Gene Tunney on boxing

Boxing champion Gene Tunney, who won the heavyweight title with his defeat of Jack Dempsey in 1926, was a highly intelligent and literate man, penning for the initial printing of Britannica’s new 14th Edition (1929–73) the encyclopedia’s coverage of American boxing. In fact, there is probably no boxer alive today who could write an article about his profession approaching Tunney’s in style or insight. Tunney ended his 1929 entry with some sage advice applicable to modern sports stars the world over. When he warns athletes to remain “mentally equipped,” free “from all outside interest, and worry of every nature,” especially after “they acquire money” and great wealth, it is hard not to think of the many contemporary athletes whose “extracurricular activities” have derailed if not destroyed their amazing careers in their prime.

Boxing, pugilism, prize-fighting and ruffianism were synonymous in the public mind from the earliest days of prize-fighting in the United States down to the World War, when boxing was prescribed as a means of quickly fitting untrained men for action at the front. Boxing up to this time had a most dreadful inheritance in the way of reputation, due to the practices of the persons connected with prize-fighting in its early stages in America, and to the type of men who took active part in these prize-fights. As a rule, they were, both fighters and associates, sinister people with few scruples, vulgar and brutal to a marked degree. The populace realized this and branded as outcasts all persons who were in any way connected with this “sport.” Almost every State in the Union passed laws prohibiting prize-fights. Occasionally, however, in spite of the laws, important contests would be held secretly in out of the way places. But they usually were terminated by the police, who would get the information that such a fight was being held and after stopping the match would place the principals under arrest. This kind of contest attracted few people, first because they were slow, uninteresting mauling affairs in which one man was trying to outlast his opponent, and, therefore, making few efforts to end matters for fear he would over-exert himself and be at the mercy of the other; and secondly the fear of being arrested, or possibly injured, in the free-for-all that usually accompanied the termination of these, made attendance at them quite a risky matter. The possibilities of arrest or injury naturally kept the self-respecting and prudent people away.

Despite the old laws prohibiting fighting having been modified, and new laws called Boxing laws permitting boxing contests in certain States, boxing was still regarded as an outlaw “sport,” and a brutalizing and degrading form of amusement, until the government, in 1917, through its directors of training camp activities, adopted it as an important means for quickly fitting untrained men for rigorous soldier-life. It was then that modern boxing was brought to the attention of its greatest calumniators, viz., the ministers of the gospel, religious and lay woman organizations and societies and those who did not know the difference between brutal prize-fighting and legalized, regulated, modern boxing. This was the moment of rebirth for boxing. The interest in boxing has grown rapidly and steadily ever since. As a sport for young boys during their impressionable and developing years, there is no equal to it; it develops self-reliance, self-control, self-confidence, individual and quick thinking, physical courage and sportsmanship. There is no other game or sport that can boast of these attributes.

That fighting or boxing has an appeal to the elemental and primitive in man boxing’s bitterest foes cannot deny. There is something terrifically fascinating about it to both man and woman. Its grip on man is probably due to his fundamental urge—self-preservation. In boxing contests the spectators’ imagination sees a test for physical supremacy, a struggle to preserve oneself; and for the right to live. There is no other source of amusement or entertainment, sport or game, that contains quite as much real drama as can be found in a contest between two evenly matched, well trained boxers.

After the World War as boxing gained the recognition and interest of the general public; and those who took it up as a profession, just as a young man does law or medicine, were no longer looked upon as pariahs; many serious-minded and ambitious young men adopted it as a means of livelihood and profession. This brought an altogether new element into the sport, a thinking element; men who believed mental preparedness as important as physical preparedness; men who studied their game just as a surgeon does his anatomy. Naturally, this made for a marked increase in the knowledge of the “science” and raised the standard of the boxer proportionately, so that boxing methods must have improved just as sprinting and other athletic performances have bettered all records during the past decade. We have advanced in every other branch of athletic endeavour, so it seems only logical to assume that boxing has kept pace with the progress of its sister sports. Styles in boxing have variegated and changed considerably. New methods of attack and defence have been introduced and improved upon. Foot-work takes an important place in the repertoire of the modern boxer. The Classic style; i.e., the upright stance, with the left hand and left foot extended, and the right arm crooked across the chest ready to parry an opponent’s lead to the head or body, has been almost entirely discarded as obsolete. It has been found more efficient to learn to avoid leads by either slipping the head to one side or the other, depending on how you expect to counter, or, by ducking, pulling away or slipping inside the lead. This gives a boxer the free use of his two hands for hitting, being a great improvement over the older style of using one or both arms to parry, which effectually warded off the blows, but by doing so prevented the use of the hands to counter. It has been discovered it is tremendously more effective to use the hands to strike the opponent than to keep them busy parrying and blocking blows. So that now we have the “bobbing and weaving” style of attack with the hands poised in a hitting position ready to strike out at the first opening as the advance toward the opponent is made. Jack Dempsey, heavyweight champion 1919–26, has been the greatest exponent of this style up to date. Benny Leonard, lightweight champion 1916–25, was one of the greatest exponents of the splendid combination of rhythmic foot work and hard, accurate, straight hitting. Jack Britton, welterweight champion 1919–1922, though lacking a heavy blow, was, undoubtedly, the greatest exponent of pure boxing skill of his time. The three men mentioned were the outstanding boxing figures of their time, and while their “styles” differed somewhat outwardly, basically they were the same, in that they learnt to avoid blows by slipping and ducking the head so that they would at all times have the free use of both hands. This factor is, undoubtedly, the mainspring in the improvement of the modern boxer.

Mental fitness has as much to do with success as has physical. This is true not only in boxing but in every endeavour of life. The modern boxer realizes that unless he is mentally equipped his chances for success are very slim. He therefore cuts himself free from all other business interests, believing he cannot have diversified interests and find success as a professional boxer. Boxing being a highly specialized sport, none can remain successfully in it unless he becomes a specialist. All successful boxers have done this, and it is not until they acquire money and make investments, in which they are compelled to take an active interest, that they meet reverses in the ring. This has been the case in four out of every five of the great champions, and goes to prove the point in question. Freedom from all outside interest, and worry of every nature; with a complete knowledge of the “science” of the game; a quick, active brain, with perfect co-ordination; and sound physical condition are necessary qualifications for a successful boxer of to-day.