers at the University of Florida who invented Gatorade (the name came because they were the Florida GATORS and the drink had squeezed lemon juice in it to try to make it taste like lemonade).

The researchers asked if they could test it on the Florida football team ... because so many players were simply passing out due to dehydration during training since the coaches refused to let them have water (even though it was 110 degrees and dripping with humidity).

And even then, the coaches wouldn't let the researchers give it to the starting players, only the second-string or underclassmen (because they weren't likely to play). They said those players could drink the solution as long as the researchers DID NOT give them water, too, because drinking water was FORBIDDEN during practices.

It was a screwed up mindset back then that drinking water would slow you down.

Hell, most boxers were always encouraged to wash their mouths out with water but never to swallow it DURING fights because it would hurt them to actually swallow it. Drinking water during a fight was believed to make you sluggish and getting hit in the stomach after drinking water was thought to do more damage.

 

Well Louis seems to accept he did get it wrong

 

He did .... He has seen fights that there is no film of ... He is 98 and his dad and whole family are boxing nuts as I remember ..Thats why I was asking @mcvey , maybe you and @SolomonDeedes , and @klompton2 .... can help put the list together of the fights with little or no film and dj can elaborate on the fights he has seen in complete.. what you think @Shay Sonya .... when he feels better .... glad to hear on the last update he was ... but i was out of town , so hope he is still barking orders at ya

 

Yeah, dehydrating was a thing. No argument.

The more important question is how this misguided belief took root - its true origins.

There has to be something there you’d think.

I don’t believe there was anytime when the medical profession at large, misguidedly themselves, ever sang the benefits of drying out - even though historically, there have been some strange beliefs plied by developing quacks which have been long since superseded.

There was a time when fighters were actually offered champers between rounds - you know, for extra pep. Yippee. Lol.

One detailed fight description (I think it was vs Tom Sharkey) had James J Jeffries being offered same by his corner between rounds - but big Jeff declined it.

What was up with Big Jim? Grumpy party pooper I’d say. A bit of bubbly couldn’t have hurt.

Especially if it was their fight in ‘99 fight (read: “party like it’s…”. - , being one month shy of the 20th century and new millennium.

Okay, I took a strange detour there……

 

Well Louis accepted he likely made a error.
"Louis points to a bunch of roses in a vase.- if you don't water them the flowers got to die.That's me.The day before the fight I had four lamb chops .No juice. Nothing else.No water all day,I eat no more,not even water .until 2 o clock ,the day of the fight.
You got to have strength to go to a guy,I was weak."

I did not raise the question of whether Louis lied or no, that was yourself.

I merely asked you the same question you asked me re explanation.

Debating, expressing opinion or questioning what is posted on the forum is the norm, or should we now just agree with everything posted?

Aw and there was me thinking mcvey cared so much about my every opinion and post, i think we will both survive having differing opinions, viewpoints and interpretations of posts.

 

I agree with @mcvey that many Heavyweight fighters back in the day tried to keep their weigh-in weights as light as possible. Heavier weigh-ins were often perceived as being out of shape, and they didn't want to give their opponents any ammo to pump themselves up with. It may have been ill advised but it was what it was, at that time.

 

Bowel movements are something folk generally do not discuss in public, but guess that shows your carefree approach.
Ok we have different opinions, I can’t force you to be right.