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Championship Fighting
Explosive Punching
and
Aggressive Defense
by Jack Dempsey
edited by Jack Cuddy
with illustrations by Ed Igoe
Copyright, 1950, by JACK DEMPSEY
First Edition
Contents
 1. Explosives at Toledo
What would happen if a year-old baby fell from a fourth-floor window onto the head of a burly truck driver, standing on the sidewalk?
It's practically certain that the truckman would be knocked unconscious. He might die of brain concussion or a broken neck.
Even an innocent little baby can become a dangerous missile WHEN ITS BODY-WEIGHT IS SET INTO FAST MOTION.
You may feel as helpless as a year-old infant-as far as fighting is concerned; but please remember: (1) YOU WEIGH MORE THAN A BABY,
and (2) YOU NEED NOT FALL FROM A WINDOW TO PUT YOUR BODY-WEIGHT INTO MOTION.
You have weight, and you have the means of launching that weight into fast motion.
Furthermore, you have explosive ingredients. You may not appear explosive. You may appear as harmless as a stick of dynamite, which
children have been known to mistake for an oversized stick of taffy.
You can launch your body-weight into fast motion; and, like dynamite, you can explode that hurtling weight against an opponent with a
stunning, blasting effect known as follow-through.
Incidentally, mention of the baby and explosives reminds me of what happened at Toledo on the afternoon of July 4, 1919.
Standing there that day under the blazing Ohio sun, I felt like a baby as I glanced across the ring and saw big Jess Willard shrug off his
bathrobe in the opposite corner.
Cowboy Jess was heavyweight champion of the world, and he was a giant. Moreover, he was a perfectly proportioned giant. He was every
inch an athlete. He tapered down beautifully from derrick-like shoulders, and his muscles were so smooth you could scarcely see them rippling
under his sun-tanned skin. He towered six feet, six inches and a quarter. He weighed 245 pounds. In comparison I shaped up like an infant or a
dwarf although I nudged past six feet and scaled 180 pounds. My weight was announced as 187 pounds; but actually I registered only 180.
As I looked across the ring at Willard, I said to myself, "Jeez! What a mountain I've got to blast down this time!"
I knew about blasting-about dynamite. I had learned about dynamite in the mines of Colorado, Utah and Nevada, where I had worked off and
on for about six years. And I knew plenty about dynamite in fighting. I had made a study of fistic dynamite since I was seven years old. That was
when I had my first fist-fight, with a boy about my own size, in Manassa, Colorado. I was born at Manassa and spent my early years there.
Before I fought Willard, my manager-Jack (Doc) Kearns-already had nicknamed me "Jack the Giant-Killer" because I had belted out such big
fellows as Carl Morris and Fred Fulton. They were big men all right, but neither had appeared such an awesome giant as Willard did that
sweltering afternoon.
I had trained for Willard at the Overland Club on Maumee Bay, an inlet of Lake Erie. Nearly every day Kearns and Trainer Jimmy Deforest
reported that I was shaping up much better than Willard.
But when I saw big Jess across the ring, without an ounce of fat on his huge frame, I wondered if Kearns and Deforest had been bringing me
pleasant but false reports to bolster my courage. I won't say I was scared as I gazed at Willard, but I'll admit I began to wonder if I packed
enough dynamite to blast the man-mountain down.
Since this is not a story of my life, I'll refrain from boring you with details of the fight. I'll wrap it up in a hurry; I'll merely recall that I sent Jess
crashing to the canvas six or seven times in the first round and gave him such a battering in the third session that Jess was unable to come out
for the fourth round. As Willard sat helplessly on his stool in the corner, his handlers threw in the towel just after the bell had rung to start the
fourth. I won the world heavyweight championship on a technical knockout.
I won the ring's most coveted title by stopping a man much larger and stronger than I was-one who outweighed me 65 pounds. I blasted him
into helplessness by exploding my fast-moving body-weight against him. I used body-weight, with which the falling baby could knock out the
truck driver; and I used explosion.
EXPLODING BODY-WEIGHT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT WEAPON IN FIST-FIGHTING OR IN BOXING. Never forget that! I was at my
peak as a fighter the day I met Willard under the broiling Toledo sun. My body-weight was moving like lightning, and I was exploding that weight
terrifically against the giant. Even before the first round was finished, Willard looked like the victim of a premature mine blast.
2. Good and Bad Toledo Aftermaths
The explosives I displayed against Willard were harnessed soon by Promoter Tex Rickard to produce five gates of more than $1,000,000
each. Those receipts were genuinely remarkable; for when Willard and I drew $452,224 at Toledo, that was the largest fight-gate on record. My
five big-money bouts were with Georges Carpentier of France, Luis Angel Firpo of Argentina, Jack Sharkey of Boston, and Gene Tunney of New
York (two).
