Jim Corbett/Gene Tunney Sparring Story

Well ,I'm glad it was you who said it and not me other wise a certain poster would be on my case!
ps ,Did you know that a young Harry Wills was briefly a sparring partner for Johnson?
Johnson said he had to let Wills go because he wasnt up to it.
Which may have meant he was still very green ,or that Johnson in later years was still unwilling to give credit to another Black fighter, he was allways disparaging of Wills.
The only black fighter Ive seen him praise was Mcvey,and I think that was genuine, becuase he paid ,all the expenses for Sam's funeral.

 

Pardon the thread necromancy, but I thought this might be useful information. The "roll of the fists into the jab that you can see coming from another zipcode" is probably the consequence of the way boxers in Corbett's day held their guard. Rather than the fairly stationary guard you see today, they cycled their hands forward and backward (though not passing each other, according to most of the manuals), so the "pull back" part of the movement would just be a natural partof the hand cycling.

Sullivan's doing it here:

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I used to live in San Francisco and the Olympic Boxing Club in which Corbett trained is only two or three blocks from Chinatown. Interesting.

 

Oh, so you only watched the first half of the film

 

No, I have the entire film. Its an 8mm put out by Pathe in the 1920s titled sportographs which was endorced by grantland rice. Tunney appeared in two, this one, and another. I have both. Dont pretend to know anything about me you troll.

 

I have to say I find that clip between Corbett and Tunney utterly fascinating and I'm not really especially interested in either guy usually.
But that was great to watch, and Corbett doesn't look half bad on film.

 

It's interesting primarily because of Corbett's assuredness in his abilities and techniques. However, he is throwing some of the most telegraphed punches in recorded film and is leaving himself impossibly wide open as a result. It's really as tho he is demonstrating techniques more appropriate for the stage than the ring, much like martial artists in Hong Kong films perform elaborate, showy techniques that are not terribly practical.

 

People said that Corbett did really well in his sparring session with Tunney. I don't see any sparring in any of the clips though.It's all just a demonstration from what I see. I wonder why they didn't film all three rounds? You would think they would since they had all of the equipment there. Unless the spar didn't happen on the same day as the film.

 

Well, it's possible yeah. I enjoyed watching him working the clinch, quite unexpected and more so because Corbett looks quite decent at it, using it as an offensive tool by the look of it.

 

corbetts work in the clinch is interesting. Most people think of him as an outside fighter, whose only chance against modern fighters or other atg fighters is to dance around and potshot from the outside. I wonder if his in close skills were underated?

 

as far as corbett is concerned- just how great could anyone be with less than 20 bouts in his carreer

 

Fantastic description of Corbett .. great job of nailing it ..

 

In the Fitz vs. Corbett Film, Corbett is good in the inside. He's also a little dirty pressing his elbow on Fitz's neck to break clinches when needed.

Much of the older timer skills, even the ones on film are misunderstood.

Another guy is Tunney. People think he's a jab and cross dancer type. Would you believe he was also a top body puncher? Films show he was,

 

Good description.