Do we know much about if and how boxers in the late 19th century/early 20th century went about preparing specific fight plans to fight particular opponents? Did Fitzsimmons train differently for the Corbett fight than for the Jeffries fight? Did Jack Johnson tailor his training differently for the Burns and Jeffries fights? Etc.
I don’t know if they discussed about actual specific fight plans in public, but after Fitzsimmons vs Jeffries 2 Adam Pollack notes that it sounded like Corbett vs Fitz, but with Fitz fighting more like Corbett moving around and using more defense against the bigger man. I also remember Johnson saying he didn’t want to come in any lighter than 200 lbs against Jeffries so Jeff couldn’t maul him in the clinches.
If you mean the training regimen itself there was a post on here years ago about Sullivan's routine. It sounded pretty much like a modern regimen except for the use of Indian clubs (basically weighted bowling pins). If you look closely at that famous footage of jack Johnson shadow boxing in front of a gathered crowd, you can see he's holding some kind of hand weights. This content is protected
Thanks, but I more interested in figuring out the extent to which they "fight planned" and tailored their training camp regimens toward their specific individual opponents.
Janitor and/or Mcvey will have a more knowledgeable answer than I could give, but's just before 7 AM in the in the UK right now.
We would have to did deep in the newspapers and pre-fight films to figure that out. Some of the ex-champions would help out challengers against their own conqueror, hoping to get another shot at the title.
The earliest obvious example I can think of straight from the dome would be that of Schemlling-Louis 1. No doubt someone will be able to come up with earlier examples, but it's early across the pond and don't have the time to dig any deeper before work. Look forward to seeing what everyone comes out with in my lunch break.
Have fighters generally done that to much extent at all ? Did Muhammad Ali do that (for example) ? It is not wise for any athlete to tinker too much with their training regimen. But, yes, to a certain extent I think boxers have always done such things as find certain sparring partners to develop speed or whatever attribute they feel they need to enhance for a particularly opponent. Of course, that's what they pay trainers and managers for.
Certainly with sparring, at the very least. It's also not unusual to hear about championship-level fighters tinkering their training to emphasize speed or strength or power or whatever, but that's not necessarily fight planning so much as a new trainer trying to improve upon the work of a fighter's previous trainers.
With video it is easier to plan how to fight a particular fighter. It's possible to see if the other boxer can fight going backward, can fight going forward, if he gives angles, how he keeps his hands, if he brings his jab back high and quick, etc. Today there is a lot of fight planning going on after studying film of an opponent. IMO, that is the value of mitt work, the trainer can find things the fighter's opponent does on video, then do those things with the mitts and have his fighter ready to counter them in the fight.
I will take my time answering this one if you don't mind. The difficulty is that with fighters like Corbett and Fitzsimmons, we often only have a detailed account of one or two training camps.
Just came across a couple articles indicating that Firpo had never seen Dempsey fight before stepping in the ring with him, and another where Harry Mathews didn't think he'd ever seen Marciano fight before stepping in the ring with him (his manager had seen Marciano vs. Louis and Savold though). Imagine trying to prepare for guys like that without ever having seen them fight, let alone having film to study!
Dempsey-era fighters sparred with lightweights to improve speed. I think it's mentioned on the segment of film with Corbett and Tunney. Though this isn't the detailed fight planning you were asking about.
