Great bare knuckle boxers

[Larry the boss]

Who are some great bare knuckle boxers and how to you rank them in the historical standpoint of the sport?

[billeau2]

We have to take people's word for a lot of the information we get from that time, but there was a fair amount of information shared about some bare knuckle guys.

Daniel Mendoza and Gem Mace were two guys regarded as methodical and interested in defense along with attacking the opponents they fought. Choyinsky was also a technical guy and he was instrumental in working with jack Johnson who was of course an incredible fighter. You had Cribb and Molineaux, two black fighters who were superb... these are a few guys, who distinguished themselves and were described in glowing terms.

Back in those days it was probably more like the MMA, there was grappling, a lot of concern had to be focused on not breaking the hands, especially on the forehead of the man and there were less dominant champions initially... more a test of wills. But the better champions taught...much like martial artists and fencers.

[OctoberRed]

Shamefully the only bareknuckle guy I really watched is the great, the fabulous, Bobby Gunn

[billeau2]

One has to look at the sport back then differently. For example, The late great Kimbo Slice fought a certain way as a bare knuckle back garden fighter these days... and he was very good in that fighting environment... But he had to make certain adjustments in order to fight in other venues.

Some of the biggest differences was the pace... You cannot wind early in a fight that goes on until one guy can't answer! The amount of grappling... You get a lot of position against the opponent by the grapple, a lot of techniques involved tying up an arm and hitting with the other For example watch as Tunney takes instruction from Corbett

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMdot7QW9Mo

Corbett was perhaps the last heavyweight to have a single fight bare knuckle, so many of the ideas were still the same.

But perhaps most important: The character of the fighting man. When John Sullivan versus (Heenan? Killtrain?) the first big gate... Well, Sullivan was considered to be a fighter primarily, not an athlete. The old timers were fighters, they were not athletes. As times changed boxers became athletes first, and then fighters. This was very important regarding how we regard the fighting man...

[ShoulderRoll]

You had Cribb and Molineaux, two black fighters who were superb... these are a few guys, who distinguished themselves and were described in glowing terms.

Cribb was white. Molineaux was a black former slave from America who by most accounts seems to have gotten robbed when he fought Cribb for the Championship of England.

[billeau2]

Cribb was white. Molineaux was a black former slave from America who by most accounts seems to have gotten robbed when he fought Cribb for the Championship of England.

Yes, my bad.

[OctoberRed]

Cribb was white. Molineaux was a black former slave from America who by most accounts seems to have gotten robbed when he fought Cribb for the Championship of England.

I assume no footage of either out there?

[ShoulderRoll]

I assume no footage of either out there?

Nope.

Just written accounts from the time period.

http://grantland.com/features/brian-...tom-molineaux/

[billeau2]

I assume no footage of either out there?

One thing to bare in mind is that a lot of the descriptive stuff regarding the fighters comes from the press...a very well trained press corps, as opposed to the more press release type information we get about the fighters by and large.

For example, one of the main chroniclers of Jack Johnson was the famous author and pressman Jack London. London, a progressive socialist, champion for the working class and the stevedores on Oakland's rough and tumble docks....also happened to be a rascist. London lived for the day when Johnson would lose...which he never did while London was active lol.

But the journalists often scored fights, sometimes were seconds, and in general took it upon themselves to become somewhat knowleagable about the sweet science. This relationship persisted, even up until modern times, where guys like Larry merchant came up as scribes and later became announcers.

[Ben Bolt]

”Jeffries must emerge from his alfalfa farm and remove that smile from Johnson’s face. Jeff, it’s up to you.”
Jack London reports from Sydney, 1908.

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=...1227.2.167.1.1

About the bareknuckle era, the more I’ve read and learned about it, the more fascinating it gets.
Perhaps not all sources are reliable, but why ruin a good story with the truth ...