Championship Fighting by Jack Dempsey

[billeau2]

http://bmsi.ru/issueview/50fc5c79-9b3d-43d8-b013-05838f82720e/files/jack%20dempsey%20

Hi guys, just wondering if any of you have ever read this book. I have managed to get hold of a PDF version. It has some top quality information and is very interesting. I'm sure I can use some of the things he say's in it for when i'm boxing.

Here are some of the first things that he says in the book.

"What would happen if a year-old baby fell from a fourth-floor window onto the head of a burly truck driver, standing on the sidewalk?
It's practically certain that the truckman would be knocked unconscious. He might die of brain concussion or a broken neck.
Even an innocent little baby can become a dangerous missile WHEN ITS BODY-WEIGHT IS SET INTO FAST MOTION."

"You can launch your body-weight into fast motion; and, like dynamite, you can explode that hurtling weight against an opponent with a
stunning, blasting effect known as follow-through."

"Cowboy Jess was heavyweight champion of the world, and he was a giant. Moreover, he was a perfectly proportioned giant. He was every
inch an athlete. He tapered down beautifully from derrick-like shoulders, and his muscles were so smooth you could scarcely see them rippling
under his sun-tanned skin. He towered six feet, six inches and a quarter. He weighed 245 pounds. In comparison I shaped up like an infant or a
dwarf although I nudged past six feet and scaled 180 pounds. My weight was announced as 187 pounds; but actually I registered only 180."

"EXPLODING BODY-WEIGHT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT WEAPON IN FIST-FIGHTING OR IN BOXING. Never forget that! I was at my
peak as a fighter the day I met Willard under the broiling Toledo sun. My body-weight was moving like lightning, and I was exploding that weight
terrifically against the giant. Even before the first round was finished, Willard looked like the victim of a premature mine blast."

Sorry if anyone has already posted this, I've done a search and couldn't find owt! Anyway I would advice anyone interested in techniques of old to have a read of this! Truly is awesome!

This book does come up and inevitably like yourself someone starts another thread about it...And damn good that they do! in the pantheon of treatises about combat coming out of America, two of the best are Jack's book and the Tao of Jeet Kun Do by Bruce Lee.

Great book, shows an excellent understanding of power dynamics and application in boxing. You can see in other boxing arts as well the verocity of Jack's theories. In Chinese boxing styles such as Hsin Yi, they step in and time the punch so the foot hits at the same time. Same idea that Jack is working with regarding the weight and the punch.

For anyone wanting this book, its an incredible read and here is a link:

http://bmsi.ru/issueview/50fc5c79-9b...20fighting.pdf

[escudo]

I've read it and Jack certainly knows and understands power punching like very few other men ever to live. That is his focus and that is his goal. His entire style and philosophy of fighting is built around it. But I feel like for the most part he felt that way because he had a gift for it.

Would I read a Roy Jones book advocating constant lead left hooks and elaborate 10 punch combinations? Your damn right I would but I wouldn't base my style around it because I am just not that fast.

Everything he advocates and uses works for him because he has that natural gift for power but I feel like he undervalues the non-committed jab as a tool to land other power punches because for a guy with his particular body and skill set there was not really a need to develop one, his speed and power carried him through. The power jab was what worked for him because he was Jack Dempsy. I'm not Jack Dempsy and neither are you. Tunney beat him largely using jab and grab techniques and part of that is because of Dempsy's use of the left "jolt" as he called it. The fraction of a second it takes to transfer all that weight meant Tunney could land his non-committed punch and clinch him.

Dempsy followed Bruce Lee's doctrine of "Use what works and discard what doesn't" and made a style perfectly tailored to his attributes, most high level fighters do. His philosophy gets filtered through a body which was perfectly suited for power punching and could take one as well. It's just that a lot of what worked for him is going to be far less effective for a featherfist or a guy with a less sound chin.

That said, read it. It's an awesome book that can really help you to understand the mindset of a power puncher and add a bit of it to your own game. But remember, YOU ARE NOT JACK DEMPSY. Take what works for you and discard the rest. Just like Jack did.

