Jim Jeffries "drying out" before the Jack Johnson fight

Jeffries said after the fight," my corner wanted me to do more sparring but it wouldn't have made any difference."

"It was the worst fight I ever saw,Jeff never had a chance from the first sound of the gong to the last.It was one big disgusting joke".
Tom Sharkey. San Francisco Call July 6th 1910.

 

ah fair, cheers for the correction!

 

You are right, but i was just thinking hypothetically.
Jeffries was gone and Johnson fought an incredibly smart and disciplined fight. But if he had dehydratel like it seems like he did, but Jeffries had not and instead drank water and stayed hydrated ( i am sorry but studies can say what they like, it is a massive disadvantage), i wonder if Jeffries may have actually been capable of making it a bit more interresting and if Johnson may have actually slown and wore out. I dont think he owuld have, but it could have easily went 20 or more rounds and this may have been hard for a dehydrated fighter to do.

I am not sure i believe that younger fighters would have KOd Jeff. I think JOhnson was an ATG fighter that night, maybe even the greatest fighter that night. I think it would have taken an ATG fighter to do it. Dempsey, Tyson, even Holyfield or Tunney would have done it. Possibly even Charles or Walcott. I dont know if i would back Braddock, Hart or Spinks to do it. I am pretty sure that Choynski, Ruhlin, Golota, and those level fighters would not have beaten Jeffries.

 

Amazing how resiliant the mind can be. I could only imagine the dehydration that these guys felt but the body being used to it may have naturally held back fluids & the mind thinking it was good for you allowed these guys to feel prepared. Im sure many died and different reasons were given for the cause.

 

Aren’t there some other training habits from back then that don’t seem useful anymore? I know chopping wood/hard labor is basically finished because it screws up people’s backs. Lifting weights was taboo. Abstainence. Road work is gradually falling out in favor of HIIT. What else?

 

You produce anti-diuretic hormone if you need to retain fluids. I’m not sure if drying out would affect athletic performance or recovery more.

 

That one probably isn't a good thing. HIIT just isn't nearly as effective for aerobic endurance, you can't get in enough volume. People think something is anaerobic so train anaerobically, but in truth the aerobic system is extremely important for something like boxing with repeated anaerobic bursts with recovery and underlying near constant activity, and you really need stuff like roadwork, or equivalent to build it.

The whole "xyz is bad for abc" is often exaggerated anyway, any activity is going to have place some impact and strain on your body, your body is pretty good at adapting and recovering,

 

There are studies out there. Jogging isn't that great for fitness and it's hard on the joints. A boxer is gonna still do lots of other aerobic exercises.

 

A lot of the studies are terrible. They tend to ignore how much more volume of roadwork you could do compared to HIIT. It's actually not bad for the joints in the long term if you're not stupid about how you're doing it, and especially if you've been doing it from childhood. It's doesn't have to be roadwork, but you need a lot of long fairly easy stuff.

 

The USA Boxing team chops wood and boxers have always done hiit. Jogging then sprinting for a few paces isn't anything new. Actually Dempsey even talks about it in his book "championship fighting".

 

Pirog never fought GGG because he wrecked his back chopping wood.

 

That's cool.

The USA Boxing team chops wood and boxers have always done hiit. Jogging then sprinting for a few paces isn't anything new. Actually Dempsey even talks about it in his book "championship fighting".

 

Could you repeat that to me verbatim one more time?