Was smoking allowed in the boxing arenas in the past?

............They just didn't know. It's pretty revealing to learn that in the 1920's-1930's, many baseball players were turned onto cigarettes by their own managers and fellow players, as they thought it was a "safe alternative to chewing tobacco." atsch


Absolutely true, as daft as that seems now.

 

Clearly its bizarre to you, D, that they could have thought that then, but there was a time when everyone was convinced the Earth was flat.

Stick around long enough and you'll see every health notion turned on its ear.

It's like the scene in Woody Allen's "Sleeper" where doctors defrost him after 300 years and remark: "Wasn't that when they thought fried food, chocolate cake and candy was bad for you?"

We all know now that smoking affects wind. It beggers the mind to imagine how much better Pep could've been in his prime without a nail in his mouth all the time.

 

Wow, you paint an amazing picture. It's funny how much of history is in the details (working speedbag with cig in mouth). The old time boxers really were the best. :hat

 

Maybe if non smoking boxers were training in the same gym as smoking boxers then they'd be getting the same smoke anyway and therefore probably worse as they were probably affected more. Ever notice how a non-smoker gets irritated in a smoking room much quicker than a smoker? There body hasn't adjusted to it. Therefore in this world the non-smoking boxer probably had the disadvantage. What a crazy time, eh?

 

I use to go to Smokers...Army fights, where one saw a young Mercer or Bonecrusher Smith,and of course one smoked....and all the bars had ashtrays...
And what the hell is so hellish about tobacco smoke? The fighter wasn't smoking, everyone else was...
All fighters except Monzone didn't smoke durnig training.
Slapsy Maxi trained by going dancing until late in the morning, but didnt' drink or smoke....and got all that "second" hand smoke...didn't hurt him at all.

No non smolers don't get irritated by the smoke, it's all physological in that they are not being taken as seriouse as they take them selves.

 

2nd hand smoke does kill. Some people get cancer some dont, just like smoking or not smoking. Thats life.

Babe Ruth got cancer, were say Willie Mays didnt get cancer. Something like that.

 

It's not uncommon to see the cigarette smoke rising from various places around ringside on black and white film if you look closely.

 

Rocky Graziano regularly smoked before a fight-and people were much hipper/less apt to believe in bull**** like second hand smoke.

 

Today Pep would say something like this, John, "I only smoke to keep my weight under control."

 

Smoking was still in boxing arenas in the UK in the 2000s

 

Yes.. and it was permitted in some arenas as late as the 1980s.

 

This. I know in California the Clean Air Act in the 70’s resulted in many arenas not allowing smoking indoors anymore.

 

If old school boxer didn’t have to endure second hand smoke, Rocky would be 6’6 250lb.