Id like to discuss substances in fights,specifically astringent ones that may or may not have been intentionally applied to gain an illegal advantage.ie Salve on Jersey Joe Walcott that Marciano said blinded him for several rounds. Liniment on Liston's gloves that got in Ali's eyes in their first fight. Walcott v Marciano1 Marciano always believed that Walcott's corner intentionally applied a salve that got into his eyes and prevented his from seeing properly for several rounds.Marciano always said he absolved Walcott from any wrong doing ,because,"he was too great a champ to go along with anything like that."Rocky believed it was applied without Walcott being aware of it. In the 6th rd Marciano charged Walcott and their heads collided,the top of Rocky's head smashed into Walcott's head,, just above the left eye opening a cut there which bled,the collision had also opened a deep gash in Marciano's hair line at the top of the forehead. In the corner Rocky's handlers had squeezed a sponge over his head to clear the gore from the cut,so it could be treated with medication.After this, whilst still in the corner Rocky said ,there's something in my eyes,they're burning". At the end of the 7th round Rocky came back to his corner and said,"My eyes are getting worse,Do something I can't see". Expert cut man Freddy Brown, hired specifically for the fight,with Goldman and Columbo, washed the eyes with small sponges soaked in cold water.The eyes were red and misty. "We suspected it was some kind of medication used on Walcott ," Allie Columbo said. "But we didnt know what to do about it.We just kept trying to wash the stuff out of his eyes,but they seemed to be getting worse all the time". "What are they doing what are they doing," screamed Al Weill ,Rocky's manager he shouted to the referee Charley Daggert."Check his gloves, check his gloves!" After the fight Marciano said,"it seemed like Walcott had some stuff between his neck and shoulder,where I rested my head when we got in close."Everytime we came together my eyes would start smarting again". Sam Silverman who promoted many of Marciano's early fights was sitting right beside Rocky's corner ,he had a different take on things. "No question .They blinded him in his own corner." " I was sitting ringside ,right next to them,I think it was poor work by his own handlers,that blinded Rocky.Whatever they used on his head got into his eyes". "Weill had everybody crazy in that corner." Walcott had the legs of a twenty year old.he was having the best fight of his career.He must've put Rocky into two hundred head on collisions.It was one of the worst lickings I ever seen a guy get. Weill was a maniac,hollering,and screaming.Everybody got nerved up.Instead of getting towels and pads.They hit the kid with a sponge and the cut stuff went right into his eyes.They blinded him and the poor kid couldn't see.he was getting the **** punched out of him". After the fight Walcott said ,"if there was anything in his eyes it had to be medication,I didn't know it". Liston v Ali 1. At the end of the 4th round Ali came back to his corner and said,"I can't see, cut the gloves off". Angleo Dundee Ali's trainer said," no way this is for the title baby",Dundee put his little finger in Ali's eye then put it in his own,it burned. Dundee rinsed Ali's eyes out with a clean sponge slapped him on the rump and sent him out for the 5th. Many have said that Liston's corner intentionally put something on Sonny's gloves to blind Ali.Some have said Joe Polino his chief second had a vial of an illegal substance ready to use should Liston ever get into any difficulties.Some have taken this a stage further and said it was used in earlier fights,the Machen one being most commonly mentioned. Since Sonny was never in danger of losing the Machen fight you have to wonder why a corner would risk being dsq'd and banned for life for such an offense? Dundee himself discounted the intentional blinding theory, saying that there are two plausible explanations. 1.Liniment applied to Liston's injured shoulder unintentionally got into Ali's eyes.The other number 2 is that Monsel's Solution was applied to Liston's cut eye and that this got transferred to Ali's gloves and then to his eyes.Dundee thought no 2 the more likely explanation,because as he said,"it was a nasty cut and you can see on film thart it was more blackish than red,which is an indication that they probably used Monsels on it," What do you think?
Didnt Contehs corner say Matt Franklin's corner used a banned substance to stop the bleeding in the first fight
In a story published in the October 1956 Saturday Evening Post, Marciano accused Felix Bochichio of instigating it and having capsicum of pepper applied to Walcott's body and was sued in return ,the court upheld Marciano's allegations and found in favour of the Post.
Yes they used the banned Monsel's solution which sets like cement and has to be chiselled out after the fight ,the give away is it turns black when applied.Monsel's was banned because it can damage the eye itself if it gets into it. Conteh was also the victim of a raw deal when he fought Mate Parlov ,Parlov came into the ring wearing plastic skin on his eyebrows you can plainly see it.Totally ridiculous!
The fight was beset with a number of controversies and odd happenings, the first coming before the bout started, when a man with a weapon tried to gain access to Arguello's dressing room. He was stopped by members of the public, and Arguello was rushed by his handlers into a shower and shielded. The man later was arrested. The fight began without further incident. A pattern quickly emerged, as right from the opening bell Pryor charged recklessly at Arguello with combinations, while Arguello stood still in the middle of the ring, parrying or blocking Pryor's punches while counterattacking with his trademark precise, hard, straight punches. Both fighters were hurt in the first round, and each took the opportunity to punish each other. The tone was set for the fight. Pryor tried to increase the tempo, moving more, punching more, hitting Arguello with slashing combinations while Arguello stayed true to his strategy, summarized before the fight as "I don't have to hit him many times in each round, but I do have to make sure that every time I hit him it hurts", waited for counterpunching opportunities and used both his own strength and Pryor's momentum from coming forward to try to make every blow as explosive and painful as possible. In every round each fighter would have their high points, and every round became difficult to score. For a time Pryor looked to be gaining control of the fight and winning a string of rounds in the middle of the fight, but Arguello came back in rounds 9 through 11, particularly in round 11 where he battered Pryor with a number very hard shots, seemingly shifting the momentum of the fight in favor of Arguello. However, controversy would now raise its head for a second time that evening. Between rounds it was noticed that a second, thus far unused water bottle was put into use in Pryor's corner. Pryor came out with far greater energy in the 12th round, but Arguello attempted to match him blow for blow. In the 13th round Arguello hit Pryor with a tremendous punch, easily the hardest blow of the fight, but Pryor danced away and out of trouble. Once again between rounds Pryor's notorious cornerman Panama Lewis, well known for cheating and doing anything to win, could be heard requesting the second bottle, and telling an aide "No, not that one, the one I mixed", when the aide offered the water bottle that had been used throughout the rest of the fight. As in the 12th round, Pryor once again came out with a burst of energy in the 14th round after Panama Lewis broke another ammonia spirit under his nose and give him to drink water mixed with possibly antihistamine pills to have a longer lung capacity in the later rounds according to Luis Resto, another Panama Lewis fighter. That happen between the 13th and the 14th rounds, Panama Lewis gave Pryor to drink that mixed drink as early as the 2nd round, and this time Arguello could not answer it. Pryor battered Arguello around the ring for the first minute of the round, until a hard combination drove a staggering Arguello to the ropes, where Pryor proceeded to land a grisly series of almost twenty unanswered punches that nearly sent Arguello out of the ring.
There was some controversy going on with Miguel Lora when he fought Alberto Davila in the rematch where he apparently drank some 'sugar water'. I don't think there's been any kind of follow up but it does raise suspicion.
Check out Torsten May of Germany in the 1992 Olympics. He showed up with this egg-sized lump of something that looks like silly putty protecting a cut from his previous bout. I think he also advanced after computer scoring “accidentally” credited him with punches actually scored by his opponent, Montell Griffin.
