Jack Dempsey Would Climb A Klitscho Like A Tree
AM I TEACHING BOXING TO THE LESS THAN BRILLIANT?
Charlotte, NC– In our discussions about Old School Verses Modern Day Fighters, someone will usually pop up and accuse me of living in the past, and suggest I just ride off into the sunset and go drink my Ensure. But are today’s fighters better, as some claim, because of superior nutrition and training techniques? Is a modern, climate controlled gym with a surround sound sound music system and shiny chrome training equipment more able to turn out quality pugilists than a dingy old Stillmans’ Gym, whose windows wouldn’t even open?
A FEW OF TODAY’S GUYS THAT COULD COMPETE IN ANY ERA
To be perfectly honest, given equal conditions (and most of what I write about concerns unequal conditions, if you have been paying close attention) there are a few fighters today who would be comparably as good as those of my nostalgic mind. Not in the same league with “Sugar Ray” Robinson mind you, but Bernard Hopkins, James Toney, Sergio Martinez, and yes, Manny Pacquiao would match up favorably against many of the Old School greats.
PROFESSOR MARBRY ON THE “BIG PICTURE”
BUT, in the broad scope of things, it is my opinion that overall today’s boxers simply are not better than their forerunners, as they are in other sports. Now, I know for every point there is a counter point, that’s why they race the races and fight the fights, so let the discussions begin!
LET’S START WITH NEW VS. OLD NUTRITION
To hear my detractors tell it, today’s nutritional standards are so much better, that Old School fighters must have been malnourished by comparison. Yet, every time I catch Dr. Oz or read any of TODAY’S health and nutrition expert, they tell us that today hardly any of us eat as we should, and that in fact obesity is at epidemic proportions! Today’s Kid’s meals contains more empty calories than an adult portion did just ten years ago. Can you Super Size that?
CAN YOU SPELL DIABETES OR DO THEY ALREADY HAVE IT?
Our kid’s, they tell us eat TEN times more sugar than the kids of the 1930’s and 1940’s. Today, our schools have an assortment of vending machines so our children won’t have to deal with those nasty ‘ol fruits and veggies if they don’t want too. Not only that, today our kids play virtual games inside, while Old School kids would have by necessity really been on the outside, running, jumping, playing baseball, climbing trees, swimming, getting real exercise in the fresh air and sunshine. So, despite any modern advances in better nutrition, the truth is today’s average teenager isn’t as fit or physically active as they were 40 or more years ago. (If you don’t believe me, just ask the current First Lady!) And this is not only true in this country, but of every industrialized, advanced country in the world, and this is where probably 70% of our boxing talent comes from.
THEY USE JACK DEMPSEY AS A LAME EXAMPLE!
Some have actually argued that someone like ‘The Manassa Mauler‘ Jack Dempsey was most likely so poorly fed (you know, being a hobo, jumping on trains illegally, begging for food and stuff) that he couldn’t possibly be competitive with today’s fighters at all! That the Klitschkos’ would simply be too big and too strong for poor and starving Dempsey. So, let me see, a rock solid perfectly tuned fighting machine of 6’1′, 197 pounds would fold like a sad sack of potato’s under the awesome power of today’s hulking 6’6″, 243 pound mountain of muscle, superior nutrition, Dr. Steelhammer, who couldn’t even knock out an opponent with a broken toe? And I suppose that Old School bayonets would also just curl away from the huge S on his chest as well? And we forget that the malnourished Dempsey was only seconds away from almost killing 6’6″ Jess Willard.
DEMPSEY WOULD TAKE THE FIGHT TO EITHER KLITSCHKO
Now, I honestly do not want to be labeled as one who is so enamored with the past that I cannot see anything else, but the truth is, the past is where you so often find so many answers. Ask any archaeologist. But using the above argument, I simply find it hard to believe that the same Jack Dempsey who beat a 6’6″ Jess Willard almost to death wouldn’t have at least a sporting chance against one of today’s modern dreadnought’s.
ARREOLA A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF EATING WRONG & NOW RIGHT!
We have made advances in nutrition. Yet food is food, and they had food back in the day, and they knew “garbage in garbage out” was just as true then as it is now, as Chris Arreola has recently discovered to his benefit.
OUTSIDE OF DRUG USE, IT’S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT RUNNING
And what about all the advances in modern training techniques? My question is, “What techniques?” The best way to condition a fighter for a long, tough fight is running. That has been around since they invented legs. Yes, Ivan Drago ran inside a spiffy new gym and on a computerized inclining treadmill, while Rocky Balboa ran in boots waist deep in snow up a Russian mountain, but running is running. Archie Moore ran. I’m sure Dempsey did roadwork, as did Joe Louis. I know Rocky Marciano ran every day of his career. So this training method wasn’t discovered for Floyd Mayweather, folks. Even Old School fighters and trainers knew that the best way to keep from running out of gas in the late rounds of a fight was running. However, some of today’s fighters still haven’t figured this one out.
NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED IN “REAL” BOXING GYMS
And have you actually been in any real boxing gyms lately? What equipment is in there that an Old School fighter or trainer wouldn’t know how to use? (Except maybe the Nautilus equipment) Speed bag? Heavy bag? Jump ropes? Even those awful punch mitts?None of that is new. Yeah, so Marciano didn’t have access to Nautilus or Strive weight training equipment, which is great stuff by the way. Yet that doesn’t seem to have hurt his power any, does it?
ONE GUY SHOWED HIS LIMITATIONS
I had one response that modern day fighters were better because they could learn by watching “You-Tube.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that! Listen, the expert plumber is not the guy who has read all the books and went to the local Tech School. The plumber you call when your toilet is beyond clogged is the guy who has plumbed 100’s of houses and fixed the 100’s of others that the Tech school grad plumbed! The logic of that should be obvious!
So, what of a comparison between a modern day champion who has had 27 pro fights and defends his title twice a year for millions of dollars, versus the Old School fighter who had 100 fights before he fought for the title, then defended every other month for for or five years? My sometimes moronic detractors, without fail always say, “they fought nobodies.” Really? Now, if you really want to argue the point, and the plumber analogy didn’t convince you, and the truth itself hasn’t hit you, think about this; If you are on an airliner and one of the jet engines falls off, who has the best chance of getting you safely back on the ground? A pilot who has actually flown two to three thousand hours through all kinds of conditions and circumstances, or the dude who has “You-Tubed” it and played a flight simulator video game? You do the math!
TO PROVE A POINT, GO SIT ON THE TOILET!
My point is simply this, when a fighter becomes champion after 20 or 25 fights, no matter how much natural ability he has (and I have never suggested nor denied today’s fighters do not have athletic ability, skill, or talent. Nor do I think they are somehow more cowardly. I have been in the ring, and have utmost respect for anyone with courage enough to lace ’em up and go toe to toe!) they simply cannot have seen in real fight experience everything an opponent can and will throw at them. So, before you claim that your modern “pound -for- pound” guy with twenty or thirty fights would automatically beat an Old School champion, just go sit on your clogged toilet and think about it!
Professor Chuck Marbry