James J. Corbett says that Sullivan used to slap his thigh before every right hand: "From the beginning of the round Sullivan was aggressive-wanted to eat me up right away. He came straight for me and I backed and backed, finally into a corner. While I was there I observed him setting himself for a right-hand swing, first slapping himself on the thigh with his left hand-sort of a trick to balance himself for a terrific swing with his right. But before he let the blow go, just at the right instant, I sidestepped out of the corner and was back in the middle of the ring again, Sullivan hot after me. I allowed him to back me into all four corners, and he thought he was engineering all this, that it was his own work that was cornering me. But I had learned what I wanted to know - just where to put my head to escape his blow if he should get me cornered and perhaps dazed. He had shown his hand to me. In the second round he was still backing me around the ring. I hadn't even struck at him yet, and the audience on my right hissed me for running away and began to call me 'Sprinter.' Now I could see at a glance that Sullivan was not quite near enough to hit me, so suddenly I turned my side to him, waved both hands to the audience and called out, 'Wait a while! You'll see a fight.' ...So far Sullivan hadn't reached me with anything but glancing blows, and it was my intention, when the third round started, to hit him my first punch, and I felt that it must be a good one! If my first punch didn't hurt him, he was going to lose all respect for my hitting ability. So, with mind thoroughly made up, I allowed him to back me once more into a corner. But although this time I didn't intend to slip out, by my actions I indicated that I was going to, just as I had before. As we stood there, fiddling, he crowding almost on top of me, I glanced, as I had always done before, first to the left, then to the right, as if looking for some way to get out of this corner. He, following me and thinking I wanted to make a getaway, determined that he wouldn't let me out this time! For once he failed to slap himself on the thigh with his left hand, but he had his right hand all ready for the swing as he was gradually crawling up on me. Then, just as he finally set himself to let go a vicious right I beat him to it and loosed a left-hand for his face with all the power I had behind it. His head went back and I followed it up with a couple of other punches and slugged him back over the ring and into his corner. When the round was over his nose was broken." Is this true?
Hi Buddy. We must assume you are quoting Corbett yes ? so the question is, do we believe him or not, unless one of the posters can troll through all the old papers and articles and confirm what Corbett has said, we have no finite way of knowing ! do we...... stay safe hombre.
Here's the source: [url]http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/corbett.htm[/url] Then again, Corbett was known to fabricate to benefit his own image.
that's interesting, kind of a dead giveaway as a setup but I also wonder if he thought it would distract the opponent for a split second, overall probably not worth dropping his hand that low
Jim Corbett is considered by many to be the first “ Technical Boxer “ …so I wouldn’t be surprised if is true
That's a really interesting little nugget of info, if it's true of course. Talk about giving away your intentions tho!
Janitor's thoughts about this, are that it reminds him of some unorthodox boxing methods, seen from other all time greats. Jack Dempsey used the drop step, that we can see on film. If he saw an ideal opening, then he would literally fall into his punch, and then recover his steps. Perhaps we are seeing something along the same lines here?
What would a thigh slap accomplish? Corbett specifies that it was for balance, but I can see it being a somewhat effective feint if used properly.
My guess is that John L. was pretty much a shell at this point in his career. I suppose anything is possible, and I know James J. did write those things, but I would not be surprised if there is tad of exaggeration in that account. I am not saying that John L. did not do that, but I doubt if even his shell did that every time he was ready to throw a right hand. Perhaps his balance was not always as good as he liked at that point? I have seen some shot fighters nearly fall down themselves from throwing a punch. I think Prime John L. Sullivan was a much better fighter than that account suggests.
I feel like a thigh slap would be easy to notice and take advantage of, even in Sullivan's era. Even the most untrained people I've seen are able to see someone set up a shot so obviously
That doesn’t seem to make sense that Sullivan would slap his thigh to maintain balance. If he was fighting with his hands at his waist maybe it could work as a very primitive feint of sorts for a shovel punch.
I don't think it's implausible for Corbett to make Sullivan seem more archaic to benefit his own image as the 'first scientific boxer'. In this same article he emphasizes doing things the crowd had never seen before, but reports describe Jem Mace, Mike Donovan, Peter Jackson and Choynski as scientific too. Donovan and Choynski look better than Corbett on film as well
"I want you to do the first thing Sullivan will do," he said. "All. right," I answered, and did, as I had done scores of times before, showing him how Sullivan would slap his thigh several times with his left hand in order to get started, then try to break down his guard or disconcert him with his strong chopping left; then swing his right for the neck and jaw, using his arm as though it was a club." It appears that Corbett greatly exaggerated Sullivan's thigh slap in his recollection of events but it still was something that Sullivan appeared to do. What also contradicts Corbett's story is that Sullivan would perform the thigh slap before throwing a left as well, so it wasn't a sign he would telegraph the right; "Both men stepped briskly to the center of the ring. Sullivan slapped his left hand on his thigh several times, chopped with his left and then swung his right. Corbett skipped away and avoided the rush easily." It's also worth noting that despite this thigh slap, Donovan still looked at Sullivan as a boxing scientist. So maybe it was just one of those weird quirks boxers have. Found this in Mike Donovan's book: The Roosevelt that I know; ten years of boxing with the President--and other memories of famous fighting men
