Although Thomas Sowell writes about old boxing matches to show how our society has changed for the worse, his article brought back fond memories of when I was in the fight game during the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Here are some of my firsthand observations and some of my opinions.
Joe Louis was indeed one of the most outstanding fighters in modern boxing history and he was a gentleman to boot. But the greatest modern heavyweight was Jersey Joe Walcott (Arnold Cream). Jersey Joe was so good that he could not get fights with any of the leading contenders. When the 37-year-old Walcott finally won the heavyweight championship, he was already well past his prime.
Here is a little known fact: When Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) fought Sonny Liston for the championship he was getting beat up so bad in the early rounds that he wanted to quit. His corner forced him to continue. Liston, who was out of shape and under the influence of heroin, petered out and the rest is history.
I used to sit with Rocky Marciano while we watched fighters sparring in Stillman’s Gymnasium after hours. What amazed me was how small Marciano was compared to other heavyweights. He was a real nice guy too.
Ali and Tyson, of course, were outstanding heavyweights, but had they fought Joe Louis or Jersey Joe Walcott in their prime, Muhammed and Mike would have been flat on their backs stargazing within a few rounds.
There were many great fighters during the pre-‘60s who would have put today’s fighters to shame. My pal Rocky Graziano was the hardest puncher pound for pound in modern boxing history. His three brutal fights with Tony Zale are boxing classics. Today’s fighters could only marvel at Sugar Ray Robinson who would have whipped their butts in a hot New York minute.
One of the greatest welterweights of all time was Carmen Basilio. When I met him at a promoter’s office, he had a so-so boxing record, losing almost as many fights as he had won. He told me he was determined to become champion and, through sheer fortitude and guts, he did achieve his goal. Basilio's fights with Gene Fullmer were also boxing classics.
Sowell writes about today’s dirty fighters. Hey, I’ve got news for him. So were yesterday’s fighters. Willie Pep (Guglielmo Papaleo), a great featherweight champion was one of the dirtiest fighters ever. But Sandy Sadler was the greatest featherweight of all times. The four fights he had with Pep were some of the most exciting fights ever held.
Sadler fought just as dirty as Pep. In their fights they would head-butt and elbow each other, throw illegal rabbit and kidney punches, and hit on the breaks. Their second fight, in which Willie won back his title in a bloody 15 round decision, took a lot out of Pep and he was never the same again. Dirty as they were inside the squared circle, Pep and Sadler were true gentlemen outside of the ring.
Despite a close friendship, in the first of their three fights, Tony Janiro repeatedly used his jab to thumb Graziano in the eyes. When the referee kept ignoring Rocky’s complaints, an exasperated Graziano leaped at his friend, draped him over the ropes and choked the shit out of the thumbing Janiro. Now that got the referee's attention.
As for the showboating Sowell writes about, I blame TV for that. These fools are playing to a TV audience by copying some of the juvenile antics of pro football players celebrating tackles and touchdowns.
As far as I am concerned, television ruined the fight game. Before the advent of TV fights, a boxer would have to have a winning record of 30 or more fights before he could get a semi-final bout or main event in Madison Square Garden. Today’s fighters get main events after only 10 fights, sometimes even less. Some boxers have been able to get championship bouts with less than 20 fights behind them. What does that tell you about today’s fighters?
Here is Sowell’s Townhall.com article:
OLD BOXING MATCHES
by Thomas Sowell
Townhall.com
December 29, 2009
Watching old boxing matches on DVDs tells us something about some of the ways in which American society has changed.
The first thing I noticed about the boxers back in the era of Joe Louis, from the 1930s into the 1950s, is that they all wore regulation boxing trunks and they didn't have tattoos. There was no trying to outdo each other with garish boxing trunks or wild tattoos. They didn't try to stare each other down when the referee was giving them instructions before the fight.
Seldom did any of these boxers go in for showboating during the fight. There was no denigrating the other fighter, either before or after the fight.
After Joe Louis knocked out an opponent, any comment he made was usually along the lines of "He's a good fighter and very game." Sometimes Louis would add, "He had me worried for a while," though there was seldom any real reason to worry.
One of the few fighters who did give Joe Louis a real battle, and who was ahead on points when Louis knocked him out, was Billy Conn. But, when Conn lost his balance in their much anticipated rematch, Louis simply let him regain his balance before continuing the fight. How many boxers today would do that, especially against someone who was a real threat?
Although Joe Louis was widely respected as a model of sportsmanship, he was by no means the only one who behaved like a gentleman in the ring. That became a norm that heavyweight champions after him tried to live up to, until the 1960s.
Early in his career, Louis was upset by Max Schmeling, who knocked him out. Although Schmeling was from Germany and some tried to depict him as a Nazi, Schmeling went over to help Louis to his feet after the knockout.
In their rematch, the first thing Max Schmeling did upon entering the ring was go over to Louis' corner to shake hands with him, even before going to his own corner. It was a gesture that distanced him from the Aryan supremacy interpretation of his victory over Louis that the Nazi regime in Germany had made after their first fight.
The loutish, loudmouth and childish displays that have become all too common today in boxing, as well as in other sports, began in the 1960s, like so many other signs of social degeneration.
What about the quality of the fighters themselves? There have been great fighters in both earlier and later times. Mike Tyson's one-round knockouts electrified many boxing fans but Joe Louis still holds the record for one-round knockouts in heavyweight championship fights.
The only way you can be sure who hit harder would be to be on the receiving end of their punches-- and none of the boxing pundits ever agreed to do that.
Louis' punches tended to be short and quick, but guys went down like they had been struck by lightning. When Louis knocked out Jimmy Braddock-- the "Cinderella Man"-- to win the championship, Braddock lay face down on the canvas without moving while he was counted out, and afterwards his handlers had to come out from his corner to get him back on his feet.
It was much the same story when Rocky Marciano won the championship from Jersey Joe Walcott. After a right to the jaw from Marciano, Walcott fell limp. As he fell, his arm got tangled in the ropes, so that Walcott fell forward, with the top of his head resting on the canvas. He was counted out in that position without moving a muscle-- and his handlers too had to come get him and revive him, before they could take him back to his corner.
How would the fighters of the past do against the bigger and heavier fighters of a later era? We will never know. What we do know is that Rocky Marciano, who was strictly a knockout fighter, never fought as heavy as 190 pounds and Joe Louis was at his best at no more than 200 pounds.
It is much easier to compare the referees. The old-timers didn't keep issuing warning after warning, for round after round. They penalized violations. More lax officiating may be why so many fights in recent times have had so many clinches and so much wrestling and dirty fighting.
That too is unfortunately a reflection of the general trends of our time.
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