Boxing History Needs to Have a Greater Appreciation from Fans
As boxing fans, we follow the careers of Andre Ward, Donovan George, Gennady Golovkin, or whoever our current favorites may be. And so we should. We care about who’s fighting today just as our fathers and grandfathers cared about the boxers of their eras. But I’ve noted an unfortunate trend in recent years — the ignorance of or indifference to those who came before.
I recently got into a rather acrimonious discussion with a fellow fan who had on his list of 10 best pound-for-pound boxers of all time George Foreman, Larry Holmes, and Evander Holyfield. I understand holding those guys in regard, but among the best of all time? Adding insult to ignorance, there was nary a mention of Willie Pep, Harry Greb, or Sam Langford. Such omissions are beyond risible; they’re anti-historical.
And, indeed, that’s the crux of the problem. Some of today’s boxing “aficionados” have little or no knowledge, let alone appreciation, of the rich history of the finest sport known to man.
Another fan defended the inclusion of Foreman, Holmes, and Holyfield by observing that the list was of “the best, not the greatest”. Huh? He also claimed that it’s impossible to judge vintage boxers because we weren’t around to see them fight. My jaw dropped down to my ankles at that one. Guess we can’t appreciate Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel either, given that we didn’t actually see the artist with the paint brush in hand.
A.J. Liebling, the boxing writer’s boxing writer, knew full well that it was impossible to truly understand Cassius Clay (as he was known at the time) without having immersed oneself in the career of John L. Sullivan.
“It is through Jack O’Brien…that I trace my rapport with the historic past through the laying-on of hands. He hit me, for pedagogical example, and he had been hit by the great Bob Fitzsimmons, from whom he won the light-heavyweight title in 1906. Jack had a scar to show for it. Fitzsimmons had been hit by Corbett, Corbett by John L. Sullivan, he by Paddy Ryan, with the bare knuckles, and Ryan by Joe Goss, his predecessor, who as a young man had felt the fist of the great Jem Mace. It is a great thrill to feel that all that separates you from the early Victorians is a series of punches on the nose.”
Links in the chain. From Sullivan to Jack Dempsey to Joe Louis to Rocky Marciano to Muhammad Ali…. All they were and all they did. And no one today can compare. It’s not their fault, boxing has changed, and both the sport and the world are the poorer for it.
WBA super bantamweight champ, first-ranked Guillermo Rigondeaux, has had 11 professional fights. No disrespect, but…11? And he’s been fighting for three years and he’s 32. Pep had 241 fights. He won 229, 65 by KO. Greb, blind in one eye, had 116. He won 104, 48 by KO. Langford, also visually impaired, fought 256 times. He won 179, 128 by KO.
My purpose is not to disparage contemporary boxers. I’m quite the fan of super middleweights Ward and George, and middleweight Golovkin, among many others. But I know by whose grace they’re in the ring. By that of light heavies Philadelphia Jack O’Brien, Billy Conn, and Archie Moore…by middleweights Stanley Ketchel, Mickey Walker, and Sugar Ray Robinson.
I live within walking distance of where the original Madison Square Garden once so proudly stood. A boxing and New York City landmark torn down…for what? I’ve paid homage to the block on which once were Stillman’s Gym and the Neutral Corner, and I would have given much to have met the Runyonesque Louis Ingber, better known as Lou Stillman.
He wore a tweed jacket regardless of the season or weather, and always carried a .38. A nostalgic and sentimental man, who once observed: “The golden age of prizefighting was the age of bad food, bad air, bad sanitation, and no sunlight. I keep the place like this for the fighters’ own good. If I clean it up they’ll catch a cold from the cleanliness.”
Gene Tunney wanted to train at Stillman’s, but only on condition that the windows be opened. They weren’t.
As fans, we have an obligation to preserve the history of boxing, if only by enshrining in our hearts and minds the names of Louis, Moore, Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Tony Canzoneri, Benny Leonard, Kid Chocolate, Pep, Panama Al Brown, Pancho Villa…all those who made the magic happen.
Impossible to improve on the words of the great A.J. Liebling:
“The Sweet Science is joined onto the past like a man’s arm to his shoulder.”
