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What Blackburn Taught Louis Part 1
By Monte Cox
Jack Blackburn is best known as the Hall of Fame trainer who developed Joe Louis, but he was also a great lightweight boxer who engaged in over 160 professional fights from 1901 to 1923. Although never a champion he faced some of the greatest fighters of all time. He fought the legendary lightweight champion Joe Gans, “The Old Master” three times, all time great Sam Langford six times, the skillful black welterweight Dave Holly five times, future light-heavyweight champion Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, and an up and coming Harry Greb, possibly the greatest middleweight ever. Blackburn defeated welterweight title claimants Jimmy Gardner and Harry Lewis and beat top middleweights like Jack Bonner and Mike Donovan. He even faced heavyweights such as Jim Barry and Gunboat Smith. Billy Rocap said the greatest fight he ever saw was Blackburn’s famous 15 round draw with Sam Langford in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Veteran historian Charley Rose rated Blackburn as the third greatest lightweight ever in his 1968 ratings.
Blackburn proved in his career that a good little man could indeed beat a good big man. He was a superb boxer with naturally brilliant timing and his mastery of distance, feinting, blocking and countering made him the consummate professional. He was also a fine strategist in the ring.
Blackburn used his vast experience and knowledge of the intricacies of the game to become a boxing trainer after his professional career ended. He developed four fighters who went on to become world champions: welterweight Jackie Fields, lightweight Sammy Mandell, bantamweight Bud Taylor, and heavyweight Joe Louis. Louis was his masterpiece, the fighter that he molded in the image of the great boxer-punchers of his day, the cool calculating Blackburn, Joe Gans and Sam Langford.
The great Langford thought highly enough of the young Joe Louis to compare him to the “Old Master” Joe Gans. The July 20, 1935 Chicago Defender reported, “Sam Langford, one of the greatest ringmen ever to pull on a glove paid Joe Louis the finest tribute when he said, “The Detroit Bomber is another Gans, whom I consider the greatest fighter of all time… He (Louis) can hit, he is fast and is no slouch at employing ring craft. I am glad I am still able to see enough to watch the boy. He is the marvel of the age.”
Joe Louis compiled an amateur record of 50-4 with 43 knockouts and won Detroit Golden Gloves titles and the National AAU Light-heavyweight championship in 1934. Louis trainers in the amateur ranks were Alter Ellis the owner of Brewster’s gym, Holman Williams the gym’s top fighter and a top contender from lightweight to middleweight, and George Slayton who ran the Detroit A.C. Williams was Louis main trainer guiding him in the basics of boxing. Ellis developed Louis jab into a weapon by tying his right hand to the corner of the ring and making him use just his left. In the later part of his amateur career George Slayton was his cornerman. Slayton introduced Joe to John Roxborough who would become one of Louis managers. Once Louis was ready to turn pro Jack Blackburn was hired as his chief trainer to develop Joe into a champion.
Blackburn came into Louis camp on June 25, 1934 and watched Joe spar. He saw that Louis had natural punching power, something that could not be taught, but he also saw that he was only a puncher at that time and still fairly green. Blackburn speaking of those early days with his young protégé said, July 20, 1935 Pittsburgh Courier, “Louis needed correction in everything except hitting. I had to teach him to back up his punches with the proper timing, accuracy and to instruct him in the proper art of balance. I trained him under the same methods I trained under when I was a fighter.”
Joe had natural speed and power but coming out of the amateurs he was dancing around and not planting his feet to punch with authority. Louis said in his autobiography Joe Louis My Life, “He (Blackburn) saw my faults right off. I was hitting off balance. He corrected this by showing me how to plant my feet and punch with my whole body, not just swinging my arms. He said people going to fights don’t want to see a dancer or a clincher –they want to see a man who goes for the guts. He said I had strength and that I could beat or knock out anybody I wanted to if I planted my body in the right position.”
The first week in training Blackburn did nothing but hold the heavy bag and give Louis instructions on how to throw his punches. Working for the first time in the ring with Joe, Blackburn’s early lessons were on how to block punches, how to block a left hook, how to block a jab, and how to forearm and elbow block body punches. As Louis began to progress he began to instruct Joe on how to place his punches to vital points and to set up his opponent’s by drawing and feinting, parrying and countering.
Blackburn put Louis threw the paces, teaching him what he needed to become a great fighter. Blackburn instructed Louis in the art of punching accurately telling him “One clean punch is better than a hundred punches.” He also told him “Negro fighters don’t go to town winning decisions. When you get into the ring, let your fists be the referee. Bide your time. Place your punches and knock your opponent out.” Blackburn taught Louis the art of finishing off an opponent. “Don’t get impatient. Take your time, but move right in. Don’t throw your punches wild, shoot ‘em in straight. Don’t give him a chance to come back.”
