Ali vs Jim Brown at Hyde park - Any other good stories ?

Yeah,I recall that story. Jim realised that acting was the best second career option at hand.

 

Jim was a helluva athlete, but realized he was out of his league.So he stuck to acting and chasing women.

 

Great story.

 

Ali and Marciano were filming their computer fight in 1969 (I think it was).

Marciano was wearing a hair piece and Ali started flicking a jab at it and knocking it off.

It made Marciano mad and after a couple of times he warned Ali to stop. Ali did it again and Marciano let go with a real punch to the midsection.

Ali left the ring and refused to go any farther without being paid an extra $2,000.

 

i believe it - did you see the size of ali's midsection in 1969. rocky was slimmer and in better shape than him lol.

 

After the toupee incident...Ali called Rocky"Champ"...

 

Hahaha I never heard that story about the Marciano's hair piece and Ali thats great

 

Jack Dempsey was famous for not knowing the meaning of the word "Exhibition" he was horrible at stopping or pulling punches too. During a practice round that was supposed to be just for fun and publicity Dempsey landed a shot on Al Jolson's chin knocking him unconscious and with a permanent scar on the chin. I dont think Dempsey did it on purpose but none the less he connected and knocked Al Jolson out and after that Jolson showed off the scar to everyone he met and said "The great Jack Dempsey gave me this in a fight." so although it sounds brutal and cruel whether intentional or not Al Jolson took something away from the experience. Dempsey made really cheap movies like "Dare devil jack" or the prizefighter or something like that. When he was filming the fight scenes with the hollywood actors he had trouble stopping his punches and would knock them out cold. Ernest Hemingway insisted Jack go a practice round with him but Jack declined. Hemingway had actually done some boxing in his youth and was taking the exhibition very seriously and Jack said he didnt want to have to really hurt Hemingway so he quite wisely declined.

 

I was going to post this, but I had a busy weekend! I have a hunch some of the international posters do not know who Jim Brown was. Jim Brown was in many ways the equivalent of Sonny Liston for American football. He was bigger, faster, stronger, and very agile for a man his size.

 

As you no doubt recall,there was no actual crowd watching that 'fight' just a black backdrop. At the press screening,someone said something like "That's some crowd. Jack Bodell must have been on the bill"

 

I remember reading a story that Dempsey was acting in a stage play and there was a boxing scene where he was supposed to win by knockout. They'd brought in a genuine heavyweight boxer to play the opponent. Being Jack Dempsey, when he was supposed to play-act the final blow, he hit the guy too hard so that he forgot where he was and his fighter's instincts took over. Instead of falling like it said in the script he came charging back swinging real punches.

The fight went on for several unscheduled minutes till Dempsey managed to beat him unconscious for real.

 

Rocky's hairpiece had a life of it's own

 

And a pretty good actor. At the time of the Hyde Park incident,Jim was filming 'The Dirty Dozen'