Classic Boxing Fights

Legendary heavyweight champion Louis took on the Pittsburgh Kid Conn at the Polo Grounds. Giving away at least 25 pounds, Conn was the heavy (or should that be light?) underdog but proceeded to outbox Louis. Boxing historian Bert Sugar wrote that, “Conn could block punches with his arms, elbows and gloves, and further nullify his opponents’ punches by ‘rolling’ with them.” By the eighth round, dehydration had set in on Louis and by the 12th he was completely exhausted with Conn ahead on two of the scorecards (Louis later admitted in his autobiography that he rested up toward the end of his training schedule because “I didn’t want them to say in the papers that I beat up on some little guy”). Conn got cocky in the 13th and tried to finish Louis off; but by going for the KO, he exposed his impressive defense, was caught by his opponent and was counted out with two seconds left in the round. Let that serve as a lesson to underdogs everywhere.

Read more: http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2010/04/17/top-10-boxing-matches-of-all-time/#joe-louis-vs-billy-conn-june-18-1941#ixzz1v58mEx2N

Benn vs McClellan

McClellan moved up in weight to challenge WBC super middleweight champion Nigel Benn in London on February 25, 1995. The fight was watched by an estimated 17 million people on television and 10,300 paying spectators.[2]

McClellan dropped Benn, who went out of the ring in round one. They continued battling, but the fight had a devastating ending. McClellan knocked Benn down again in the eighth round but Benn was able to continue and after enduring numerous punches from Benn, McClellan slumped to one knee in round ten.[3] He took the mandatory eight count, resumed boxing, but soon dropped to his knee for a second time. He was counted out. He returned to his corner but appeared to be unable to stand and lost consciousness. McClellan briefly regained consciousness in the ambulance and ripped off his oxygen mask.

[edit]Aftermath

McClellan had emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. He spent eleven days in a coma and after which, he was found to have suffered extensive brain damage. He lost his eyesight, the ability to walk unassisted and became 80 percent deaf. Sports Illustrated ran an article about the fight and its outcome one week after the fight. McClellan's family flew to be by his side, and later he was flown back to his home country. He has recently recovered some ability to walk, being helped by a cane, but he has not recovered his eyesight. In addition to being blind and almost deaf, his short-term memory was also profoundly affected. His three sisters, particularly Lisa McClellan, are responsible for his care. He has been the honoree at numerous banquets and award ceremonies, and fellow boxing world champion Roy Jones Jr., often pointed as a possible rival during the 1990s (indeed, McClellan actually beat Jones as an amateur), set up a foundation to help McClellan. Nigel Benn himself has also helped to raise funds for McClellan's treatment, and the two men would meet again for the first time since their bout at a fundraiser held in London on February 24, 2007. Several items were auctioned off at the event and a total of £200,000 was raised.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_McClellan

Fisticuffa wrote:

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/Joe_Louis_vs._Billy_Conn_(1st_meeting)

Legendary heavyweight champion Louis took on the Pittsburgh Kid Conn at the Polo Grounds. Giving away at least 25 pounds, Conn was the heavy (or should that be light?) underdog but proceeded to outbox Louis. Boxing historian Bert Sugar wrote that, “Conn could block punches with his arms, elbows and gloves, and further nullify his opponents’ punches by ‘rolling’ with them.” By the eighth round, dehydration had set in on Louis and by the 12th he was completely exhausted with Conn ahead on two of the scorecards (Louis later admitted in his autobiography that he rested up toward the end of his training schedule because “I didn’t want them to say in the papers that I beat up on some little guy”). Conn got cocky in the 13th and tried to finish Louis off; but by going for the KO, he exposed his impressive defense, was caught by his opponent and was counted out with two seconds left in the round. Let that serve as a lesson to underdogs everywhere.

Read more: http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2010/04/17/top-10-boxing-matches-of-all-time/#joe-louis-vs-billy-conn-june-18-1941#ixzz1v58mEx2N

This is the only footage left (about half the fight but includes stuff from all rounds) I believe of this classic.

9. Floyd Patterson vs. Ingemar Johansson 3. Mar 13th, 1961. Miami Beach, Fl. Result: Patterson KO 6.

This was the rubber match in the Patterson-Ingo series. Floyd was destroyed by the Swede's "toonder and lightning" right hand punch in the first fight. Patterson became the first man in history to regain the title in the rematch with a crushing left hook that left Johannson's foot freakishly twitching as he was counted out on his back. The final fight would prove to be the best. Ingemar seemed to pick up where he left off in the first fight dropping Patterson twice in round one and looked to be on his way to a sure knockout victory. Johannson had landed both sizzling right hands over Floyd's left jab. After getting up from the second knockdown Floyd abandoned his jab and slammed home a terrific left hook that knocked down Johnannson. After that Patterson came on with a strong body attack that wore down Johnannson. In the 6th round, Johansson caught Patterson with a solid right. But the power in Ingemar's punches was gone. Patterson won the fight in the 6th round with a right hand turning the trick this time.

