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This thread may well descend into madness and chaos. You see...everyone has a very different idea about what exactly constitutes... a "big" fight. I would not touch this topic.
Watershed events in boxing occur and people hardly even notice
. I mean Douglas versus Tyson? Was that a big fight? In a way it was, but from the perspective of boxing as a whole it was not. It was to Vegas! What about when Louis fought Schmelling? was that a big fight? To boxing? to historical happenings?
To me a big fight is what we would expect from the perspective of the fans: Gatti Ward, etc. But there are fights that had a tremendous impact on our sport, that are hardly even noticed.
For example when John Sullivan fought Jake Kilrain in what was to become the last of the bare knuckles boughts. This induced a monumental effort on behalf of fighters to find the finesse, master the process of fighting with gloves. It allowed fighters to punch harder, because the hand was protected. It let fighters abandon stylized fencing movements and start to move towards the greatness of trainers like BlackBurn, who created space for pure punchers, squared up and ready to fire combinations of punches.
prior to this time, since Figg, the emphasis had been on accuracy. A Knockout was produced hitting to the correct area, usually on the point of the chin with a lead. But many boxing men had been trying to get more individuals to fight like the "yanks" who were more inclined to utilize the the power hand in a contest, and to try different punches out.
Perhaps the next water shed fight came when Tunney met Dempsey. I have said this before: Tunney trained with gentleman Jim Corbett. Corbett was a very interesting fighter because even though he did not fight bare knuckle, allegedlly he was the first gloved champion at heavyweight I believe... BUT he was steeped and trained in the world of boxing during the transition to gloves. His style was from the old ways. Corbett was for all practical purposes a proponent of the james Figg, bare knuckle ways of fighting:
For example, Corbett fought off his back leg, the emphasis was on setting the attacks, accuracy of punching, footwork and protecting the hands as much as any other part of the body. Corbett was instrumental in training Gene Tunney. Tunney became the man between the worlds: the first modern scientific fighter, the last heavyweight light heavy to use the old ways... But if one watches Tunney He fights in the old ways with one exception: that being his ability to use combinations to a new degree of accuracy.
Dempsey was the first of the modern Heavyweights...the man that would usher in the puncher... as opposed to the brawler.... Sullivan was in his words, a brawler... a man who could lick any man! Dempsey was a puncher, a man who could square up and punch through his opponent. Dempsey was the first model for the classic punchers that would follow, the guys like Walcot, Charles, Moore and of course the Brown Bomber himself. And if one does not think of all the guys described above as punchers, watch the combinations a guy like Charles threw, and where did Moore get all those KO's from? The point is, even great fighters with finesse were incredibly skilled punchers in this era of boxing...even guys we don't think of as being punchers in the same way as a KO artist.
When Tunney fought Dempsey it was the last of the old style fighting the first of the new! Now that was a big fight for boxing!! It was through the glory of Dempsey, who fought two excellent battles against Tunney that Goldstein could bring us a Holmes wrecker of a man who had two left feet, no reach and little grace in movement, but who could throw punches in bunches and never stop, a man who was cut from the same cloth as the atavistic Hank Armstrong... that was of course Marciano.
Other big fights might include Liston and Ali. Ali showing that grace and footwork could triumph over a puncher in his defeat of Liston...
Watershed events in boxing occur and people hardly even notice
. I mean Douglas versus Tyson? Was that a big fight? In a way it was, but from the perspective of boxing as a whole it was not. It was to Vegas! What about when Louis fought Schmelling? was that a big fight? To boxing? to historical happenings? To me a big fight is what we would expect from the perspective of the fans: Gatti Ward, etc. But there are fights that had a tremendous impact on our sport, that are hardly even noticed.
For example when John Sullivan fought Jake Kilrain in what was to become the last of the bare knuckles boughts. This induced a monumental effort on behalf of fighters to find the finesse, master the process of fighting with gloves. It allowed fighters to punch harder, because the hand was protected. It let fighters abandon stylized fencing movements and start to move towards the greatness of trainers like BlackBurn, who created space for pure punchers, squared up and ready to fire combinations of punches.
prior to this time, since Figg, the emphasis had been on accuracy. A Knockout was produced hitting to the correct area, usually on the point of the chin with a lead. But many boxing men had been trying to get more individuals to fight like the "yanks" who were more inclined to utilize the the power hand in a contest, and to try different punches out.
Perhaps the next water shed fight came when Tunney met Dempsey. I have said this before: Tunney trained with gentleman Jim Corbett. Corbett was a very interesting fighter because even though he did not fight bare knuckle, allegedlly he was the first gloved champion at heavyweight I believe... BUT he was steeped and trained in the world of boxing during the transition to gloves. His style was from the old ways. Corbett was for all practical purposes a proponent of the james Figg, bare knuckle ways of fighting:
For example, Corbett fought off his back leg, the emphasis was on setting the attacks, accuracy of punching, footwork and protecting the hands as much as any other part of the body. Corbett was instrumental in training Gene Tunney. Tunney became the man between the worlds: the first modern scientific fighter, the last heavyweight light heavy to use the old ways... But if one watches Tunney He fights in the old ways with one exception: that being his ability to use combinations to a new degree of accuracy.
Dempsey was the first of the modern Heavyweights...the man that would usher in the puncher... as opposed to the brawler.... Sullivan was in his words, a brawler... a man who could lick any man! Dempsey was a puncher, a man who could square up and punch through his opponent. Dempsey was the first model for the classic punchers that would follow, the guys like Walcot, Charles, Moore and of course the Brown Bomber himself. And if one does not think of all the guys described above as punchers, watch the combinations a guy like Charles threw, and where did Moore get all those KO's from? The point is, even great fighters with finesse were incredibly skilled punchers in this era of boxing...even guys we don't think of as being punchers in the same way as a KO artist.
When Tunney fought Dempsey it was the last of the old style fighting the first of the new! Now that was a big fight for boxing!! It was through the glory of Dempsey, who fought two excellent battles against Tunney that Goldstein could bring us a Holmes wrecker of a man who had two left feet, no reach and little grace in movement, but who could throw punches in bunches and never stop, a man who was cut from the same cloth as the atavistic Hank Armstrong... that was of course Marciano.
Other big fights might include Liston and Ali. Ali showing that grace and footwork could triumph over a puncher in his defeat of Liston...
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