Because I was a good puncher and because each opponent in those five big-gate fights was a hard hitter, the tremendous publicity given
those extravaganzas made the world more punch-conscious than ever before. Incidentally, don't let anyone tell you Gene Tunney couldn't
punch. Many fight fans have that wrong impression today. In our first bout at Philadelphia, where Gene wrested the title from me, he landed a
right-counter to the head that staggered me early in the first round. I didn't recover fully from that punch during the rest of the fight. And at
Chicago, in our second scrap, Gene drove me to one knee with a head-blow in the eighth round. Mind you, that was after I'd floored him for the
"long count" in the seventh. Indeed, I found Gentleman Gene surprisingly explosive.
Since those golden Rickard-Dempsey days, the public's worship of punch has become more intense; for interest in the kayo sock has been
stimulated increasingly by press, radio and television. And that intense public interest in punch has been one admirable aftermath of the blasting
in Toledo.
In addition, those big gates gave lads everywhere the desire to become good punchers so that they, too, might hammer out riches with their
fists.
Those two effects-public worship of punch and youngsters' desire to hit hard-would have had a most beneficial influence upon the science of
self-defense, were it not for an unexpectedly blighting development.
Unfortunately, my big gates did more to commercialise fighting than anything else in pugilistic history. They transformed boxing into a big-time
business. As a commercial enterprise, the fight-game began attracting people who knew little or nothing about self-defense. Hoping to make
quick money, they flocked into boxing from other fields.
They came as promoters, managers, trainers and even instructors. Too often they- were able to crowd out old-timers because they had
money to invest, because they were better businessmen, or merely because they were glib-talking hustlers. They joined the gold rush in droves-
dentists, doctors, lawyers, restaurant proprietors, clothing manufacturers, butchers, grocers, bookies, racket guys, and pool-hall hangers-on.
Fellows who never tossed a fist in their lives became trainers. They mistaught boys in gymnasiums. Those mistaught youths became would-be
fighters for a while; and when they hung up their gloves, they too became instructors.
It was only natural that the tide of palooka experts should sweep into the amateur ranks, where lack of knowledge among instructors today is
as pathetic as among professional handlers. And that's not the worst. Too many amateur instructors have forgotten entirely that the purpose of
boxing lessons is to teach a fellow to defend himself with his fists; not to point him toward amateur or professional competition with boxing
gloves. To a menacing extent the major purpose of fistic instruction has been by-passed by amateur tutors who try to benefit themselves
financially, indirectly or directly, by producing punchless performers who can win amateur or professional bouts on points.
Not one youth in fifty has any ambitions to become a professional fighter when he first goes to an instructor. That's particularly true among
college and high-school lads. Yet the instructors continue-teaching boys to become "smart" boxers instead of well-rounded fighters. And that's a
downright shame, for punch is absolutely essential in fist-fighting and it's an invaluable asset in amateur or professional boxing. Actually, it's
stupid instead of smart instruction to teach other fighting movements to a boy before he has been taught to punch.
Because of this commercial, win-on-a-point-as-soon-as-possible attitude among modern instructors, the amateur and professional ranks
today are cluttered with futile "club fighters" and "fancy Dans." In the professional game there are so few genuine fighters that promoters find it
almost impossible to make enough attractive matches to fill their boxing dates.
At this writing, lack of worthwhile talent in the heavyweight division is particularly appalling. It's almost unbelievable that the heavy division
should have declined so far since the days when I was fighting my way up in 1917, 1918 and 1919. The class was jammed with good men then.
Jess Willard was champion. On his trail were Carl Morris, Frank Moran, Bill Brennan, Billy Miske, Fred Fulton, Homer Smith, Gunboat Smith,
Jim Flynn and Porky Flynn. And there were Sam Langford, Harry Wills, Tommy Gibbons and Willie Meehan. With the exception of fat Meehan,
any one of those top-fighters could knock your brains out if you made a mistake while facing him. Meehan, although a slapper, threw so much
leather and was so rugged that he and I broke even in our three four-round bouts. I won, we drew, and I lost.
Lack of top-notchers in the heavy division and in most other divisions today reflects the scarcity of good instructors and trainers everywhere.
There are a few good ones lingering on, but they are notable exceptions.