Knowing that Louis was a sure knock out puncher Blackburn decided to give Joe a vivid lesson in what it meant to be a heavy hitter. Waiting in the gym one day Blackburn attacked the unsuspecting Louis with a brick that he held in his fist and took a swing at Louis. Joe ducked and Blackburn slapped him with a counterpunch. “See what I’m trying to teach you? Pretend you got bricks in your fists, your opponent is going to duck and then you hit him with the other hand.” Jack Blackburn worked hard on teaching Louis how to put his punches together, “Hitting in boxing, like hitting in baseball, is got to be done in combinations to be effective.”
Joe Louis absorbed these lessons well becoming one of the finest combination punchers in boxing history. He was also perhaps the ring’s deadliest finisher. Writing in 50 Years at Ringside Ring magazine founder Nat Fleischer said that Louis was history’s deadliest fighter at finishing an opponent once they were hurt.
Joe Louis never fought in a preliminary. He fought in main events from the beginning of his career. Louis first opponent Jack Kracken was well scouted out by Blackburn. Louis was instructed to go to the body hard with his left, then wait and feint the same body punch. When his opponent dropped his guard to block, Louis came back with a left hook to the chin. The result was a first round knockout for Louis in his pro debut.
In his sixth pro fight against the hard hitting Alex Borchuk (aka Al Delaney), Louis took a terrific right hand punch in the second round that busted one of Louis molars. Blackburn told him sternly, “It’s your own fault. You should have stepped inside.” Then, Jack gave him instructions to move in, step up his attack and punch with both hands. Louis hurt Borchuk with a right to the heart near the end of the third. In the fourth he dropped Borchuk with a right hand to the jaw for a count of eight. Louis then opened up with a two-handed barrage dropping the Canadian hard to the canvas for the second time forcing the referee to stop the fight.
Two weeks later Louis was back in the ring for his seventh pro fight with tough Adolph Wiater, who became the first person to go the distance with the young Louis. Joe dropped Wiater in the first with a solid right hand but Wiater was up without a count. Wiater came back on the offensive in the next rounds. A hard right hand stunned Louis in the fourth. Louis was wobbly when he returned to his corner. But Louis recovered between rounds and came on strong to win the fight. It was after this fight that Blackburn said, “When Joe pulled through those ten rounds, I knew that I was handling a great fighter.”
By Monte Cox
Jack Blackburn is best known as the Hall of Fame trainer who developed Joe Louis, but he was also a great lightweight boxer who engaged in over 160 professional fights from 1901 to 1923. Although never a champion he faced some of the greatest fighters of all time. He fought the legendary lightweight champion Joe Gans, “The Old Master” three times, all time great Sam Langford six times, the skillful black welterweight Dave Holly five times, future light-heavyweight champion Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, and an up and coming Harry Greb, possibly the greatest middleweight ever. Blackburn defeated welterweight title claimants Jimmy Gardner and Harry Lewis and beat top middleweights like Jack Bonner and Mike Donovan. He even faced heavyweights such as Jim Barry and Gunboat Smith. Billy Rocap said the greatest fight he ever saw was Blackburn’s famous 15 round draw with Sam Langford in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Veteran historian Charley Rose rated Blackburn as the third greatest lightweight ever in his 1968 ratings.
Blackburn proved in his career that a good little man could indeed beat a good big man. He was a superb boxer with naturally brilliant timing and his mastery of distance, feinting, blocking and countering made him the consummate professional. He was also a fine strategist in the ring.
Blackburn used his vast experience and knowledge of the intricacies of the game to become a boxing trainer after his professional career ended. He developed four fighters who went on to become world champions: welterweight Jackie Fields, lightweight Sammy Mandell, bantamweight Bud Taylor, and heavyweight Joe Louis. Louis was his masterpiece, the fighter that he molded in the image of the great boxer-punchers of his day, the cool calculating Blackburn, Joe Gans and Sam Langford.
The great Langford thought highly enough of the young Joe Louis to compare him to the “Old Master” Joe Gans. The July 20, 1935 Chicago Defender reported, “Sam Langford, one of the greatest ringmen ever to pull on a glove paid Joe Louis the finest tribute when he said, “The Detroit Bomber is another Gans, whom I consider the greatest fighter of all time… He (Louis) can hit, he is fast and is no slouch at employing ring craft. I am glad I am still able to see enough to watch the boy. He is the marvel of the age.”
