They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. How many times have we heard that age-old adage? Every boxing son of every boxing father has probably heaved a heavy sigh whenever dear old dad has uttered the famous words.
Those fellas from days gone by had to fight a far greater number of battles, the old sages will tell you. They had to be tougher because the competition was so much greater and far more intense. They had to fight over longer distances with lighter gloves and often suffer terrible punishment. By God, laddie, they didn’t stop a fight if you got a nose bleed in those days!
Let us pause right there, which is about the point when I would start nodding off as a teenager when my own father went on a roll with one of his ‘glory days’ lectures. Can you spot any untruths in the words above? Any unreasonable exaggeration?
As I matured and took the trouble to delve into the training methods and boxing techniques of the old masters, so I realised that they did indeed represent a breed apart. They simply had to be in the peak of condition, it’s that simple. Half measures wouldn’t get the job done in the era of Jim Jeffries and Bob Fitzsimmons, any more than they would do in the times of Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano.
Throughout that long, golden age when boxing teemed with competition and the sounds of bags being punched echoed on every street in every major town, aspiring boxers needed to commit themselves to their discipline totally or be crushed in the stampede. There is nothing misty-eyed about this. It is a plain, cold truism, a law of much harder times. A boxer with a roll of suet hanging over his waistband would be quickly found out. A fighter taking a layoff would be quickly forgotten and kicked down the greasy pole by those looking to scramble ahead of him.
Just recently, my good pal and fellow historian, Mike Hunnicut, sent me a teasing little message. Said Mike: “The story goes, although I can’t confirm it, that Battling Nelson would shadow box for 40 rounds with a pair of 10lb dumbbells.”
Well, I’ve heard that story too and I can’t confirm it either. But I can believe it of Nelson. The Durable Dane was an astonishingly hard man, too much so for his own good. He and Ad Wolgast might have killed each other in their Homeric battle at Point Richmond, but for their incredible toughness and conditioning.
Accompanying this article on our Newswire is a famous picture of Jack Dempsey, where Manassa Jack is flexing his muscles and showing off his formidable back. And what a back! It resembles solid steel coated in bronze paint. Some while ago, on one of those zoo-like boxing forums that thankfully hover in a different galaxy from the CBZ, an excitable youngster stopped talking about Shannon Briggs for a few minutes and exclaimed to his pals: “Hey, have you seen that picture of Dempsey that’s just gone up? Unbelievable! Look at his muscle definition! I’ve never seen anything like that!”
Of course he hadn’t. Dempsey’s wonderful physique was hewn from hard times, hard old-fashioned training and Lord knows how many unofficial street brawls against toughs who would come to test his mettle. Why does that picture of Jack’s back continue to elicit gasps? Because it is wholly NATURAL. His muscles look as muscles should do, not like cartoon balloons. There is nothing overstuffed or bulked up about that great body. It is the body of a true athlete. Look at the muscles of many boxers and bodybuilders today and you feel that they would burst if you stuck a pin in them – as indeed they often do when the individual has been quaffing the wrong potions for too long.
The Dempsey picture reminded me of some other great photographs I have in a real old gem of a book. In 1927, Ring editor Nat Fleischer published his ‘Training for Boxers’ manual and I am fortunate to own a 1960 edition, with a foreword by Jack Dempsey. The book is a priceless and educative trip back in time.
Writes Dempsey: “Conditioning is the most important factor in the life of a boxer. He may be as clever as Jim Corbett and Young Griffo rolled into one. He may be able to hit as hard as a Jeffries. But if he lacks conditioning, all these attributes mean very little. The first blows of the opposition will wear him down and his own first efforts will leave him puffing and panting.
“To attain condition the boxer must train. And here we come to a very important subject. There are all sorts of ways to train and attain condition. And too many of these ways are either absolutely wrong, or they are so old and antiquated as to become useless.”
Flicking through the pages of Fleischer’s terrific little manual, one striking impression is immediate. Everyone is out in the open air. Jack Johnson strengthens his shoulder by carrying a heavy log. Freddie Welsh chops wood. Battling Nelson, typically, clambers up a steep mountain and follows up with a spot of hurdling. Johnny Kilbane plays leapfrog in Central Park. Luis Angel Firpo ‘chins the bar’ whilst hanging from a tree. Dempsey swims in a lake, rows a boat, slugs baseballs and strengthens his arms and abdominal muscles by working a water pump. Abe Attell climbs a tree. Ad Wolgast lifts a heavy trunk to develop his shoulders, arms and thighs. Jim Jeffries strengthens his mighty body still further by wrestling.
Essential
Wrestling? Yes indeed. Here was a vital and essential component in the training manual of the great fighters of the past. Jeffries was a very able wrestler, as was Dempsey, who was greatly admired and respected by the great grapplers of his day. Historian Tracy Callis offers us some valuable opinions on this subject. Says Tracy: “Personally, I believe that whatever exercises one does is an aid to the physical well-being of the individual and improves the energy level. So I will not criticise techniques that are utilised to train boxers today.
“Instead I will only say that stronger attention needs to be given to a few areas that appear to be deemed less important today. A number of old approaches have been abandoned in favour of the more direct needs, and I speak primarily of wrestling. This process places stress on the muscles of the body in all the right places – arms, legs, shoulders, back and also requires the body to manoeuvre and stay balanced as it deals with opposition.
“A boxer wrestling is similar to a football player doing push-ups. Why does he do this when push-ups are not done during the game when it is played? This was done to build overall body strength, stamina, body control and balance as one manoeuvres. The various muscles learn to work together in an entirely different way from boxing techniques. They are engaged differently and learn to complement each other so as to maintain leverage and power, even when tired. This activity increases the internal body chemistry that enables prolonged performance. When this chemistry is not present, the stamina component is greatly reduced.
“All too often in today’s ring, heads collide and one man comes away with a gashed forehead and fights the swelling and blood the rest of the contest. Sometimes the injury is worse than a gash. On occasion, a nose is bashed or the gore is simply too great to allow the fight to continue. Fighters are taught to step into their punches, but not enough time and technique is spent on how to attack and at the same time avoid that clash of heads that might occur. This art was a primary task in the days of old. First things first. Attack, yes, but not recklessly – not at the expense of cracking a noggin and possibly losing the fight.
“To the Neanderthal, whose dome is made of iron, the head butt can be a winning technique. ‘Ring those chimes’ with that ‘bowling ball head’ and bring home the bacon. Many a talented fighter in the past used this weapon to his advantage. To watch out for, to avoid, to attack aggressively but not to the extent of getting beaned – was the method of the day. Today’s men would profit from more work in this area.
“Almost always, in a heavyweight fight today, at least one man’s belly hangs over his shorts. It sadly reminds one of the daily visitors to the local beer pub. What a soft spot for a heavy hitting body attack! Several rounds after the bout begins, these same fellows are panting, mouths open and gasping for breath. Not only are their fighting skills diminished at this point but they are victims for the taking – plodding around, likely flat-footed and barely mobile.
“To quote a famous football coach, ‘Poor conditioning makes cowards of us all’. It’s true to boxing too and this is a major reason for the lack of top quality heavyweights in today’s ring.”