Joe Louis found a good instructor when he was about sixteen. He found Atler Ellis at the Brewster Center in Detroit. Ellis, an old-time fighter,
taught Joe how to punch and how to box. And when Joe turned professional, he went immediately under the wing of the late Jack Blackburn,
grand old-time fighter and one of the finest trainers the ring ever produced. Joe developed into an accurate, explosive "sharpshooter" who could
"take you out" with either fist. He was a great champion.
 3. Punchers Are Made; Not Born
Louis retired as undefeated heavyweight champion in 1949. And I'll bet that, as he retired, Joe considered himself a natural-born puncher. I
know that's probably true because I had the same mistaken idea about myself during my career and for a time after I hung up my gloves,
If you're a punching champion it's natural for you to get the wrong appreciation of yourself. Hundreds of admirers pat you on the back and tell
you what a "natural-born" fighter you are. And when you're swept along toward seventh heaven by the roar of the crowd in your magnificent
moments of triumph, it's easy to forget the painstaking labor with which you and your instructors and trainers and sparring partners fashioned
each step in your stairway to the throne. It's easy to forget the disappointments and despair that, at times, made the uncompleted stairway seem
like "Heartbreak Hill." Ah yes, when you're on the throne, it's easy to regard yourself as one who was born to the royalty of the ring.
In your heyday as champion, you can't "see the forest for the trees." As an historian might express it, you're too close to your career to get the
proper perspective of highlights and background. It was only after I had retired and had begun trying to teach others how to fight that I
investigated the steps in my stairway-analyzed my own technique. And that was a tough job.
You see: by the time a fellow becomes a successful professional fighter, nearly all his moves are so instinctive, through long practice, that it's
difficult for him to sort out the details of each move. Accordingly, it's nearly impossible-at first-for him to explain his moves to a beginner. He can
say to the beginner, "You throw a straight right like this." Then he can shoot a straight right at a punching bag. But the beginner will have no
more conception of how to punch with the right than he had before. That's the chief reason why so few good fighters developed into good
instructors. They failed to go back and examine each little link in each boxing move. They tried to give their pupils the chains without the links.
When I began breaking down my moves for the purpose of instruction, I found it most helpful to swing my memory clear back to the days
when I was a kid at Manassa, a small town in southern Colorado. I was fortunate as a kid. My older brothers, Bernie and Johnny, were
professional fighters. They had begun teaching me self-defense by the time I was six years old. In my break-down, I tried to recall exact details
of the first fundamentals my brothers taught me. I jotted down every detail of those instructions I could remember, and every detail that dawned
on me while I was practicing those early fundamentals.
Then I moved mentally across the Great Divide to Montrose, Colorado, the town where I spent my latter youth. There was more interest in
fighting in Montrose than in any place of its size I've ever known. It was a town of would-be fighters. In some Montrose families there were four
or five brothers who wanted to be fighters. I found plenty of kid sparmates there and plenty of instructors- some good, some bad.
My investigation of technique took me on a long mental journey as I followed my fighting trail through the West, where I had worked at any job
I could get in mines, lumber camps, hash-houses, on ranches, etc. I was fighting on the side in those days, and I was getting pointers on self-
defense from all the old-timers I met. Each trainer, each manager, each fighter had his own ideas and his own specialities. Like a blotter on legs,
I absorbed all that information in those days, and then discarded what seemed wrong.
Swinging back through Memory Lane, I found myself, at twenty-one, making my first trip to New York, where I fought Andre Anderson, "Wild
Bert" Kenny and John Lester Johnson, who cracked two of my ribs. Although that New York trip was a disappointment, I received much valuable
fighting information from top-flight heavies like Frank Moran, Bill Brennan, Billy Miske and Gunboat Smith, when each dropped into Grupp's
Gymnasium.
And I recalled the details of my later post-graduate courses in fighting from Doc Kearns and Trainer Deforest, one of the best instructors in
the world. Deforest's career went clear back to the days of Peter Jackson and London prize-ring rules.
That geographic investigation of my own technique really humbled me. It hit me right on the chin with the booming fact that since I was six
years old, I'd had the opportunity to learn punching from a long parade of guys who had studied it. I had absorbed their instructions, their
pointers, their theories, in Manassa, Montrose, Provo, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Goldfield, Tonopah, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, St. Paul,
and many other cities-before I met Willard at Toledo.
And let me emphasize that in the days when I was drinking in all that information, the fighters, trainers and managers knew much more about
punching than they generally know today. You must remember that when I fought Willard in 1919, it was only twenty-seven years after Jim
Corbett had beaten John L. Sullivan at New Orleans in the first championship fight with big gloves. While I was coming up, the technique of the
old masters was still fresh in the minds of the fighting men. Now, it is over thirty years since the day I fought Willard. During those years fighting
became "big business"; but in the scramble for money in the cauliflower patch, the punching technique of the old masters-Sullivan, Corbett, Bob
Fitzsimmons, Tommy Ryan, Joe Gans, Terry McGovern, and others- seems to have been forgotten.