Joe Louis compiled an amateur record of 50-4 with 43 knockouts and won Detroit Golden Gloves titles and the National AAU Light-heavyweight championship in 1934. Louis trainers in the amateur ranks were Alter Ellis the owner of Brewster’s gym, Holman Williams the gym’s top fighter and a top contender from lightweight to middleweight, and George Slayton who ran the Detroit A.C. Williams was Louis main trainer guiding him in the basics of boxing. Ellis developed Louis jab into a weapon by tying his right hand to the corner of the ring and making him use just his left. In the later part of his amateur career George Slayton was his cornerman. Slayton introduced Joe to John Roxborough who would become one of Louis managers. Once Louis was ready to turn pro Jack Blackburn was hired as his chief trainer to develop Joe into a champion.
Blackburn came into Louis camp on June 25, 1934 and watched Joe spar. He saw that Louis had natural punching power, something that could not be taught, but he also saw that he was only a puncher at that time and still fairly green. Blackburn speaking of those early days with his young protégé said, July 20, 1935 Pittsburgh Courier, “Louis needed correction in everything except hitting. I had to teach him to back up his punches with the proper timing, accuracy and to instruct him in the proper art of balance. I trained him under the same methods I trained under when I was a fighter.”
Joe had natural speed and power but coming out of the amateurs he was dancing around and not planting his feet to punch with authority. Louis said in his autobiography Joe Louis My Life, “He (Blackburn) saw my faults right off. I was hitting off balance. He corrected this by showing me how to plant my feet and punch with my whole body, not just swinging my arms. He said people going to fights don’t want to see a dancer or a clincher –they want to see a man who goes for the guts. He said I had strength and that I could beat or knock out anybody I wanted to if I planted my body in the right position.”
The first week in training Blackburn did nothing but hold the heavy bag and give Louis instructions on how to throw his punches. Working for the first time in the ring with Joe, Blackburn’s early lessons were on how to block punches, how to block a left hook, how to block a jab, and how to forearm and elbow block body punches. As Louis began to progress he began to instruct Joe on how to place his punches to vital points and to set up his opponent’s by drawing and feinting, parrying and countering.
Blackburn put Louis threw the paces, teaching him what he needed to become a great fighter. Blackburn instructed Louis in the art of punching accurately telling him “One clean punch is better than a hundred punches.” He also told him “Negro fighters don’t go to town winning decisions. When you get into the ring, let your fists be the referee. Bide your time. Place your punches and knock your opponent out.” Blackburn taught Louis the art of finishing off an opponent. “Don’t get impatient. Take your time, but move right in. Don’t throw your punches wild, shoot ‘em in straight. Don’t give him a chance to come back.”
Knowing that Louis was a sure knock out puncher Blackburn decided to give Joe a vivid lesson in what it meant to be a heavy hitter. Waiting in the gym one day Blackburn attacked the unsuspecting Louis with a brick that he held in his fist and took a swing at Louis. Joe ducked and Blackburn slapped him with a counterpunch. “See what I’m trying to teach you? Pretend you got bricks in your fists, your opponent is going to duck and then you hit him with the other hand.” Jack Blackburn worked hard on teaching Louis how to put his punches together, “Hitting in boxing, like hitting in baseball, is got to be done in combinations to be effective.”
Joe Louis absorbed these lessons well becoming one of the finest combination punchers in boxing history. He was also perhaps the ring’s deadliest finisher. Writing in 50 Years at Ringside Ring magazine founder Nat Fleischer said that Louis was history’s deadliest fighter at finishing an opponent once they were hurt.
Joe Louis never fought in a preliminary. He fought in main events from the beginning of his career. Louis first opponent Jack Kracken was well scouted out by Blackburn. Louis was instructed to go to the body hard with his left, then wait and feint the same body punch. When his opponent dropped his guard to block, Louis came back with a left hook to the chin. The result was a first round knockout for Louis in his pro debut.
In his sixth pro fight against the hard hitting Alex Borchuk (aka Al Delaney), Louis took a terrific right hand punch in the second round that busted one of Louis molars. Blackburn told him sternly, “It’s your own fault. You should have stepped inside.” Then, Jack gave him instructions to move in, step up his attack and punch with both hands. Louis hurt Borchuk with a right to the heart near the end of the third. In the fourth he dropped Borchuk with a right hand to the jaw for a count of eight. Louis then opened up with a two-handed barrage dropping the Canadian hard to the canvas for the second time forcing the referee to stop the fight.
Two weeks later Louis was back in the ring for his seventh pro fight with tough Adolph Wiater, who became the first person to go the distance with the young Louis. Joe dropped Wiater in the first with a solid right hand but Wiater was up without a count. Wiater came back on the offensive in the next rounds. A hard right hand stunned Louis in the fourth. Louis was wobbly when he returned to his corner. But Louis recovered between rounds and came on strong to win the fight. It was after this fight that Blackburn said, “When Joe pulled through those ten rounds, I knew that I was handling a great fighter.”
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