Just met a woman who`s descended from Jim Corbett the first gloved heavyweight champ!

I worked with an older woman for years who told me once that she was the great granddaughter of Jess Willard.

She actually looked a lot like Willard in this photo. Same face/nose. Black hair. The fact that she just pulled the name out of the air, in a casual conversation, led me to believe her.

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/images/willard-jess-11.jpg

 

Sometimes I think you guys spend too much time online.

If someone makes a comment, everyone shouts "SOURCE?" "LINK?"

If you are just shooting the bull with someone and they bring up the name of a fighter from 140 years ago and say they are related, why would you remotely consider them to not be telling the truth? 99.9 percent of the people they may randomly tell probably wouldn't know who the fighter was at this point.

I sat next to a guy at work for years (a different company and city than the one with the Jess Willard relative). I was the writer on a magazine. He was the designer. We joked and talked all the time. Once, I mentioned a fight I was going to watch. And he said, "Oh, a friend of mine has a brother who is a boxer." And I said, "Oh yeah, what's the boxer's name?" He said he couldn't remember. I could've left it at that. Instead, I asked him what his friend's name was, and he said: "John. John Manfredy." And I asked if his brother's name, Angel? And his eyes lit up and he said, "Yeah! That's it."

Later on I met John and a group of us ended up getting together a number of times to watch PPVs or to go out to bars. Every once in a while, I'd chat him up about his brother. Not too much. He was a great guy. I don't really see him much anymore. But the point is there have been a lot of professional boxers over the last 140 or 150 years. And most had a number of kids, who also had a number of kids.

I'm sure there are a lot of people walking around today who are related to famous boxers. And they may have brought it up once to someone you know, but the person you know didn't recognize the name and forgot all about it.

I mean, how many grandkids will Holyfield have? Half the country will be related to him in 50 years.

 

Evander 'Genghis' Holyfield

 

Maybe you're related to Genghis Khan Mark lol.

 

Corbett's ancestral home is about 3 miles from my home. It is still occupied, by an elderly German woman who was "adopted" during the second World War when she fled her home. I have a complete photocopy of Corbett's autobiography that I took from the original signed copy that she lent to a friend of mine.

 

But you see Mark this is the problem. You are always throwing out these bizarre facts then when asked about it say, "I DON'T REMEMBER.. I FORGOT. I DIDN'T REALIZE". Ad nauseam!
If anyone told me "guess who just said he met Stanley Ketchel's daughter?" I say Mark Saadant. If someone says I just made out w Jean Harlow's 88 yr old daughter it will be MarkAnt. You cry wolf boy.

 

But does it matter? Sites trolling for hits, some posters need attention and some people just scroll through now and again, maybe to just learn stuff.

 

Maybe looking at him, Mark Ant reminded her of Ronnie Corbett so she thought that she will tell him by coincidence, she just happened to be descended from another famous Corbett?

 

Does she wear a thong too? JK.

 

Of course, but he isn't Charles Martin or François Botha is be?

 

That's a scary thought!