You know I saw most all of the greatest fighters come and go. I was looking at fights when Kilrain, Johnny Herget, Tommy Warren. Griffo. Jack Dempsey, Mike Donovan, Sullivan, Dawson, Billy Edwards, Needham, Tommy Ryan and hundreds of others were in their top form. “I want to tell you that AMATEURS TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO DID THINGS THAT PROFESSIONALS OF TODAY CAN’T DO. There were two amateur lightweights at that time in San Francisco —Tommy McCord and Frank Cooley—who were the best I ever watched. They never turned professional. They had footwork and feinting down to a science. It would be a treat to see them meet some of the lightweights of today. They’d show r them up. "You know I have to tell you this before I can tell you who the greatest fighter I ever saw was because I’m going back. Get me? “Let’s go right up to the heavies of today and the old timers. Fans want to know if Champion Jack Dempsey could have beaten John L. Sullivan. I say that there’s no way to tell. Dempsey is a wonderful fellow. He's the hardest hitter I think I ever saw, but he hasn’t fought enough to give us a good line on him. He may lack something. He may get leg weary or blow his punching powers. Then again he might prove to be the greatest heavyweight fighter that ever lived. We’ll have to wait and see. “Sullivan in his day was a big. hard man. He was as tough as they came. He could take them on the chin or in the body and just hunger for more, and he could hit, too. He hit like Dempsey. Why, he’d bust a fellow on the back of the head and knock him out. He toured the country when he was full of booze and licked every' one he met inside of four rounds. Get that? Stiff as a board and licking them all. It’s hard to compare them. Tm going back, you see,’ as the fellow said when they brought him the ox-tail soup. “You had to go kind of far back for that” * * * GREAT OLD TIME LIGHTWEIGHTS “There were lightweights in the olden days who were terrors, too. “Jack McAnliffe, for instance, was a wonderful, man. Kid Lavigne was a powerful little fellow with a world of stamina, and then again there was Gans. Yon know, GAMS USED TO COME AROUND TO MY TRAINING QUARTERS AND BEG FOR BOXING LESSONS. He was probably the greatest admirer that I ever lir.d, and that's saying quite a good deal. “Do I mean that they rould have beaten Leonard? No. I don’t say that. Leonard to me is a great fighter. I don’t know whether he conld take it like Lavigne, but he doesn’t have to. If they can’t hit him. why should he prove to the mob that he can stop them with his chin and then get up? I don’t get that stuff at all. “Another old timer, a ring marvel, was Tommy Ryan. Oh, I don’t think there’s a man of his weight In the ring today who would have , •stood a chance with him. He knew the game inside and ont. Couldn’t he hit! Ryan could feint and knew why he did it. Feinting is a lost art nowadays. “But my greatest] I have to say Teter Jackson. Mind yon, I don't say that be towered 01 er the other fellows I’ve iust mentioned, hut I think as a ringster he was the star. I saw him box an exhibition with Fitzsimmons at the old California Athletic Club, and It was like a professor giving his pupil a lesson. HE JUST MADE FITZSIMMONS LOOK LIKE A SUCKER. No wonder Fitzsimmons challenged the world, liar Jackson. He knew what he was about. I saw Jackson spar four rounds with Choynski. too. and it was the same. Joe couldn't touch him with a basket full of clothespins. . \ “You know, Jackson stood <» feet VA inches tall and weighed 205 pounds, stripped. Think of that And then, think again of his speed, his footwork, his feinting and his pnneh. He had everything. What, more conld a man want? He knocked ont Frank Slavin, the greatest slugger of his time. Jnst ontslugged him. Clever fellows were the same with liim. Ile*d outbox them. He was a student. “I saw Jackson box and fought him myself, so I ought to have a pretty fair idea of what the fellow conld do, shonldn’t 1? Yon know, we fought for over fonr hours at the California Club, and they called It no contest. “I’LL NEVER FORGET THAT NIGHT AS LONG AS I LIVE.” * * * JACKSON COULD SLUG AND BOX EQUALLY WELL “Early in the fight I started boxing with him, and he went right along. I thought he'd tire after a while. We went for fifteen rounds or so. and it seemed to me that he was tiring, so I started to slug for all I was worth. After a few rounds Billy Delaney said to me, ‘This fellow’s a better slugger than he's a boxer, Jim. You’d better take it easy. He has weight, height and reach on you, and you won’t go long at that gait.’ “I began to think so myself and went back to boxing and footwork, where T was much safer. I’ve fought a lot of fellows since, but NEVER IN MY FIGHTS WAS I SO BEWILDERED AS THAT NIGHT. The fights .»hat I lost after that were one-punch things. I was winning up to the I lime I got the punch and was never worried, but with Jackson I had to •jse everything I had to get by, and I worked hard. I never saw a man who could follow you, no matter how you elected to fight. Box or slug, he didn't care. •I was tired after that fight. 1 wasn’t tired for a day or two—l WAS TIRED FOR SIX MONTHS AFTER IT. “Yes. he could beat any heavy that I ever saw. ••Jeffries. A wonderful fellow. You know—a wonderful fellow for a man without the fighting spirit. Jeff, naturally left-handed and with tremendous power behind it, was tough; but 1 can look back and see that Jackson with everything a fighter needs, and I can't help saying he was my ideal fighting man.
Fun fact; Frank Dooley, who Corbett names here as one of the two most skilled guys he’s ever seen who never went pro, was a silent film director and actor.
That "Gans was my biggest admirer" is such a flex for that era It's like Tyson Fury saying Bam Rodriguez learned from him, as if Bam isn't a million times better
Hi Guys. Good find, very interesting reading from the old champ, that said, we have read a lot from former champs over the decades, and quite a few read very similar, that being the writer extols the virtues of the fighters he beat, in some cases praising them to the heavens, as Corbett as done regarding both Sullivan and Jackson, ok he didn't win over Jackson, but still, and there is usually a put down on the merits of fighters they didn't like, as in the case of Fitz, thinking a tad of ego is running through there accounts of former advisories, and derision with others. stay safe . Mike.
The best footage we have of Gans was under more favourable circumstances than the best film we have of Corbett as well. We have Gans in the last fight of his prime against Nelson in 1906, compared to Corbett who fought like 6 rounds in 5 years before losing to Fitz. Aside from that we have Corbett goofing around with a novice in Courtney. Keep in mind Gans openly idolized Fitzsimmons, said he could beat anyone in the world barring Jeffries in 1902, yet he looks much better on film than him as well. Gans also admitted to studying the styles of McAuliffe and Nonpareil Dempsey in the gym, I don’t think it’s crazy to think he could’ve looked up to Corbett as well on the way up as a contender.
