HOW TO LEARN THE GAME OF BOXING FROM THE INSIDE
Liberty, NC-Boxing bit’s of wisdom that Professor Marbry has picked up over the years by keeping his eye’s and ear’s open, and his mouth (more or less) shut;
* “Bang the body.” Keep the pressure on your guy. Don’t let him breathe. Go to the body, no matter if you see it working or not. Forget about the head, you go to the body like I tell you, his head will come to you! You just can’t shake off the body shots, they will wear this guy down!” Trainer Lou Cariango Kemp, to yours truly, before my last fight (I won with a 5th round stoppage of Calman “Sandman” Parker with a left hook to the Sternum). Lou was beautiful!
* “A [fight] is more mental than these guy’s realize, more mental than physical. It’s mind over muscle. I don’t care what physical gifts a fighter has, if he can’t think, he is just another fighter in a whole sea of fighters…” Ray Arcel to Lou Kemp, circa 1980
* ” It’s like growing a garden…I know it’s going to take a certain amount of time before the seeds you plant grow into fully mature vegetables. So, I fix the ground, pull weeds, put fertilizer on it, plant the seeds, and set up irrigation… but I know it’s going to take time a certain amount of time…I don’t care what you do after that, you are not going to get a crop in a week. Certain things simply cannot be rushed. And its the same with getting a fighter in shape , mentally and physically. And getting a fighter ready mentally is tougher than the physical training…It’s going to take time. You can’t rush it!” Emanuel Steward, HBO Boxing.
* Emanuel Steward on getting a fighter ready mentally; “You’ve got to know what motivates your fighter…for different fighters it’s different things…maybe its family, maybe its finances…whatever it is, a trainer has to know what buttons to push, when to push them, and when not to…” HBO Boxing
* ” Too much rest equals rust!” Almost every trainer I ever been around
* Ray Arcel on Ezzard Charles, “Most people don’t realize what a great boxer Ezzard Charles was. The word ‘great’ is misused. When a man is great in his field, this is a God-given gift. Nobody can make another man great. Charles was naturally great. The only difference between him [Ezzard Charles] and Ray Robinson was, Robinson was a great puncher. But when Charles was a middleweight, I don’t know if could have beaten him.” From “In This Corner” by Dave Anderson
* ” It really doesn’t matter that much who’s in the corner, it’s who’s on the Stool.” Angelo Dundee
* ” If you are fighting a guy with a great left jab, try and make him move to his right. Almost always a great jabber, if they are forced to move to their right, they are in trouble. Cut the ring off and make him move to his right. Of course there are exceptions to every rule.” Lou Kemp to The Professor when I was still a neophite trainer
I hope you have enjoyed these “nuggets” of boxing. If so,let us know at Ring Talk, and I will serve up some more!
Professor Chuck Marbry
* ” It ain’t like it used to be…” Lou Kemp, talking about the state of boxing in 1979