Champions who drank heavily the night before a title defence.

Nah. He was Irish. :hey

 

Benny Lynch

 

But why did they all drink.....the night before the fights..?

I presume, because of the party atmosphere and celebs, women in town......because of the fight..?

 

Didn't gans get ****ed up and play cards before Langford?

 

Most of the guys listed were either alcoholics or self-destructive people.

 

:yikesnot tony galento...say it ain't so...

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Ledgend has it that Nicolino Locche drank wine and smoked cigrrits between rounds.

 

This was the case when most of my favourites/the fighters I picked to win ended up losing.

 

I don't buy the bs all of these fighters drank the night before, then performed amazingly while hungover. The only fighters I truly believe drank either the night before or during the fights are John L Drunk Sullivan and Two Ton Keg Galento. Fighters love to exaggerate to make themselves look more bad-ass. "Ya I beat him after drinking 3 handles of whiskey the night before"....my ass.

 

You've probobly not heard much about Griffo then. I dont think his incredible thirst and skills are exaggerated.

 

Lew Jenkins fought drunk and ,drank between rounds in a couple of fights.

 

Don't know about the night before,but I recall reading that Jean-Pierre Coopman was drinking champagne between rounds during his title fight with Muhammad Ali. And why not ??

 

I think it was quite common a common thing in some ways, especially in the earlier part of the century. We had an Australian LW champion/Empire contender in the 50's called Frank Flannery who got well sloshed in some of his bouts by drinking before and during the fight

 

..Did it even matter? He may as well have.

 

There was a double-header, which I believe was at the L.A. Coliseum in '68. Teo Cruz defending his title against Mando Ramos and Raul Rojas defending his title aginst Sho Saiyjo. I think the story was that the card was scrubbed the day before and Rojas and Ramos, two notorious partiers hit the town before their manager Jackie mcCoy found them to tell them the card was still on. Naturally, both lost.

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