“The two men who helped me most,” Tunney told me a few weeks ago, “were Jim Corbett and William Muldoon. It was Mr. Muldoon who gave me early encouragement when I needed it badly. He was also the one who gave me sound advice on physical conditioning and training." “What boxers need today,” Tunney said, “is variety of attack. Jack Dempsey didn’t need this so much with his devastating left hook. He could knock your head off with this one punch. And don’t forget that Jack was extremely fast. I had no such punch. So I needed variety, which Corbett gave me. At least Jim gave me the general idea. For Corbett had more variety than any one I’ve ever known." “After talking and working with Corbett I went to work on several types of punches. I mean by that the body uppercut, which few boxers had ever used. Most uppercuts are headed for the chin. There were several other punches I worked on, day after day. I might even say year after year. I made uene Tunney a close study oi the human body to find the most vulnerable parts. Especially the nerve centers. I had discovered that a punch delivered to some spots would have no effect—where the same blow a few inches away could cause trouble. Fitzsimmons applied this knowledge in his famous solar-plexus punch that left Corbett paralyzed for a minute or more. Six inches to the right or left, this punch would have had no such effect. "If Jim Corbett to whom I went for ring advice." "In my opinion there has only been one Corbett when it comes to the science of boxing. I boxed with Corbett when he was past 60. He would feint with his left hand—and then hit you with the left. Or he would feint with the left —and nail you with a right. There was no way to tell just what he was going to do. He could mix up more punches than any one I ever saw. Corbett not only had amazing hand and foot speed, but even more im portant he had a smart brain. Even at that age, Jim could really daz zle you. He could still keep you be wildered. So I can imagine what he must have been when he was 25 or 30 years younger. I can only say that Jim was always kind to me, always interested in helping.” "Judging a fight from the view point of blows that hit certain parts of the anatomy is something more than you can ask a referee or any judge to consider. And yet it is a vital factor. I’ve heard fight crowds cheer loudly at some solid thump on an opponent’s shoulder. This means nothing at all. It is just wasted effort, no matter how effective it may look to the crowd. There are only certain parts of the human body that give way to punishment. These are parts that few boxers today even know about. It was Corbett’s advice that led me to study these vulnerable spots. At least Jim proved to me beyond any doubt that boxing was more of a science than mere brute strength. A scientific boxer can make a crude fighter look awkward although the latter might be twice as strong. “I’ve found that few of these terrific punchers can hit a moving tar get who knows how to keep out of the way. You may recall how many punches Max Baer landed on Jim Braddock, who was no section of lightning. I don’t believe Max landed even one solid blow in 15 rounds. But Max couldn’t miss big Camera. Boxing is one of the finest and one of the most scientific sports in the world. It would be a great help to the game if a few of the modem generation coining along were only willing to work along these lines. Which so few of them are.” The Tri-county news (Grand Rapids, Ohio), June 28, 1945
Assuming this is legitimate -- it's so hard to tell, with so much ballyhoo and ghost writing for the general public -- it's consistent with other old timers who will talk about some Special Punch that they spent time perfecting, and which they traded and learned like secret techniques from a kung fu school. I don't know how much of this talk was just to play to the rubes, and how much was genuinely how they approached stuff. But you don't hear it as much from boxers anymore. Except for Ruddock's "Smash."
That’s what it reads like to me “Sensei’s ancient technique” Tunney is trying to embellish or bloat how he learnt to punch to the body he “scholarly studied anatomy” and met with Grand Master Corbett… eh too romantic I bet the first guys a long time before Corbett and Tunney just hit each other to the body trying to figure out where hurt most lol.
When you watch Corbett with the speed corrected, everything suddenly comes together. He is just a mass of feints. He has two hands, and two feet, and you can imagine his opponent trying to guess what any of his four limbs were going to do. Corbett was very beatable against the best of his era, but even when he lost, they usually got clowned.
