who cares man? What are you trying to say? Marciano beat the bag out of archie Moore who clowned on Jimmy Slade easily. This thread is about Turpin not Marciano
Long before Pryor had the Hawk Time routine, and a lot of people don't know this, as I think it's where he got it from, Randy would have an entourage go with him on his jogs and he'd yell "Turpin!" and his entourage would yell "Time!" and the press would ask him stuff like "Are you trying to make it sound like a play on turpentine?" and he'd be like "With all due respect, gentlemen, if you don't get it, that's on you." and then he'd go back to shouting his name so his entourage could shout back. It was really great, motivational fun. But it was weird for its time. Excellent fighter. Now, he wouldn't address whether it was a play on words but wouldn't deny it either. Taken together with the very strange post fight interview he had after his Luc van Dam performance, where he curiously shouted "I'm so economical I should be used as an alternative to whale oil!" I feel it is safe to say it was probably a play on words to sound like turpentine. But God knows.
I'll go as far as to say that if Turpin didn't have severe mental/emotional issues, which I feel held him back greatly even when it wasn't as obvious, he could have potentially been one of the very best MWs ever.
He was pretty deaf and he loved *****,I don't know about any other severe issues he had until he went skint after buying a castle in Wales ,and became depressed?
He attempted suicide in 1945, a year before even starting his boxing career. He always had other issues, including tumultuous marriages, during his career too.
I've only two books onTurpin ,neither mention a suicide attempt in 45,have you any details you can share with us?
Jack Birtley "The Tragedy of Randolph Turpin" makes this claim. The suicide attempt was later ruled an accident, most likely to just make the situation go away rather than punish him, as attempting suicide was actually a crime back then.
