DeForest on Corbett ..

Mayweather turned his head away from dangerous opponents when they were in their prime.

No doubt though his defense was great.

 

For his time I should think he was .
Approximately half of his opponents were brought up on London Prize Ring rules, he would have been a baffling revelation to them I have no doubt. Corbett was dominating men that would look small against Carl Froch.
That isn't to say he was cr*p ,he outclassed a big ,strong ,durable heavy puncher, in Jeffries, whilst conceding a ton of weight, for 23rounds , he obviously had science for his times,an innovator but not the finished article imo Let us try and envisage him with 50/60 fights under his belt, with all that added experience and opportunity to experiment with new moves and tactics how much more complete and skilled could he have been?

 

I've frequented a "world class gym" for a few years. I got a couple guys to look at Baer-Braddock-Tunney era stuff and they guffawed, literally giggled the whole while. Hell, Holyfield guffawed at tape of Louis. I suppose guys who are ranked pro's no nothing about scouting opposition.

And please, don't make estimations of someone facing a scrub like Courtney. Peter McNeely would look like a world beater facing that guy.

 

Courtney would be wrapped in a coc**n of horror.

In my dim and distant past as a decidedly sub -par pugilist
I would still confidently expect to look good against Courtney. Who is described as scaling around 190lbs, but looks at best to be about a super middle,and whose ring record is "unavailable" . I've seen more polished moves, and skills in my local on a Saturday "Happy Hour".

 

WHY, WHY and why do people keep posting the footage of Jim Corbett playing around with Courtney for Thomas Edison's camera as if that's some sort of representation of Corbett as a fighter ????

It's absolute crazy to consider that "sparring" anything more than a couple of 1890s guys messing around under the direction of some inventor with a new instrument.
Possibly, and likely, they are even moving around in foolish and exaggerating fashion because they don't understand how much a camera is going to pick up.
Whatever.

It's utter madness. Imagine if some of Ali's comical exhibitions of the 1970s were being used to make serious comments on his ability.

I'm saying all this and I don't even think James Corbett was necessarily a great fighter at all.
But fair's fair.

 

I heartily concur but, given we have this ,a few seconds of a grainy jumpy clip of him and Fitz ,and about a minute of a retired Corbett sparring with Kid McCoy and Gene Tunney . You can you can see how impressions have been formed.

Its a mystery to me how Mendoza can confidently state that and
I quote.

"Corbett's reflexes and speed was better than Tubbs in my opinion "


He bases this on the footage we have all seen and I've just mentioned, but then the greater he makes Corbett appear, the greater by extension he makes his hero Jeffries!

 

Holyfield is light years ahead of Corbett,he did ballet exercises to improve his balance and worked like a Trojan on the Nautilus machine to build up his strength. Did they even have hook and jab pads back then? Yesterday, for research purposes I was reading about Jeffries fight with Bob Armstrong in which Jeffries suffered a broken thumb which swelled up impressively ,the book says he spent the night soaking it in hot water, nowadays of course, ice would have been applied ,we have moved on.

 

Jeffries used steam treatment on his injured arm before the Sharkey title defence, which is a bit like some therapies used today.

They obviously knew that heat treatment had benefits.

 

Reminds me of an article (forgot where I found it) I read some time ago, about the training methods back in the old days.There was this trainer, who denied his boxers any form of liquids on fight day. The first sip of water they had all day, was when they returned the corner after the first round! The idea was, that if you entered the ring in a semi-dehydrated state, you would be in a mean mood and take it out on your opponent!

As you say, we have moved on.

 

You use cold on a swelling like a sprain ,or a break or do you want to dispute that? What do you think the enswell's for? And before that the ice-bag ? Why do modern boxers, post fight put their damaged hands in a bucket of ice?


Jesus J ,you do like to play devil's advocate!

 

There was a recent study on whether an ice bath or a hot bath was more effective at aiding recovery.

It was found that the ice bath was more effective, but only by something like 2%.

Today you would generally combine hot and cold therapies, but Jeffries was not completely misguided.

 

First time ever i have heard combining hot and cold for any kind of break?
Would be interesting to read that study report if you have a link please Janitor?

 

I think it is more for soft tissue injuries.

I recently injured my foot in a marathon, and my physio told me to alternate three minutes on an ice pack, with three minutes on a hot water bottle, then rinse and repeat.

I will try to find a link to the study.