Songs about boxers

[boliodogs]

Boxing is fighting not singing. The Brits love that singing but it never helps their boxers win. I don't know any songs about boxers except for eye of the tiger in the Rocky movie. Not a bad song. Much better than the songs the Brits sing because you can't understand a single word they sing.

[Citizen Koba]

Come to the door, Ma, and unlock the chain
I was just passin' through and got caught in the rain
There's nothin' I want, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way

I was no more than a kid when you put me on the Southern Queen
With the police on my back I fled to New Orleans
I fought in the dockyards and with the money I made
I knew the fight was my home and blood was my trade

Baton Rouge, Ponchatoula, and Lafayette town
Well they paid me their money, Ma, I knocked the men down
I did what I did well it come easily
Restraint and mercy, Ma, were always strangers to me

I fought champion Jack Thompson in a field full of mud
Rain poured through the tent to the canvas and mixed with our blood
In the twelfth I slipped my tongue over my broken jaw
I stood over him and pounded his bloody body into the floor
Well the bell rang and rang and still I kept on
'Till I felt my glove leather slip 'tween his skin and bone

Then the women and the money came fast and the days I lost track
The women red, the money green, but the numbers were black
I fought for the men in their silk suits to lay down their bets
I took my good share, Ma, I have no regrets

Then I took the fix at the state armory with big John McDowell
From high in the rafters I watched myself fall
As they raised his arm my stomach twisted and the sky it went black
I stuffed my bag with their good money and I never looked back

Understand, in the end, Ma, every man plays the game
If you know me one different then speak out his name
Ma, if my voice now you don't recognize
Then just open the door and look into your dark eyes
I ask of you nothin', not a kiss not a smile,
Just open the door and let me lie down for a while

Now the gray rain's fallin' and my ring fightin's done
So in the work fields and alleys I take all who'll come
If you're a better man than me then just step to the line
Show me your money and speak out your crime
Now there's nothin' I want, Ma, nothin' that you need say
Just let me lie down for a while and I'll be on my way

Tonight in the shipyard a man draws a circle in the dirt
I move to the center and I take off my shirt
I study him for the cuts, the scars, the pain,
Man, nor time can erase
I move hard to the left and I strike to the face

I won't lie, I googled 'songs about boxers' for this one, but the lyrics kinda piqued my curiousity. Although the protagonist is unidentified he does actually reference at least one real fighter (Jack Thompson) in it and mentions one other (Big John McDowell) though I ain't been able to fully identify who he is. Only thing is the fighter of the song says he 'pounded Thompson to the floor' in the twelfth and the implication is he won (the money and the women came fast) but this doesn't tally with any of Thompson's losses...

https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/47732

Bit of a mystery then, or maybe just made up.

Wondering if any of our friends with a better knowledge of the boxing world in the depression era might be able to shed a little more light. There's various clues and references in the lyrics that may or may not be meaningful: fighting Jack Thompson in a tent in a field with the rain poiuring in, throwing a fight at 'the Armory'. and obviously the fighters earlier days fighting in New Orleans where he presumably began his career.

Anyone reckon they can put a name to 'the Hitter'?

[Tyistall]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW5qF9fheXw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdBvluNI6xc