Interesting article on early 1900 fighters

If there were no jabs, no counters, no defense before Jack Dempsey, what am I watching in this 1910 fight?

https://youtu.be/6IYDLHJKOy8?t=2m37s

 

Can you give me a timestamp from the video of the example of them lifting their right foot improperly? I'm going to see if there really is a deficiency there compared to modern boxers.

 

Is the awkward hand movement by Corbett really an indicator of unevolved fighting?

Is it that much different than Haye doing it here?
https://youtu.be/GKOYtg0xSuw?t=1m36s

 

This is exactly the punching technique Joe Louis teaches in his book. Joe Louis learned from Blackburn, who used the exact same training techniques he was taught as a fighter.

I see nothing amateurish with Nelsons footing when he punches. Can you find a specific example or two with timestamps?

 

Doesn't De La Hoya do that too?
https://youtu.be/BZN7Zvr5J3w?t=28m46s

 

What about Joe Louis here?
https://youtu.be/ACd6_LFHF8M?t=25m33s

 

I agree.

I originally scanned and uploaded the article in the first post. It's from a boxing magazine from 1980.

At the time, in 1980, there was no internet. Few people had VCRs. If you had any fight films, there were only a couple in circulation and they tended to be on reels and you had to watch them on a film projector. In 1961, when the writer first saw the Corbett in Jim Jacobs' office, most fight films from the turn of the century hadn't even been uncovered and weren't widely availably to the public at all. There are also factual errors in most articles around that time regarding turn-of-the-century fighters. Many of their records weren't complete. (Most still aren't 35 years after that article was printed.) You couldn't run over to a computer and do a quick fact check.

I posted this article originally because it was one of the first articles I read in any boxing magazine talking about how the reputations of many of these all-timers had far exceeded reality.

Today, boxing fans collectively probably know more about the sport than any group of fans who came before. We can check the records, watch the fighters at the click of a button. ****yze tape. Slow things down, speed them up.

That's why I find it funny when we have discussions and people say about an old-timer: "Well this guy saw everyone from ... to ..."

All that meant was he "actually saw them fight once." Which, at one time, was a huge deal. Because, when it came to boxers at the turn of the century, the vast majority of boxing writers NEVER actually saw the greats they were writing about. So, if one had, people made note of it.

Today, seeing something or someone before you write about them is the norm.

That's why, when people could actually watch them, many "experts" were stunned by what they were seeing. The people on the film didn't match the "legendary stories" they'd been reading and repeating themselves for decades.

 

Joe Gans ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML5WLvrc0P8