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/10heavyweight.html

Johan Lofgren wrote:Ingemar, our only swedish HW champ

Wolfman wrote:

Johan Lofgren wrote:Ingemar, our only swedish HW champ

Unfortunately he was really out of shape in that fight, but he did a good job, and in the other fights they had too. winning the first and almost getting there in the others. I heard him and Patterson became good friends and visited each other every year after that.

Valdes had the title shot against Marciano right there waiting for him in the summer of 1954, but he ended up blowing the shot due to back-to-back unimpressive performances against unranked fighters like Archie McBride and James Parker.

The unimpressive performance versus McBride, which was a hometown SD that was boo'd by the Cuban spectators, dropped him in the rankings and elevated Charles to the top spot in the rankings. But Valdes was still considered for the September title shot against the winner of Marciano-Chares, but the lackluster effort against Parker took him out on the running completely, including according to the New York Boxing Commission's chairman, Bob Christenberry, in the state that would have hosted the fight.

"Off last night's effort we can't consider him a worthy challenger because Valdes did not display the ability of a challenger. We will not consider him as an opponent for the winner of the June 17th title between Rocky Marciano and Ezzard Charles" and "We will return to Valdes his $5,000 challenger's check next week."

- so said Christenberry immediately after the Valdes-Parker bout

The $5,000 was posted by Valdes in Dec of 1953 when he was orginally named the #1 contender to the title.

Some boxing fans make the mistake that, because Valdes is listed as the top ranked contender in both the 1953 and 1954 Ring annuals, they assume he was the top contender for two years running. He wasn't and not nearly. Had the position from Dec of 1953 to Feb of 1954, then lost it to Charles due to the McBride performance. Valdes then regained the position when The Ring released their rankings in late Sept of 1954. At most, he held the position for only five or maybe six months tops during those two years.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f53/when-did-catch-weight-fighter-pickin-start-1624261/

He gave D'Arcy some addresses of old gyms down near the Battery, where the old pugs hung out, and introductions to people like Nat Fleischer, scribbled on the back of his card. Gene Tunney was in town, he said. He had a fancy for Australia, maybe because his pen company, Eversharp, did so well there, so go see him. Like most people in the States, Jimmy Breslin referred to Les Darcy as " allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"Less." The forename Leslie seems rare, and, from the beginning, Americans often thought the boxer's name was short for Lester. In the newspapers of 1917, he is repeatedly referred to as Lester Darcy. Gene Tunney, however, had the name right. He looked like the kind of man who would make sure of the accuracy of anything he pronounced upon.

Dignified, astute, probably 60 or 50, Tunney still had the open-faced charm of the classic "college boy" boxer who took the heavyweight championship from Jack Dempsey in 1926. He was kindly, too, and talked for some time about Darcy.

"I think you'll find that he's well remembered in this country," Tunney said. "He was not only a boxing prodigy, a nonpareil, but he incarnated the hero principle as well. Young gladiator stuff. He was just a kid when he defeated some of the best middleweights this century ever produced. "If he had lived - to 24, say - he would have been a marvel of marvels. As it was, I would call him the best middleweight of all time. See if Mr Dempsey doesn't agree with me."

We walked down to Jack Dempsey's unpretentious restaurant, near 49th St. D'Arcy said, "I hope that the old Les heard that."

I said, "I hope the old Jack offers us a cup of coffee." We were nearly always ravenous, for we had just enough money to get by.

Thank God, the old Jack offered us a hamburger along with the coffee. Meeting him was an event for me, for he had been my father's criterion of manhood. As a child, I had constantly heard horses, dogs, pigs and Maoris described as "game as Jack Dempsey," "wild as Jack Dempsey," "hungry as Jack Dempsey."

And here he was, not only my father's but Gene Tunney's hero principle, in the flesh. In some mysterious way a hero resonates with the public; you can feel it sure as you can tell heat from cold. Dempsey helped us understand the Darcy myth. Tunney, of course, understood it well. He had defeated Dempsey twice, and the public never forgave him for it.

Flawlessly dressed, mighty paws manicured, with sleek jaguar head and Inca eyes, Dempsey chatted to us hospitably about his life as hobo, fighter, restaurateur and "Less" Darcy.

