‘Cut me Mick’ — Any basis in reality for this Hollywood movie moment?

Eddie Thomas cuts Ken Buchanans eye in the second Ismael Laguna fight.

 

Yes he did, and it's in McIvanney's book.

 

Davey Day once told me his stablemate Earl Mastro was cut by his team of Pian and Winch and he actually went blind in that eye. It was clearly an old time trainer's way of doing things before it became illegal.

On another note of old-time practices, I once read that there was an old-time trainer's way of dealing with cuts. They would be chewing tobacco during the contest just in case a cut cropped up and if it did, they would take out the moist tobacco and mix it with metal shavings that they had prepared and insert that combination into the cut. Now why anyone would shove metal shavings in I can only hazard a guess that it somehow mixed with the tobacco to form a tight bond (just a guess). But in the article it also stated that when the fight was over, every bit of that concoction had to be cleaned from the wound before stitching, otherwise any metal shaving left behind was going to slice open the skin the next time he fought. I still can't get my head around that practice.

 

In his book “Man of courage” on Tommy Farr, Bob Lonkhurst writes that Max Baer has his eye cut in the second fight against Tommy Farr.

 

This bring backs terrible memories, whenever someone was getting busted up I’d sit there and say to myself “Oh the corners gonna need to cut him” damn it Rocky.

 

Rocky had his eye lid sliced horizontally so he could see through it. Buchanan just had a check bruise sliced.

 

I definitely get asked this question by everyone who doesn't follow boxing that watches boxing with me.

 

I seem to recall a story about Whitey Bimstein (I think) cutting Graziano’s (I think) eye with a quarter and one of them kept the quarter as a lucky charm.

 

https://vault.si.com/vault/1958/04/07/handicap-my-eye

The significance of the closing eye was recognized instantly in Basilio's corner. It touched off a tense drama of decision quite as stirring as the drama in the ring, though not as visible. A closed eye can be opened, but by methods that are unsanitary, ugly and dangerous to eye and brain. The trick is to slit the lid and suck out the accumulation of blood, lymph and what-all. The slit is then seared shut (sometimes by means which are so dangerous as to be illegal) and an ice pack is applied.

To accomplish all this in less than the minute between rounds is a skill to be admired with disgust. Good cut-men know how, and many have steeled themselves to it at one time or another. Thus it was that Whitey Bimstein, a cut-man of distinction, gave Rocky Graziano his chance to win the middleweight title from Tony Zale, which Graziano then did.

For this operation, Carmen's trainer, Angelo Dundee, one of the finest of corner men, carried a sterile (finicky fellow) razor blade in his kit on the night of March 25. He debated the question in his own quick mind, and he might indeed have used the blade, with the permission of Basilio's co-managers, Joe Netro and Johnny De John, except that these three are men who cherish their fighter more than as a source of wealth.

So between the fifth and sixth rounds there came the fateful moment of decision. There was a brief weighing of the risks, including a practical realization that lancing the eye might start a flow of blood that would stop the fight. They decided in favor of Basilio's ultimate welfare, win or lose. Only ice packs were used. The eye was now fully closed, having had some acceleration from a Robinson uppercut in the fourth round.

Dr. Richard A. Perritt, eye specialist at Wesley Memorial Hospital, Chicago, complimented the co-managers and Trainer Dundee on their restraint a few days after the fight, when surgical examination disclosed that neither the eyeball nor the retina had been injured.

If Dundee ("I made a split-second decision not to") had lanced the lid, Dr. Perritt said, he would have risked infection of veins leading to the brain, with cerebral thrombosis (brain clotting) and permanent eye damage as possible results.

"We are being criticized for not cutting the eye," De John said, "but the doctor says we did the best thing when we did not cut. And like Angelo says, 'If it's something I can't handle, I won't handle it.' So it was best we didn't cut.

 

Fight Notes:
On February 7, 1947, the New York State Athletic Commission revoked Graziano's boxing license and canceled his forthcoming title rematch with Zale for his failure to report a $100,000 bribe offer. The fight, originally scheduled for March 21 at Madison Square Garden, was rescheduled for Chicago Stadium on July 16.
There was a crowd of 18,547 at Chicago Stadium.
In the second round, Zale opened a severe cut over Graziano's left eye. In the third round, a solid right dropped Graziano for no count. Zale pummeled Graziano against the ropes as the round ended. Round four brought more of the same punishment to Graziano, whose right eye was now swollen shut. In between the fourth and fifth rounds, Whitey Bimstein, Graziano’s trainer and cut man, took a coin and pressed it against his closed right eye, breaking the skin and reducing the pressure. This allowed Graziano to partially regain his vision. In the sixth round, a barrage of Graziano rights dropped Zale. When he rose, Graziano drove him to the ropes, draping him over them under a hail of punches. Referee Johnny Behr stopped the bout at 2:10, and Graziano was the new World Middleweight Champion.
Named The Ring Fight of the Year.

 

Purposely cutting an eye like that is barbaric. Better to fight another day.