 4. Why I Wrote This Book
Naturally, I didn't make the detailed exploration of my fighting past all at one sitting. I'm a restless guy; I don't like to sit long in one place. But I
became so interested in the work that sometimes I'd spend an hour or two hours at it. I did it on trains, in planes, in hotel rooms, and at home.
Max Waxman, my business manager, used to say, "For cryin' out loud, Jack, what are you writin' down all that junk for? You're supposed to
be a memory expert. You must have all that dope about fightin' right in your own head. Seems silly to see you sweatin' and fumin' and writin'
notes about stuff you got at your fingertips."
Well, the log of my mental journey from Manassa to Toledo filled 384 pages with closely written notes in longhand. I'm confident those 384
pages represented the most thorough study ever made by any prominent fighter of his own technique and of the pointers he had received
firsthand from others.
But my job had only begun. I spent several months studying that mass of information and separating it into the different departments of self-
defense-under sections, subsections, sub-sub-sections, etc., I waded through it again and again. I combed it; I seined it; I sluice-boxed it for
details I needed in each smallest sub-sub-section. And then, into each slot I dropped any additional knowledge I had gained since Toledo.
Those different departments, with their various minor brackets, gave me for the first time a clear panorama of self-defense.
I was pretty proud of my panorama. I was confident at last that I could take the rawest beginner, or even an experienced fighter, and teach
him exactly what self-defense was all about.
Then I became curious to compare my panorama with those of other men in boxing. I talked to many fighters, trainers and instructors; and I
read every book on boxing I could buy.
My conversations and my reading left me utterly amazed at the hazy, incomplete and distorted conceptions of self-defense possessed by
many who are supposed to be experts.
Perhaps I was unjustly critical. Perhaps none of them had had my unusual opportunities to get a blueprint that mapped all the fundamentals,
at least. Or perhaps they took many fundamentals for granted and did not include them in their explanations.
At any rate, I CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT SELF-DEFENSE IS BEING TAUGHT WRONG NEARLY EVERYWHERE, FOR THE
FOLLOWING MAJOR REASONS:
1. Beginners are not grounded in the four principal methods of putting the body-weight into fast motion: (a) FALLING STEP, (b) LEG
SPRING, (c) SHOULDER WHIRL, (d) UPWARD SURGE.
2. The extremely important POWER LINE in punching seems to have been forgotten.
3. The wholesale failure of instructors and trainers to appreciate the close cooperation necessary between the POWER LINE and WEIGHT-
MOTION results generally in impure punching-weak hitting.
4. Explosive straight punching has become almost a lost art because instructors place so much emphasis on shoulder whirl that beginners
are taught wrongfully to punch straight 'without stepping whenever possible.
5. Failure to teach the FALLING STEP ("trigger step") for straight punching has resulted in the LEFT JAB being used generally as a light,
auxiliary weapon for making openings and "setting up," instead of as a stunning blow.
6. Beginners are not shown the difference between SHOVEL HOOKS and UPPERCUTS.
7. Beginners are not warned that taking LONG STEPS with hooks may open up those hooks into SWINGS.
8. The BOB-WEAVE rarely is explained properly.
9. Necessity for the THREE-KNUCKLE LANDING is never pointed out.
10. It is my personal belief that BEGINNERS SHOULD BE TAUGHT ALL TYPES OF PUNCHES BEFORE BEING INSTRUCTED IN
DEFENSIVE MOVES, for nearly every defensive move should be accompanied by a simultaneous or a delayed counterpunch. You must know
how to punch and you must have punching confidence before you can learn aggressive defense.
My dissatisfaction with current methods of teaching self-defense was the principal reason why I decided to put my panorama into a book.
I realized, too, that my explosive performances and big gates in the "Golden Decade" were indirectly responsible for current unsatisfactory
methods; so, it was my duty to lend a helping hand.
Moreover, it's my impression now that thousands of boys and men throughout the world would grasp eagerly at the chance to learn how to
use their fists-how to become knockout punchers in a hurry.
Never before has there been such need for self-defense among fellows everywhere as there is today. Populations increased so rapidly during
the past quarter-century, while improved methods in transportation shrank the globe, that there is much crowding now. Also the pace of living
has been so stepped-up that there is much more tension in nearly every activity than there was in the old days.
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