[The Old LefHook]

Yes, I have read the book before. It is the best exegesis on power punching that exists.

[billeau2]

I've read it and Jack certainly knows and understands power punching like very few other men ever to live. That is his focus and that is his goal. His entire style and philosophy of fighting is built around it. But I feel like for the most part he felt that way because he had a gift for it.

Would I read a Roy Jones book advocating constant lead left hooks and elaborate 10 punch combinations? Your damn right I would but I wouldn't base my style around it because I am just not that fast.

Everything he advocates and uses works for him because he has that natural gift for power but I feel like he undervalues the non-committed jab as a tool to land other power punches because for a guy with his particular body and skill set there was not really a need to develop one, his speed and power carried him through. The power jab was what worked for him because he was Jack Dempsy. I'm not Jack Dempsy and neither are you. Tunney beat him largely using jab and grab techniques and part of that is because of Dempsy's use of the left "jolt" as he called it. The fraction of a second it takes to transfer all that weight meant Tunney could land his non-committed punch and clinch him.

Dempsy followed Bruce Lee's doctrine of "Use what works and discard what doesn't" and made a style perfectly tailored to his attributes, most high level fighters do. His philosophy gets filtered through a body which was perfectly suited for power punching and could take one as well. It's just that a lot of what worked for him is going to be far less effective for a featherfist or a guy with a less sound chin.

That said, read it. It's an awesome book that can really help you to understand the mindset of a power puncher and add a bit of it to your own game. But remember, YOU ARE NOT JACK DEMPSY. Take what works for you and discard the rest. Just like Jack did.

Interestingly enough it seems that at the time jack wrote this there was a tendency for guys in men's clubs with gyms to put on very large "mufflers" (gloves) and love tap each other. Apparently he was partially also reacting to that trend.

[ShoulderRoll]

When I first read it I was surprised at how technical it was. I had been led to believe that the old timers were crude brawlers and that modern boxing was the highest evolution of the sport.

Come to find out that today's fighters have lost a lot of the knowledge that was once known.

[billeau2]

When I first read it I was surprised at how technical it was. I had been led to believe that the old timers were crude brawlers and that modern boxing was the highest evolution of the sport.

Come to find out that today's fighters have lost a lot of the knowledge that was once known.

From my basic research so far it appears that every epoche of boxing is misunderstood the same way. So I have started to use this section to "bounce" off ideas and try to find seminal fighters and fights that give us an indication for what was really going on. This process is difficult because people have to know what to look for...In martial arts when we demonstrate a technique we always do so under ideal circumstances but we know that this is not how it will actually look. One has to know what to look for...there are guys on youtube who do a great job pointing out these things to look for with great fighters.

There were technically fabulous fighters from all periods of boxing. As Ray Corso has said boxing underwent a period of great technical progress with trainers that came up, some as fighters, in the older system. Guys like Blackburn, who trained Louis and the guy who straightened out Marciano (forgot his name), etc.

To get an idea about technique and application pre classical times, watch the film with Tunney and Corbett. Corbett explains with physical activity, some of the finer points of boxing technique pre modern times. To watch a comparison between the two systems watch the Tunney Dempsey fights...Tunney is amazing because he represents the epitome of a technician from the older system....of course he also incorporates new technique as well, but one can see him using what Corbett taught him against the modern Dempsey.

Dempsey was a modern fighter. His methods are grounded in the same fundamental distancing, stancework and other indicators characteristic of modern boxing...even though he looks different from a guy like Louis.

Finally its good to keep in mind that the whole corpus of boxing technique is still utilized....Fighters like Ali, with hands down, footwork used, used techniques from the old ways...Ali took many strategies from jack Johnson! The point here is that Dempsey was an innovator from a time when innovation was taking hold and trainers were taking distance particularly and footwork and designing it exclusively for boxing, when the original footwork and distancing was from a fencing paradigm. james Figg was a swordsman when he invented a method for people to settle it without resorting to duels.