This is an interesting topic: I can't remember a fighter, trainer, manager or promotor who didn't smoke back in the '40s and '50s at Stillman's gym. Many of the fighters smoked between rounds of sparring and floor excercises.
Hey JG, And most of those guys still likely had amazing stamina. Not that I'm trumpeting the health benefits of smoking
My grandmother is fighting for 98 years of age and is still kicking after 2 packs a day! I think Mayorga lights up as a ploy but dobts he really smokes but I'm prolly wrong. Generations ago it was most likely accepted.
I'm sure many good/great fighters have smoked after a grand win or during the holidays or vacations, but I doubt they did while training in the gym or in prepping for a fight. Many also smoked until they took the sport more seriously than the typical sparring partner or lesser journeyman.
Years ago, my IQ was tested at 113, but such tests can be hideously flawed and misleading. Also, there's no correlation between intelligence and creativity. During my school days, I was a "special needs education" student, classified and placed with ******ed children. This consensus opinion was reached by a collection of "educators" and "mental health professionals" primarily I think on the basis I was "different" (You can imagine how I regard people in these lines of work today.) I failed English four times in high school. Having known people who truly were of genious caliber precludes my evolving any such delusions about myself. A medium like ESB can allow us to cloak our true selves in anonymity, and present an alternative image to others in cyberspace. Socially, I may appear to do well enough in a setting such as this one, but this does allow us to fabricate alternative personnas, Walter Mitty style. Regarding my mother, she could easily live past 100 with her genes, but would be miserable in her body at her current elevated weight (as am I). She swims, has a recumbent exercise bike in her room, and participates in a regular community fitness class, but she will need to change her dietary habits to return to a comfortable weight. In the last couple of years, I've had extensive laboratory work and physical evaluations done on myself, and my scores have actually improved in some areas from what they were when I was thin. However, even so, finding and wearing properly fitting clothing is an issue, and this heavy weight has caused orthopaedic problems (like plantar fasciitis and back trouble). I'm literally not comfortable in my own skin, so I need to change that. (Altering eating habits can be a time saving approach which doesn't grind the body down, while exercising when unnaturally obese can land somebody under a surgeon's knife. I'm in the process of doing intensive "homework" before I undertake any dedicated weight loss effort. I want to be certain that the first time I ever make a concerted attempt to restore my former size is the last time I ever need to try.) Self restraint and civility can certainly be as novel as unbridled primitive and boorish behaviour. Whichever predominates, get noticed by going in the opposite direction. Yeah, I could fit in with the rest of the sewage, exchanging insults like, "Dempsey would have kicked Tyson's ass." "Oh yeah? Well yur a ********!" "I'm a ********? well that jest proevs yur a gay ***it!" "Tyson wud fuk Demseys ass ind mak hem humble!" It seems the people who like the posts I'm typing out are kind of sick of that sort of feculent and moronic lingo. Maybe some day, I'll create an alternative identity, purchase a pair of neoprene gloves, buy a gas mask, and enter the General Sewer (oops, I mean Forum), to swap juvenile insults for my own amusement. (Sort of like prodding a wasp's nest.)