Corbett vs Foreman. 1893, 45 rounds

Re: Your point about the decline in stamina --

I'd have to check the early rounds to see whether he can match Johnson's strength in those. Unfortunately, I don't think the whole thing is online.

Both from a bit of personal experience and from history, it makes a huge difference when you're trying to grapple tired. Especially when the other guy is somebody as strong and skilled as Johnson, and you're doing it outside in the heat. (Though to be clear, I have no personal experience grappling with a prime Jack Johnson.)

 

I'm not wading through them now. read them yourself.If you find contradictory proof to my posts post them and I'll address them.
Does Jeffries Reno look in shape to you?
Does he have a six pack stomach?
Does he have flab hanging over his shorts?
Are his arms/legs flabby?

 

He looked like Superman, albeit an old one.

Then again, he wouldn't be the first guy who looked good without a shirt on, but had lost what made him great.

 

Sht. Duran lost about 50 pounds in a few months more than once and never complained.

 

His fans certainly do!

 

Foreman KO 1

 

The great Tyson Fury routinely loses more weight on puts on stunners.

Jeffries was a better athlete than the contemporaries who chose to face. He got by on that and when that got put on the shelf too long he didn't have the skills to deal with another athlete, one who had much, much more refined skills. He was all there. But the world, in the form of Jack Johnson, had passed him by.

 

I am going to fall back on the modern sports science argument there.

Whichever way you play it, you can't cherry pick.

For example if you are going to big up Johnson's victory over Jeffries, despite the extenuating circumstances, then the same logic must apply to Dempsey's victory over Willard.

 

Is this a joke? Foreman vs the *** who boxed with a wedgie so you can see his buttcheeks !

 

Willard didn't have the track record that Jeffries had. Jim's resume may look short but he was fighting top level dudes early on. And I don't discount Dempsey's victory over Willard anyways. He took the crown from the guy who had it and did so in emphatic fashion. Sure, the media glorified it a bit but the result stands.

 

Surely boxing skills -- whether Johnson's or the division's in general -- didn't develop that much between 1906 and 1910?

I'll grant you there's some evidence of rapid evolution going on between Corbett and Johnson. I don't think Johnson was the poster child for that evolution, though. People like Langford and later Dempsey look a lot more like the future than Johnson's bag of tricks does.

 

This. Foreman is tailormade for Corbett. Foreman was very powerful, but against a clever fighter Foreman was very beatable and Corbett knew every trick in book.

 

All available rounds are on YouTube. What I observed from the outset was that it was primarily Jeffries who was intent on wrestling with little attention to throwing actual punches.

Atop that, it wasn’t so much strength that Jeffries applied as it was his own sheer weight - leaning forward, to move Johnson back. As to pure arm strength - Johnson appeared to prove himself Jeffries superior at every turn - though Johnson displayed obviously well educated technique and understanding of optimal leverage.

Very early in the piece, Johnson easily pushed Jeffries arm well behind his own back - just as Johnson said he would do before the fight.

 

Because he is a deeply religious man, and understanding the Bible's negative attitude towards sodomy, George becomes enraged at the sight of pansy Jim's butt cheeks hanging out of his leather thong. Big George, just for a moment, has an image of twerking Miley Cyrus in the reptilian portion of his brain, then crushes Corbett with a single blow from his massive right paw. A moan can be heard from Corbett's mouth as he hits the canvas already unconscious merely 15 seconds into the first round.

Foreman KO1.

 

Where was the footwork and movement against crude Sharkey?

What are Corbett's best 3 wins?