Which early fighters life stories do you find the most fascinating?

Same here.
What a fascinating character he was.

 

I think "Smokin Joe" Frazier's background is fascinating. He grew up in abject poverty and had to leave home as a teenager for fear of his safety. (He got into some sort of dust-up with a white dude--and in late 1950's Beaufort, South Carolina any black man that got into any kind of beef with a white man took his life in his hands!) Moved to Philly and worked in a slaughterhouse. That entire Rocky I sequence showing Stallone pounding the slabs of meat came straight from Joe!! Turned pro having the great fortune of Yank Durham guiding his career and the rest is history!

Oh BTW--Frazier grew up in a family that worked as sharecroppers. One day Joe injured his arm being chased by a hog on the farm which caused his left arm to be slightly bent--(never went to a doctor to have the arm properly set.) That accident ironically helped to give Frazier his savage left hook which to this day might be the greatest in boxing history.

You can see from this kind of background why they didn't come any tougher than "Smokin Joe."

 

Sam McVey, Joe Jeanette, all the black fighters from back then had a rough life

 

Jack Johnson invented a wrench to allow him to modify his steam car while driving so he could out run the police who of course had no such tool and therefor no hope of catching him.

Once technology had caught up to Jack he avoided the US.

By the time Johnson returned to serve prison time he was a respected old man.


No one needs to rethink anything except maybe the fella who wants to act like the HW champion of the world not being lynched changes anything about the era.

 

I recall a story of Dempsey as a teen fighting in a mining camp and getting the crap kicked outta him and he kept getting up till he won.
When asked why he didn't stay down and end such a beating Dempsey said,"I needed the 2 bucks as I hadn't eaten in a while"

 

Sullivan would be amazing as the first sports superstar in US history.

 

Yeah, and no other fighters had a hard life

 

Hard life almost had a pack of hobos R*** him on the tracks…

 

There is a great book called "In This Corner" by Peter Heller that is from the 60's or 70's and has interviews with champs and contenders from the 1900's to the present at the time of publication. Obviously some of these fighters may have exaggerated things but there are some wild stories. The conditions in the cities at that time, the injuries and lack of medical care, short notice fights without full camps, crazy conditions like outdoor fights, longer fights, smaller gloves etc.

I remember reading the book at a time when I was on social media more and following boxing pages and reading opinions of fans who would totally disregard anyone from before the 90's as a bum and me thinking these modern guys would not be able to live in those conditions

 

Take it easy... you know what I mean. This is 1910s... we are in classic, I´m bored feeling I have to explain this...

 

John L Sullivan would be extremely interesting bio film.

 

Bing Crosby produced “A Man Called Sullivan” aka “The Great John L” in 1945.
Greg McClure played Sullivan while Rory Calhoun was Corbett.

 

I know quite a bit about Maxine. She was very likely paid off to not to release unsavory tales regarding Jack, then allegedly died under mysterious circumstances... Only to resurface years later.