Boxer quotes thread

[Marchegiano]

I had to look this up because I didn't even think about that.

Weight lifting has been around since the Romans and ancient egyptians, though not the way we think of it. They would lift heavy objects such as stones or animals in feats of strength, in turn becoming bigger and more muscular. Modern weight lifting (from what I can tell) was first introduced in the 1896 Athens games. I'm assuming traveling carnivals and such featured strongmen as well during Corbett's time but would need to look more into it to know for sure. I don't have a date for the quote so it's hard to pin down.

I thought the term weightlifter itself comes from Eugene Sandow and Milo Steinborn in 1893. They both really impressed back then and are considered the modern fathers of strongman.

Prior there was guys like Milo of Croton who was celebrated for his rasslin and lifting heavy objects. It's doubtful no one used an equivalent term to weightlifter or weightlifting back then but as I know it Milo was said to be 'wrestling nature" when he was lifting

I hadn't ever heard of the term or an analog of the term dated prior to the Chicago fair Sandow and Steinborn performed in but I did give the Tribune a search and quickly found an 1892 article advertising weightlifting...I believe from Sandow and another. It's a side show for a play or some such similar styled sit and watch these theatrics from the ye olden.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72904496

Treats in Store for Chicago Theatergoers at the Local Playhouses. The Cyclops , and Sandowe Athletic and Specialty company will occupy the stage of the People's Theater for the week beginning this afternoon. The athletic portion of the entertainment will be supplied by Cyclops and Sandowe weight lifters, and Richards and Nieman, who are announced as the champion wrestlers of Germany and Bavaria. The specialties will bring forward Lew Hawkins, Mazuz and Albacco, Gertie Harrington, Herr von Block, Marguerite Newton, Emerson and Cook, Gladys Eversham, and Cohan and Mausly. " The South Before the-War " is the title of anew spectacle that will be offered the patrons

I'd assume the term's a bit older but can't prove it.

[Anthony342]

I thought the term weightlifter itself comes from Eugene Sandow and Milo Steinborn in 1893. They both really impressed back then and are considered the modern fathers of strongman.

Prior there was guys like Milo of Croton who was celebrated for his rasslin and lifting heavy objects. It's doubtful no one used an equivalent term to weightlifter or weightlifting back then but as I know it Milo was said to be 'wrestling nature" when he was lifting

I hadn't ever heard of the term or an analog of the term dated prior to the Chicago fair Sandow and Steinborn performed in but I did give the Tribune a search and quickly found an 1892 article advertising weightlifting...I believe from Sandow and another. It's a side show for a play or some such similar styled sit and watch these theatrics from the ye olden.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72904496



I'd assume the term's a bit older but can't prove it.

Interesting. Wrestler Aron Haddad, who currently performs under the name Aron Stevens for the NWA Power promotion, used the name Damien Sandow who it says on his Wikipedia page got the name from "sharing the surname of the Gold Dust Trio's Billy Sandow and the "father of modern bodybuilding" Eugen Sandow)"

[JAB5239]

'There is no doubt that man is a competitive animal and there is no place where this fact is more obvious than in the ring. There is no second place. Either you win or you lose. When they call you a champion, it's because you don't lose. To win takes a complete commitment of mind and body.'

- Rocky Marciano

[billeau2]

'There is no doubt that man is a competitive animal and there is no place where this fact is more obvious than in the ring. There is no second place. Either you win or you lose. When they call you a champion, it's because you don't lose. To win takes a complete commitment of mind and body.'

- Rocky Marciano

'There is no doubt that man is a competitive animal and there is no place where this fact is more obvious than in the ring. There is no second place. Either you win or you lose. When they call you a champion, it's because you don't lose. To win takes a complete commitment of mind and body.'

- Rocky Marciano

A bit of cross pollination:

Mas Oyama on KARATE, the essence of the art: "Get knocked down 9 times, get up 10."

Hatsumi Sensei on Bujinkan Ninpo Tia Jutsu (old systems of Japanese Ju Jutsu) " The character for Ninpo is the heart, and one must think of a sword slowly going through the heart and enduring. Survival is the ability to endure, and to thrive through enduring all that comes our way."

Bruce Lee: "One must not mistake the finger pointing to the moon, as the moon."
"My art is the art of no art, no preconceived patterns, habits. We use what works."

Most famous attributed to General Patton: "Fatigue makes cowards of us all."

[JAB5239]

'When I was a kid and I knocked a guy out, I would jump up and be excited. My mentor Cus D'Amato would say, Why are you excited? You anticipated this. Anything different would be a failure.'

