How would it be different in terms of "textbook technique"? Would the differences in the fights change people's outlook on "flawed" MMA strikers?
The gloves from the early 20th century were about the same in terms of padding. You would see less punches, more KO's, less Wink/Abraham defense, more cuts, more hand injuries, more body shots, more uppercuts; Cross_Trainer is the guy you want to talk to.
I am not an expert on this, but some of the guys on the ESB Classic forum could help you. Cross_Trainer comes to mind. During the transition between bare knuckle boxing and the boxing gloves we know today, much smaller gloves were used. (sometimes smaller than MMA gloves!) This apparently is one reason why old boxing stances and techniques (as well as pace) differed from modern boxing...to protect the hand from breaking on your opponents skull. Blows like hooks were less common for this reason. Blocking would be severely impaired with the smaller gloves, too. The other obvious effect is that the force of the blow is a lot sharper, causing harder impact and also greater facial injury. So what looks like 'primitive' technique among the bare knuckle and very early gloved fighters, is actually a system evolved to fight effectively under the old ruleset (no gloves, no time limit, coming up to scratch etc) I am just parroting some of the opinions of the Classic forum. They are the real experts on this.
Excellent topic. If you watch boxings from as recent as the 80s youll see that they dont rely on the guard of the gloves as much as guys do now. There is a heck of a lot more emphasis on head movement, footwork, parrying and catching. I saw some highlights and remeber watching sugar ray leonard vs wilfred benetez and that was freak factor display of technical skill while not use any horrible peekaboo defences at all. They where parrying each others jab like crazy and pulling back from the left hook. You can defenatly see less and less reliance on the gloves the further you go back. They used 8 oz horsehair gloves during rocky and joe louis era and then 5 oz horsehair around jack dempsey's era. No wonder people got broken up
another thing they did was target the neck area, if they punched a guy in the neck it really did a lot of damage. from what I've read and pictures I've seen they kept their hands out for blocking purposes as it was probably more effective to stymie a blow from furthur out, rather than risk blocking it closer to them. less punches aimed at different targets, more moving and fienting='primitive' style, but it worked at that time.
Good discussion going on. Martial arts require fighting with opponents with hands. Punching is a very common tactic that is used in martial arts. A good thump is enough to put opponent out of action. Karate, taekwondo and muay thai-all depend on hard knocks for damaging the challenger. Obviously protection of the fighter's hands needs a pair of good quality gloves. There are gloves for beginners and pros. Choose the one that is most appropriate for you and never mind the price. A good quality pair can be expensive. Along with it buy a spare pair in case you need it in an emergency. Gloves are used in contact sports like boxing also. Buy separate gloves for different uses. Don't use the bag gloves for punches or MMA gloves for punching bags. It does not make sense. Each has a separate use and task. If used rightly and maintained well, the gloves can last for a long time. Like any other accessory they need good care. After each use wipe them clean, and hand them in their place.
Spam alert! And yeah Polymath, I think Tito's style would have benefited very well from smaller gloves. Good call.
Take a look at the old fight films with Corbett, Fitzsimmons, Jeffries, Johnson, Burns and others. They wore 3-6 ounce gloves in those days. Even John L. Sullivan wore anywhere from skintight gloves to 5 ouncers. They focused mainly on the body, thats why so many old school boxers cry foul and shame at fighters today who head hunt and seem to have fogotten body punching as an art. I suggest googling James J. Corbett's exhibition with Gene Tunney, quite interesting, as Corbett was of the bareknuckle/small gloved era and showed Tunney the angles and shots it took in his time to connect.
Just watched it. Man, Tunney had good balance but not so much Corbett. I was expecting to see a lot more had movement and side to side motion and stuff, but in the last bit of sparing Tunney had his head straight up and moved straight back. When they were showing each other stuff at the beginning, the only thing that looked professional was Corbett's tie up and hit maneuver. I know there are those who say that you have to learn to watch those old films before you can appreciate them, and I guess I fall into that camp. That or those guys were half in the bag when they made it.
Corbett, mind you, was nearly 60 years old, if not more, when he sparred Tunney. The only fighter Tunney personally ranked higher than Corbett was Jimmy Wilde. Tunney had mad respect and admiration for Corbett.
