The Classic Boxing Myth Thread

When you consider how respected Frazier was. He was undefeated. Beaten Ali. George was very clear about it. He had watched Joe walked through a big heavyweight named Buster Mathis and it concerned him a great deal as a young upcoming pro. "I want to be champion but I hope Joe Frazier dies first" "He made being big seem like it didn't mean anything at all". He also mentioned the Quarry fight where Joe after taking alot of punishment " went in front of the camera and made a gesture as though he liked it".

 

Yeah George was scared of Frazier like Spinks with Tyson. Come on..

 

Because Tyson in his prime worked unbelievably hard under cus d'amato and later Kevin Rooney.
Rooney himself said:
"Back then I used to run 3-4 miles with him just to make sure he was doing it. And then we’d go to the gym. And then we’d go to a health club at night. Then we’d go do bed. When he was with me there was no partying. There was no, well I worked hard, I’m gonna go have a few drinks and try to pick up a girl. That never happened. Hey Mike, guess what? We got a title to defend and you gotta be in tip-top shape".

 

You should watch some boxing and learn about the sport. It’s really great when you understand it.

 

That Greb was a heavy drinker, who serviced women in his changing room whilst waiting to be called to the ring.
He rarely drank, and if he did play around , it was only after his wife Mildred had passed away. keep well.

 

@janitor
You are a smartie so I am asking you- But didn't Jeff have a much longer camp then believed for the Johnson fight? Somewhere in the striking distance of a year?

 

He had a significant training camp, and I could give more details. He obviously didn't go to Reno to lose.

 

If there had been a rematch a year down the line, Aaron would have been possibly surprised. And you know Emanuel would have had Dujuan prepared.

 

How can you possibly know that?

 

Re The Ali-Cooper Torn Glove

Two of the more guilty parties to give that myth legs over many years were Henry Cooper himself and Angelo Dundee.

Henry’s motive was to suggest how it gave Ali time to recooperate (pun intended).

As to Dundee, even though performing an illegal move, he got to promote himself as the savvy cornerman who bought his fighter (Ali) crucial time.

It’s funny how, over the years, the time delay between rounds went from about 1 minute to approximately 4 minutes. Without someone stepping in to bust the myth, in another 20-30 years you’d be reading how the fight didn’t recommence until the following day.

I don’t know that continuing with the torn glove would’ve done ‘Enry’s skin any favours either.

Finally, in Cooper’s defence, he played the re-telling out in lighthearted fashion, like a ripping yarn (true, I can’t help myself), as participant in an iconic moment (5 secs to be exact) in boxing history.

 

By stretching this myth, in the days before we could check out the fight for ourselves, Ali (through Dundee) and Cooper probably ensured themselves decent paydays in an otherwise routine easy title defense.

 

Loose ropes in Zaire.

That Dundee deliberately loosened the ropes.

Truth was, the ropes were the right size but the ring was about 3 feet too small. Prior to the fight, Dundee tightened the ropes as much as possible but they were still somewhat slack.

I think Foreman’s team tried to adjust the ropes during the fight or between rounds and Dundee screamed them away. This, of course, is all according to Dundee.

 

This one wasn’t so well circulated so I’d be VERY interested if anyone heard or read same.

I used to buy old boxing mags. I procured one particular mag. that was published in or around the time of the Liston-Martin fight. An article referencing the fight suggested there was suspicion surrounding the fight, viz: did Liston dive? I think it accented on how Liston was winning before the dramatic turn around.

I had yet to see the actual fight so I didn’t know any better. Years later when I saw the vision it was impossible to reconcile anyone writing such BS. It was as if they didn’t see the actual fight themselves and were talking out of their ass.

I guess without vision, and with the Ali fights in tow among many other negatives written about Sonny, he was always going to be the guy presumed guilty until proven innocent.

Johnson v Willard. Aside from the Lil Arthur’s dive claim, given the films went MIA for some years, descriptions of Willard’s KO of Johnson had Big Jess turning the trick with a right uppercut. Again, without vision, I guess scribes romantically defaulted to the KO shot as being Jess’ signature power punch - the right uppercut- the same one that apparently caused Bull Young’s death. Of course it was a big straight right hand that legitimately put Jack out, in round 26, no less.

Though Jack lost, the surviving film of the fight provided for some nice vision of Jack opening up with both hands. Excellent hand speed even at age 37 and definitely a fighter ahead of his time.

Edit: PS - this autocorrect is insane. I typed “hand speed” and when I submitted I got “hand apples”. I decided to correct it because I wasn’t sure if anyone could make the necessary leap of faith.

 

Old time articles in general:-

I don’t know how many times I’ve read punches landing that were so powerful they would’ve felled an OX or would’ve knocked out FIVE ordinary men but SOMEHOW didn’t render said fighter unconscious.

OR, fighters being out for a minimum
and mandatory 10 minutes after being KO’d. Inert, motionless, not a twitch, bereft of life, etc. LOL.

Even Ketchel, after the Johnson KO, was described as being OUT for an unseemly length even though we can clearly see on film Stanley beginning to stir not long after the completed count.