Found this excellent video on another forum: the Orphan Film Symposium: a Pathex 9.5 mm fight picture (Scroll down about a third of the way for the video.) Gene Tunney is one of the cleverest boxers in the history of the fight game, and Jim Corbett is perhaps the father of ring science in the gloved era - by repute, at least. However, to my untrained eye, he seems to be making all kinds of errors here. Although talked of as one of the great straight punchers, he looks as sometimes looks as though he's swinging (not hooking) and even landing with the thumb knuckle. The punches which are straight look like arm-punches - his back foot is barely involved. He's not torquing his hips, he's not covering up in close. It looks bad. I'm sure I must be wrong, however, and I'd like you guys to tell me why I am. What am I missing?
This is boxing. If you are going to call it "striking" then you need to go to some ***** MMA forum where they drool over men hugging each other rolling around on a mat...
"Striking" is actually a good way to describe it. Corbett isn't boxing in the same way that modern boxers do; his method of fighting rested on a different set of principles, designed for bareknuckle contests. (Ironically, Corbett himself never fought in under London Prize Ring Rules.) Corbett's style comes from this tradition: http://books.google.com/books?id=Ki...&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=VI...&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=uY...=8&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=boxing&f=false As to the hooks: hooked punching was in its infancy during this period. Bareknuckles didn't work very well with modern hooks, and the early "swings" and "rounding blows" were experimental. I think that the punch you noted, where Corbett looks like he's hitting with the thumb, is actually a strike with the back knuckles. Fedor and other combat SOMBO people still strike this way.
Smedley was one of the most imprtant Men to have lived during the 20th Century and yet most have never heard of him.
Odd, isn't it, that if he'd participated in the Bankers' Plot rather than saving the Republic from them, everybody would remember him.
Prescott Bush and other Wall St. swells were involved in that. All Old Money famillies. Maybe there is some significance there.
Corbett's striking is easily the worst thing about his style, I've heard someone from that time write how Corbett pitter-pattered his jab and right and it's pretty accurate. The dude just kind of flings his arm out there as a way to distract his opponent for a moment and maintain activity, and also to occasionally set up for a clinch. His right hand is decent, and occasionally throws a decent lead left here and there. His hooks and uppercuts are atrocious though, so I think a lot of Corbett's style relies on the fact that he's fast and overly oriented within defense.
