I was going to give this thread the title “Saying these things while wearing a fedora and chomping on a cigar does not make them true” but it was a bit too long. Post your boxing myths, as they come to you.
Dundee preventing the attendants from tighening the ropes during the “Rumble in the Jungle”
This one is particularly bad. Angelo was actually calling for the ropes to be tightened. He feared that the looseness was trapping his fighter and allowing him to get hit.
Ketchel Johnson
The myth here states that Stanely Ketchel and Jack Johnson had agreed to fight to a draw. Ketchel then saw his opportunity to deck Johnson in the twelfth round and fired off an opportunistic right. Johnson, surprised, hit the floor, only to easily knock out the much smaller Ketchel when he reached his feet.
The truth is, Ketchel did throw a surprise right hand, IN THE FIRST ROUND. Johnson, wise to the ways of the world, was prepped for the double-cross and rolled with the punch, robbing it of most of it’s impact. Thus began the first of twelve rounds of a punishing boxing match, with Ketchel soaking up much of the punishment. Stanley hit the deck several times throughout the fight and on at least one occassion his corner feared he would not rise.
None of this prevented the infamously stone-fisted middleweight from landing a punch in the 12th that took the shocked Johnson clear off his feet. Johnson took his time in rising. He came to his feet by the end of the eight-count and was fully recovered when a desperate Stanley Ketchel rushed in to finish the job. Ketchel lunged and Johnson slamed home a counter right uppercut that was so vicious it put Stanley down for the count and robbed him of a few of his teeth for good measure.
Dundee tearing open a cut in Ali’s gloves to give him more time to recover.
This actually did take place in the first Cooper fight. However, Ali gained little or no time on the clock for this infringement.