Miscellaneous Boxing Factoids

[The Old LefHook]

Every once in a while I will just add a new factoid to the thread.

1 Factoid. Long ago there were just as many white boxing champions as there were black un's.

2 Factoid. A black un' couldn't even generate a million dollar purse 'til Ali came along.

3 Factoid. Vampire Johnson was one of the toughest black un's to ever shít through a meat ąsshole.

Thanks. Feel free to add interesting facts to the thread yourself if you run across some.

[Eff Pandas]

B- troll thread.

[Anthony342]

B- troll thread.

What would an A Troll thread be then? Like, how do the ratings work?

[The Old LefHook]

Factoid: Punch drunkenness only came about after boxers started using mitts.

[The Old LefHook]

Factoid: There is a punch drunk character played by Paul Newman in a film adaptation of a Hemingway story. In that story, if I remember, there is also a recurring character named (Nick Adams?) that gets into a handful of Hemingway stories and people believe is autobiographical.

[Dempsey-Louis]

Every once in a while I will just add a new factoid to the thread.

1 Factoid. Long ago there were just as many white boxing champions as there were black un's.

2 Factoid. A black un' couldn't even generate a million dollar purse 'til Ali came along.

3 Factoid. Vampire Johnson was one of the toughest black un's to ever shít through a meat ąsshole.

Thanks. Feel free to add interesting facts to the thread yourself if you run across some.

I think maybe #2 is a fact not a factoid -- Black fighters: million dollar gates yes; million dollar purses, no. -- But then again neither could any white fighter after Tunney (and Tunney actually only came very close to earning a million.)

Maybe I don't understand what a 'factoid' is.

Fact: No fighter earned a million dollar purse until Frazier-Ali and The Fight.

[Eff Pandas]

What would an A Troll thread be then? Like, how do the ratings work?

Its complicated man. There are lotsa A- or A+ trolls out there & B level guys are pretty f#cking solid if you ask me. But obviously most people suck or aren't THAT serious about this so D- or D+ are the most popular grades.

[Ben Bolt]

Maybe I don't understand what a 'factoid' is.

I had to look it up myself, but if we define factoid as
“an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print” (Merriam-Webster),
I can believe that

Factoid: Punch drunkenness only came about after boxers started using mitts.

is not a factoid but a fact. Gloves made you able to punch harder, without breaking the bones in your hand. However, your rival’s brain wasn’t (and never has been) built to sustain this development in boxing gears.

[Dempsey-Louis]

I had to look it up myself, but if we define factoid as
“an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print” (Merriam-Webster),
I can believe that



is not a factoid but a fact. Gloves made you able to punch harder, without breaking the bones in your hand. However, your rival’s brain wasn’t (and never has been) built to sustain this development in boxing gears.

It is a terrible irony that the Queensberry rules which were (partly) deigned to protect fighters from the brutality of the London Prize Ring Rules, found its own way to make the game dangerous (head shots). It might be better to go back to five ounce gloves with NO hand wrappings.

Fighters would have to go back to being judicious about head shots (how often and how hard) and wouldn't be able to wing punches with reckless abandoned as they do now, because head shots would take a toll on the fighter's hands.

Of course that wouldn't be good for us, the fan.

Today, with wrapping and eight ounce gloves, fighters hands are more akin to weapons, than protection.

[Dempsey-Louis]

Factoid: It was above 100 degrees for the Johnson-Willard fight.

Fact: It was in the mid 70s with an overcast sky. Johnson made up the heat to foster his BS that he was shading his eyes and keeping his knees off the canvas. Willard later in life erroneously supported Johnson's false assertion confusing his July 4th fight with Dempsey (in Ohio) where it actually was 100 degrees.

Today nine out of ten boxing web pages still claim it was 'hot' that day in Havana (above 100); each taking the false information, one from the other. Only BoxRec didn't take the bait and has it right.

P.S. I should add that the humidity was very high that day; 'very muggy' which of course makes it feel much hotter than the temperature suggest. But 101 plus with a blazing sun, No!