Old School Stamina

Let's see...He's talking about a mile to a mile and a half walk and run out and back before breakfast. That's up to three miles right away. (Ali was barely able to manage two for Berbick.) Then, at 10:30, a 12 mile cross country walk and run UPHILL, in two hours. This lower impact uphill exertion on softer grass and dirt builds up the legs where running on flat, unforgiving pavement can break them down. (Years ago, I moved from the countryside to the city, and was forced to quit running outdoors in short order because my legs couldn't take the incessant pounding and jolting on flat hard surfaces. It was a world apart from the uphill dirt roads I was used to.)

15 miles of daily roadwork is a formidable amount for boxing by the standards of any era. He additionally skipped rope in the afternoon, one of those "and such things until suppertime" not specifically identified in Bly's interview. (Of course he's not going to publicly reveal everything. Spy craft was epidemic in boxing then, as well as today.) Clearly, this was a full time occupation, but $600,000 was also huge money by the standards of the 1880s. (Don't ask me for an inflationary conversion to 2010 dollars. I'm no economist, but maybe someone else here can guesstimate a modern approximation.)

Well, that works both ways. Clinching is not only used as a measure for catching a breather, but also for wearing down an opponent in all eras. Carnera used it to grind down Loughran. Archie Moore said Ali's yanking down on the back of Foreman's neck was the specific reason George was exhausted to the point where he could be knocked out in Kinshasa. Antuofermo used his physical strength to maul Hagler in the clinches, causing Marv to gas late in their draw. Corbett wisely stayed away from Sullivan, who would have brutalized him in close with that strength.

 

incredible stamina conditioning achieved through constant bouts, sparring, and roadwork
more clinch fighting
less lateral movement
less sustained combination punching

 

I like how, at 5-10, Sullivan is "a tall man"...

I know, times have changed, it's just funny.

And by the way, at 230, he's just a lardass.

 

Exactly.

 

Frazier reportedly soaked his head in brine to make it resistant to cuts. (He might have worn a snorkel while doing this. Paul Newman wore a snorkel while soaking his face in ice water. Hell, it's safer and cheaper than plastic surgery.) Jeffries also applied treatment to his facial skin. (It's been years since I read the details on how he did it. Whatever the solution was, Jeff would apply it to his face, then let it dry in the sun. It was described as leaving his skin soft but tough, like fine leather.)

 

In the bareknuckle era they used to pickle their hands and face.

They used either a mixture of vitriol and gunpowder or turpentine.

 

I guess it was the only way their hands and faces could take the punishment. In that period you could tell a boxer by his blackened hands.

These guys were probably much more dangerous with their fists outside the ring than a modern world class fighter.

 

Isn't turpentine on the skin painful?

 

You would think so.

 

I've often wondered about this.

It's especially amazing to hear about high numbers of rounds in the transitional period from the late 19th into the 20th century. Three-minute round durations (with sixty seconds in the corner) were codified in the Queensberry rules. Under the previous London Prize Ring, a knockdown signified the end of a round; so in theory there would be fewer rounds of longer duration or, if one man was getting seriously licked without quite getting put away, a high volume of very short rounds (conceivably as short as a few seconds). In a Queensberry bout, each was no less and no more than three minutes.

Bowen vs. Burke was fought over 111 such three-minute rounds. :scaredas:

That is over ten times longer than most non-title TV fights in this era, and almost ten times as long as the scheduled championship distance!

 

Well, just have to temper the "were they super-human?" thoughts with reality... A lot of those knockdowns were more then likely someone getting a double underhook and tossing a guy down.

I'm sure each fighter wouldn't particularly go balls to the walls to avoid being tossed, after all it would signify a break so why fight tooth and nail to avoid a toss down? :think

 

Right, in LPR every time a man went down they reset and it was used as a strategy by some to get a break when they were in hot water.

That's why I'm more impressed by the long fights under Queensberry rules. Like today, each round between Bowen and Burke was three minutes (regardless of knockdowns). That means seven and a half hours between the start and end of the fight (including the minute rest period between rounds) - and a total of six hours straight of actual fighting. Uncanny!