“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
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.
Another article of Gene talking about Corbett: Tunney Recalls Lessons Learnt From A Master JIM CORBETT'S. BOOK REVIVES THE PAST "For me, this is less like review ing a. book than a revival of me mories," Tunrey wrote when he reviewed "The Roar of the Crowd." He added: "It is like a review of lessons learnt long ago." - And those profitably-learnt lessons of long ago were obviously taught by a man Tunney was proud to call a friend. In his review Tunney wrote: "I knew Jim Corbett well. He taught me much when I was a young boxer beginning a career, and illustrated the lessons with examples of his own great battles in the ring. The story of his life is necessarily woven around .those legendary contests. "'The Roar of the Crowd' was published first in 1925, and it is good to see it printed again, a brightly told tale of the most bril liant career in boxing history. '"Boxihg, that is, not mere fighting. There is a naivete in Corbett's narration when he revels respectfiully in his acquaintance with the sporting character; of the day, the mil lionaire horse-race men, the big-time poli ticians, the actors, the gambling-house op erators, but thire is nothing naive il, his recital of the strategies of the ring. "For example he tells how,;in his cham pionship match with John L. Sullivan, he was afraid of what might happen if, when dazed or tired, he were cornered by .the mighty John L ·Gene Tunney: . i.n pen:ive mood. Gene Tunney in pensive mood. Help ·Gene Tunney: . i.n pen:ive mood. Gene Tunney in pensive mood. Gene Tunney, the American ex-marine who took the heavy weight title on a night of blind ing rain in Philadelphia and later shocked the cognoscenti of the prize-ring by showing his talents for literature, has reviewed on old book-a popular one in its day-by his one-time friend, James J. Corbett. What Tunney learnt from Corbett he relates in this orticle. '"In the early rounds. when he was fresh. he deliberately allowed Sullivan to corner him and noted his pattern of action, how Sullivan attacked a cornered opponent. "Corbett backed into the corners repeat edly, with the champion in hot pursuit. -and worked out tactics for an emergency. "In his talks with me. Corbatt empha sised the importance of footvibrk. He would move around to illustrate, or take a pencil and paper and diagram the steps in a pugil istic manoeuvre. "He was like a ballet director plotting the steps for. Coppelia or Les Sylphides. "He told me that he had made it a prac tice to 'shadow dance,' as he called it, for one hour every day with no time out for rest. It was not for nothing that they called him the Dancing Master. "I found the lessons useful when 1 got into the ring with lack Dempsey. "In his 62-round fight with Pater Jack son, Corbett had to solve the problem of a dangerous one-two punch. InirThe Roar of the Crowd' he.ells how he met it. - "The great Negro pugilist would throw a left to the head, followed immediately by a savage right to the jaw or body. The Right A Killer "Corbett found that the left had little power, the right was the killer. So be ig nored the left, or, rather, he used it as a signal for a right counter of his own. 'Thus he would beat Jackson to the right hand punch, and the fast, powerful Negro was deprived of his best weapon. "That page reads 4ike a lecsson Corbett used to give me, as we would sit and talk. "In my, bout with Tom Gibbons, I had to solve a problem of deception. Gibbons was expert at feinting, talmost a lost art nowadays. . "He would feint with his left, once, twice, a third time-you never knew how many times-but inched closer each time until his opponent pawed out with a left as a defen sive gesture. "It was then that Gibbons slipped in with a paralysing left upper-cdit to the liver (the most painful blow in boxing) or left hook to the jaw. "I noted that, when. he feinted just be fore throwing the left, he, would advance his left foot. It was like a signal for the real thing "Thiroughout the fight I watched his left foot, and when it came forward with the feint, I would drive a one-two (straight left followed instantly by a straight right) to the jaw, then move out of range after beating him to the punch. Gontlenan Jim, the man who in 1892 Hwon the head wieight championship from John L. Sullihan and became the first of the wiorld champions under Queensberry rules. Help Gontlenan Jim, the man who in 1892 Hwon the head wieight championship from John L. Sullihan and became the first of the wiorld champions under Queensberry rules. "It was interesting to read his account of how he lost his first bout with James J. Jeffries. "I remember how he used to tell me about it as a comedy. It was an irony of vanity. Cor bett was the great exponent of mentality in boxing. "'His book abounds in ex amples of quick wit, especially the exploitation of the tem peramental weakness of an op ponent. But he fell a victim to his own temperamental weak ness. He had the vanity,of the - theatre. "Meeting Jeffries, he had vic tory inr his grasp. For 23 rounds he out-boxed the pow erful champion, and gave him a severe beating. "In the 23rd round Jeffries backed him to the ropes. This had happened repeatelly, with Corbett slipping away easily and hitting Jeffries virtually at will. "But this time his attention failed. His mind was away on something else and he -never saw the knock-out left that stretched him out for the count. He was thinking of the banner he would have in front of the theatre in huge letters: 'James J. Corbett, again the heavyvbeight champion of the world.' ' "Even if he did not win the championship hack, Corbett was one of the most intelligent (if not the most intelligent) and courageous great men of ring history." https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/49621490