- Mike Tyson

[JAB5239]

A bit of cross pollination:

Mas Oyama on KARATE, the essence of the art: "Get knocked down 9 times, get up 10."

Hatsumi Sensei on Bujinkan Ninpo Tia Jutsu (old systems of Japanese Ju Jutsu) " The character for Ninpo is the heart, and one must think of a sword slowly going through the heart and enduring. Survival is the ability to endure, and to thrive through enduring all that comes our way."

Bruce Lee: "One must not mistake the finger pointing to the moon, as the moon."
"My art is the art of no art, no preconceived patterns, habits. We use what works."

Most famous attributed to General Patton: "Fatigue makes cowards of us all."

Always liked these sayings...

[billeau2]

Always liked these sayings...

There are some real gems out there. Some of them convey particularly well in our language.

Two of my favorites do not flow off the tongue but I have held onto them my entire life. I will share them. The first is from a man like a second father to me, my Sensei, who introduced me to the martial arts, and who I studied with for about 15 years. Sensei Willie Ben. Sensei had a reputation for being a hellacious fighter. We didn't so much spar back in those days as fight. The prevailing logic being, If I get beat in house, I will learn and be in the hands of a brother. Really the clubs in Baltimore at that time were like Tongs... Dojo storming, tournaments erupting into big brawls, etc. Sensei was such an explosive fighter that the hair on arms and legs would stick up... you would feel terrified, it was like being pursued by a demon. Ive yet to meet in all my days someone who hit that exposively and that hard. What he did to me today would be considered child abuse lol. I had stitches, got a concussion, or two... its just the way it was back then. Other clubs would tend to steer clear of sensei because he was super polite, but always ready to throw down... I literally once saw him kick someone through a chain locked fire door lol. Anyway Sensei was doing it all so I could be the best I could be, when I started teaching and fighting I realized how easy it was for me... as someone who never aspired, or had the mindset of a fighter. Yet because of him I could handle virtually anything that came my way.

Sensei was often referred to as "crazy" in that respetful way like "this mfker is craaaaazy, don't mess with him" lol. Thing is... you could ask him anything and one day I remember asking him; "Sensei why do you think people are so scared of you, think your crazy?" He told me this and it has never left me:

" Most people in life examine why they do the things they do, I examine why people don't do the things they don't do."

You have to get context to grasp why this is an epiphany, it does not exactly roll off the proverbial tongue... Sensei was talking about when we get in a conflict involving life and death, why we put up barriers to what we will do to survive. He felt like you trained really hard because you needed to ultimately be willing to do anything to survive a conflict. he had found that students all had delusions, excuses, etc for things they would not do, yet would not ask themselves "why won't I do certain things?" We all construct certain barriers this way. It is why we can accept the proposition to fight in a ring, to maybe get into a street fight because someone does something... Because if we are truly able and willing to do anything to survive a conflict, we view these situations differently, and when we act we act with definite purpose.

[JAB5239]

'In the beginning, I fought for ten dollars a fight. Sometimes I was given a promise, nothing more. Guys like me, we were always marching, fighting, marching, fighting; and most of the time, it wasn't much fun. It didn't get to be fun until I began to make money, and nobody would give me a fight for the championship until I got old.'

- Archie Moore

[JAB5239]

'I like travelling because it gives me a chance to meet people and see different things. There are billions of people in the world, and every one of them is special. No one else in the world is like you. No one else looks the same. Everyone has two eyes and a nose and mouth and ears, but the way they're arranged makes their faces different. No two people are the same. Ain't that amazing? Billions of people, and every one of them is special.'

- Muhammad Ali

[JAB5239]

'I was a miner and I was a cowboy but mostly I was a hobo. I fought wherever I could, in school halls, outside saloons, any place they were putting up a purse. I once walked thirty miles across the desert to a town called Goldfield in Nevada so I could fight for twenty dollars.

I got beat a lot. I improved. But I remember the beatings I took. Once I got beat so bad they had to take me out of the ring in a wheelbarrow. Later some said I was a killer in the ring. They got that wrong. I killed nobody. But I took out other guys quick. That much is true. I got more one round knockouts than anybody, sixty knockouts in the first round.

I beat a good Heavyweight in New Orleans once in fourteen seconds. I knocked out Fred Fulton, six-foot-four, 250 pounds, in nineteen seconds. How come? Not because I was a killer. Other way round. I was always afraid that I'd be the one who was killed. Get 'em quick and you live to fight another day.'

- Jack Dempsey