Sparring Wars

I enjoyed that

 

I don't wish to rain on anyone's parade, but a couple of these statements are not correct.

Johnson was not knocked out by Smith and Smith's taped interview , recorded in1972 confirms he only partially put Johnson through the ropes. Johnson sparred with two others immediately after his session with Smith.
As far as the Burley story is concerned it was Burley who ko'd Ray and its in Harry Otty's biography."Charley Burley & the Black Murderers Row."

 

You're dead right on that score!

 

I love sparring stories, i don't take them all that serious but i even have some of them and people seem to enjoy them despite being between two teenage boxers.
I read about a lot of them.
-A 15 year old Gerald McClellan getting brutalized by Tommy Hearns but refusing to quit.
-Ray Patterson, the brother of Floyd, knocking out Sonny Liston.
-A young Tyson sparring a young Lennox and also a young and very undersized Holyfield.
-The most talented fighter of the Kronk, Bernard Mays, breaking Hearns nose (giving Hearna troubles breathing all his life) and making Hearns wanting to quit boxing.
-A 17 year old Roy Jones Jr. giving and old Sugar Ray Leonard all he could handle (the session was filmed).
-Zab Judah learning the tricks of Pernell Whitaker (it was filmed).
-An old Jack Dempsey putting a beating on the lazy Tony Galento.
-Edwin Valero giving Dela Hoya a black eye.
-Erik Morales feinting Mayweather.
-And more recent ones like a 15 year old David Benavidez sparring a world champion in Kelly Pavlik as well as his brother Jose at 17 years old sparring Manny Pacquiao.

 

Ray Patterson did floor Liston in a spar but he didn't knock him out.Tyson came out like gangbusters against an unprepared Lewis and by the time Lewis was ready to respond it was halted.

Here is the Liston link.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T7oDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50&dq=&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

Hi McVey. I wrote the article on Wars behind Closed Doors. To clear up a couple things I'll start with Jack Johnson and Smith's sparring session. Smith didn't knock Johnson out cold, but from sources I have he did drop him and Johnson was hurt bad and the session was stopped short because of it. There was several papers that mentioned this in articles the following day from the Boston Globe the Nashville Tennessean and others which were my sources. Also I didn't say Johnson stopped sparring for the day, just that he wasn't allowed to spar Smith the rest of the day which is not uncommon. Also the story from Harry Otty's book about Elmer Ray being knocked out by Charley Burley came from a family member of Burley's according to Mr. Otty. I asked him about it and that was what he told me. I looked for some articles to match with it and never could find any, but I did find articles on Elmer Ray knocking out Burley in sparring and the accounts of those sessions which I posted in my article were told by their mutual manager, Tommy O'Loughlin. For Burley to spar with heavyweights showed how great he was and he gave Ray trouble at first, he may have knocked out Ray at some point but I haven't found the articles for those sessions or I would have included them in the article. I'm glad for the feedback and hope you'll read my future articles. Also, I didn't include sources simply because some info might be used in books in the future but I will post the source for the Liston session if you would like, it was an interesting story and one I don't have any plans on writing on in the future.

 

Thanks for providing the link, it was probably the same that i read years ago because i remember the picture.

 

Adam Pollack has postulated that the Smith KD may have been1.A publicity stunt to generate interest in the up and coming Ketchel defence.2.A rehearsal for the KD that Johnson suffered in the Ketchel fight.As you may know several local papers did not even mention that Smith floored Johnson. Otty's book is on my kindle it does not mention Ray knocking out Burley or even flooring him. I don't know the truth of it, only what Otty wrote. I will be happy to read your future articles ATB!

 

A lot of sparring sessions are urban myths. The infamous sparring session
between Tony Ayala as a 14 yr old and then WBA WW Champion Pipino
Cuevas was yrs later proven to be a myth when Ayala admitted his
father made it up to get a better TV deal.

 

Monzon dropping Frazier is another Myth

 

Always found that one next to impossible to believe ...

 

Haha how about it..that supposedly originated from Antoufermo...

 

How about Quarry getting the best of Foreman?