[1961, SI] "Fifty Percent of Harry" [Matthews]

https://www.si.com/vault/1961/05/22/584503/fifty-percent-of-harry

Fascinating article on the legendary Jack Hurley. Not very flattering toward Matthews. Some of the stories seem self-serving and likely apocryphal, but I really enjoyed it. Interesting tidbits on Hurley's thoughts on Matthews' career, his approach to training fighters, boxing strategy, the abyssal state of boxing, etc. Seemed like he was quite a character.

Extremely long article, but worth the read.

 

Some highlights.

Hurley on the state of boxing in 1961:

One of the troubles with boxing nowadays, according to Hurley, is the dearth of good instructors. "I know everybody in boxing today, and if my life depended on it, I couldn't name you more than six good teachers. In the old days there were hundreds of 'em. They took time and care and patience with their fighters. Why not? They wanted 'em to fight for 10 years, keep bringing in that money. Twenty, 30 years ago there must have been 500 fighters in each division alone, and 50 of those guys were so good you'd have a hell of a time picking the top 10. Why? They were properly taught. They knew their business. They had professional managers. In my book a manager has two duties: first, he's got to train his fighters and match them where they show to the best advantage, and second he's got to assure his fighters' financial independence. These are his jobs; the fighter's job is to get up there in the ring. I hate managers that say, 'We're gonna fight so-and-so,' or 'We fought so-and-so last year.' I never saw no manager up in the ring fighting. The fighter is the fighter; there's no 'we' to it.


On the Marciano fight:

The fight was held on July 28, 1952. There are those who say it was a grotesque mismatch from the beginning, that Matthews never had a chance. Jack Hurley, who no longer has a Matthews ax to grind, thought and thinks differently, and he backed up his opinion with a $10,000 bet on his man. "There is a way to beat any fighter," he says. "If Harry had never heard of Marciano or even had been fighting him in his own familiar territory out West, he'd have won in a breeze. I explained to him before the fight, 'Harry, here's a case where you're safer being close to danger than out in the open. If you stand close and lean in about two inches, all his wild swings will go around your neck. And don't grab him in the clinches. He's too strong. Let him grab you, put your hands beside your chest, and as he reaches around, punch up, up. Those left-and right-hand uppercuts do murderous damage inside.' So in the first round everything went exactly according to plan. Matthews busted up Marciano pretty good and raised a knob on his eye. When he comes back to the corner I say, 'Harry, this guy's a soft touch. Now you know the way to fight him, Harry, you've proved it already, now just get out there and stay close; don't get scared and pull back or you'll get in the path of one of those wild swings.'

"Matthews went out for the second round and all of a sudden he breaks out of a clinch, and he realizes he's fighting in Yankee Stadium in front of all those people, and he just gets frozen with fear. The guy threw a cuffing left at him and Matthews leaned back, and it hit him right on the bad chin. There was nothing on the punch, but Matthews leaned back, scared to death, and the fellow threw a second cuff and Matthews couldn't move. He coulda stayed close all night, but he leaned back and he got hit and he got knocked out. Let me tell you, it's a long way from that ring to the dressing room at Yankee Stadium, and all the way back people are saying, 'Where's your great fighter now, Hurley?' and there I am bleeding in my shoes."

The Marciano debacle would have shoved many a fighter into limbo, which is probably where Matthews belonged anyway, but Hurley set about rebuilding "the athlete" into a card, and soon succeeded in getting him a Seattle fight with British Empire Heavyweight Champion Don Cockell. Matthews lost the decision, but a rematch was scheduled in London. Hurley began talking as soon as his feet touched British soil, and the press was goggle-eyed. "Cockell is the best heavyweight you've ever sent to America," Hurley announced, knowing full well that no sportswriter in England could resist printing this line. "No British fighter has ever made such an impression on the West Coast. Cockell could beat Marciano on the best day Rocky ever knew. Marciano can't box, he's just a crude swinger. Cockell would be too smart for him. Who has Marciano ever beaten, anyway?"

Said a reporter: "Well, Matthews, for one."

Hurley shot back: "Matthews wasn't beaten by Marciano, he was beaten by Yankee Stadium. He was overawed. He would have beaten Marciano in three rounds if they had fought in Seattle."

On improving Matthews:

Hurley's early advice to the overdefensive but not totally untalented Matthews was almost exactly counter to standard boxing instruction, yet it enabled Matthews—glass chin, powder-puff punches and all—to become at least a competent fighter and make a stack of money. For hours Hurley talked to the then 28-year-old financial failure. "First off, Harry," he said, "you gotta learn that speed is detrimental. You must get rid of that. If you get in the ring and you start moving fast, you also move that opponent you're trying to hit. You're moving him a little bit faster than yourself in order for him to stay out of the way, so you are hitting at a very fast-moving target. Now if you were out hunting, would you rather shoot at a slow-moving target or a fast-moving, darting target?

"Now fighters are not supposed to get paid for defending themselves, Harry. In boxing you're supposed to hit and get hit. Fighters think you should never get hit; this is impossible. What you have to learn is to get hit but with the lightest punch the other fellow has, a left jab. All over the country young fighters are being taught how to jab. Now do you want me to teach you how to jab and you'll compete with a guy from Memphis, and you'll jab and he'll jab and you'll make him miss and he'll make you miss, and it's like two old women fighting over the back fence? Nobody gets hit, and nobody in the audience cares what happens.

"I am gonna teach you to be a sensational performer, but I am gonna teach you safety. I will teach you how to get hit with his left jab and maybe another one, and when he throws the third you will hit him two or three or four good punches. Now how long can he trade with you on that basis? You don't have to be a good puncher. You're going to be hitting them on the way in, and that adds 50% to your punch. It's the difference between a push punch and a shock punch.

"Watching you box, Harry, you want to land every left jab you throw. Can't you afford to deliberately waste one now and then like a pitcher that gets ahead of the batter? Then you encourage the other guy, and you set him up."

On training new fighters:

Hurley's position is that boxing is brutal and dangerous, always was, always will be. But he does not, like some others, jump to the instant conclusion that the sport must be abolished. Instead, he argues that boxers must be brought along more slowly, must spend years under the loving tutelage of a professional manager and teacher until they know how to protect themselves. "Sure, I put my little brother Hank in a four-rounder when he was 15," Hurley says, "but it was against another kid, and they wore big gloves and there was no way for anybody to get hurt. But with my pro fighters, the guys I was trying to make into real 'cards,' I would school them for a year, sometimes two years, before they would ever have a fight. In those days it was absolutely standard—not only with me, but with all good teachers—to train the kid for the first year without letting him put the gloves on. Then there'd be another six months or a year working out with gloves, and then maybe he'd be ready to fight, or maybe he'd be ready to try something easier. [...]
"Nowadays a kid starts out in the Golden Gloves. So one kid who has had 100 fights goes into the ring against a kid from a little town who has had two fights. This is not fair, and it is dangerous. More kids have their hearts broken, and they never get a chance to learn anything. Boxing is too brutal and destructive to be allowed on an amateur basis. Young boxers should be put into the hands of professional managers who would not allow them to be hurt or overmatched."

 

Perhaps, but that would be par for the course. Lots of old boxing heads are full of it. Still an insightful and entertaining read though imo.