"Never saw him myself. There was a possibility we'd meet, you know, when it became obvious that Carpentier wasn't going to come fight him. So some of my handlers went to Goshen, where he gave an exhibition spar with Fred Fulton.

"Believe, me, Fred was a dinosaur, a nice dinosaur but twice as big as Less. But Less skittled him. He was one hell of a fighter. They sold him a bill of goods, Less. He got sick and I think he died of a broken heart.

"Who are we to say about the way he left Australia? Easy to throw stones. I was called a slacker later, and so was Jess Willard."

"Do you think you'd have licked him, Jack?"

"I reckon. But I tell you this straight: I'm working on the saying that a good big man can always beat a good little man. Less and I were the same age bar a few months, but he was giving away nearly 45 lb in weight, and nearly 7 inches in height. But, who knows? He was a game boy, I wish I could have shook him by the hand."

http://www.darcy-niland.com.au/LesDarcy.html

rezin wrote:From the above video (Darcy vs Chip) "This was Darcy's 14th fight in the space of 12 months..."

20 round fights. Not that they all went the distance but nonetheless, 20 round fights.

His fight before this one, went the full 20 apparently and was 3 weeks away.

These days 3 months of training seems to be the standard before a fight, usually after a vacation.

Unfortunately, my big gates did more to commercialise fighting than anything else in pugilistic history. They transformed boxing into a big-time business. As a commercial enterprise, the fight-game began attracting people who knew little or nothing about self-defense. Hoping to make quick money, they flocked into boxing from other fields.
They came as promoters, managers, trainers and even instructors. Too often they- were able to crowd out old-timers because they had money to invest, because they were better businessmen, or merely because they were glib-talking hustlers. They joined the gold rush in droves- dentists, doctors, lawyers, restaurant proprietors, clothing manufacturers, butchers, grocers, bookies, racket guys, and pool-hall hangers-on. Fellows who never tossed a fist in their lives became trainers. They mistaught boys in gymnasiums. Those mistaught youths became would-be fighters for a while; and when they hung up their gloves, they too became instructors.
It was only natural that the tide of palooka experts should sweep into the amateur ranks, where lack of knowledge among instructors today is as pathetic as among professional handlers. And that's not the worst. Too many amateur instructors have forgotten entirely that the purpose of boxing lessons is to teach a fellow to defend himself with his fists; not to point him toward amateur or professional competition with boxing gloves. To a menacing extent the major purpose of fistic instruction has been by-passed by amateur tutors who try to benefit themselves financially, indirectly or directly, by producing punchless performers who can win amateur or professional bouts on points.
Not one youth in fifty has any ambitions to become a professional fighter when he first goes to an instructor. That's particularly true among college and high-school lads. Yet the instructors continue-teaching boys to become "smart" boxers instead of well-rounded fighters. And that's a downright shame, for punch is absolutely essential in fist-fighting and it's an invaluable asset in amateur or professional boxing. Actually, it's stupid instead of smart instruction to teach other fighting movements to a boy before he has been taught to punch.
Because of this commercial, win-on-a-point-as-soon-as-possible attitude among modern instructors, the amateur and professional ranks today are cluttered with futile "club fighters" and "fancy Dans." In the professional game there are so few genuine fighters that promoters find it almost impossible to make enough attractive matches to fill their boxing dates...

That geographic investigation of my own technique really humbled me. It hit me right on the chin with the booming fact that since I was six years old, I'd had the opportunity to learn punching from a long parade of guys who had studied it. I had absorbed their instructions, their pointers, their theories, in Manassa, Montrose, Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Goldfield, Tonopah, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Paul, and many other cities-before I met Willard at Toledo.

And let me emphasize that in the days when I was drinking in all that information, the fighters, trainers and managers knew much more about punching than they generally know today. You must remember that when I fought Willard in 1919, it was only twenty-seven years after Jim Corbett had beaten John L. Sullivan at New Orleans in the first championship fight with big gloves. While I was coming up, the technique of the old masters was still fresh in the minds of the fighting men. Now, it is over thirty years since the day I fought Willard. During those years fighting became "big business"; but in the scramble for money in the cauliflower patch, the punching technique of the old masters-Sullivan, Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, Tommy Ryan, Joe Gans, Terry McGovern, and others- seems to have been forgotten.

http://stickgrappler.tripod.com/box/dempseycfbook.html

Fisticuffa wrote:
One of the reasons they fought so frequently in the old days was they had to get paid, there was no TV or PPV. But they fought a lot of sub par opposition mixed in with quality opposition. The advantage to this was that they were almost always in fighting shape.

Guys with no HBO or Showtime deals like Pongsaklek Wonjongkam still fight quiet frequently these days: