Boxing related damage.

tonyevs · Post by **tonyevs** » 12 Mar 2006, 19:55

I recently read an article about Arturo Gatti and concern about him suffering long term damage due to his long boxing career.

It got me thinking of past greats who suffered in later life and it was quite alarming in that a lot of the really true greats suffered, Louis, Armstrong , Robinson, Ali and even Tunney I heard suffered mental problems late on.

Maybe it’s a coincidence and law of averages but I’d like to know if any of the big names saw out their last days in a dignified way.

Also, I have read Rocky Graziano`s autobiographies , the last one was real terrible, but what I would also like to know was did he see out his last days in a good way, his last book was 1981 and he was still in the showbiz scene, what did he do after?

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 13 Mar 2006, 02:10

.. a friend of mine who is also a friend of floyd patterson tells mehe checks on him from time to time but floyd is no longer able to come to the phone...not coherent.

aaron pryor took a lot of big punches in his career, but his problems (other than his eye damage) were caused more by inability to handle success and hangers on than by boxing itself. he has done a remarkable job of of pulling himself up from drug addiction to become an asset to his community, so he might be considered one who is living life with decency and a sense oif dignity.

sugar george costner, who died within the past few years overcame blindness caused by boxing and a lack of education to get a college degree and be a productive and muxch admired member of society in the last decades of his life....so chalk another one up with a positive finalé.

i hadn't read anything about gene tunney's troubles until i read it here. tunney lived a long life,so it's possible that it was just the ravages of age that brought abut any difficulties. i'm interested in any information about him in this regard.

all i can think of off hand.

barry · Post by **barry** » 13 Mar 2006, 02:22

Jaclem---Have you ever visited the Tunney website? They have a lot of articles, old newspaper clips and old magazines articles about Tunney and also around three complete books. It's a really good site. I'd like to see a lot more sites like it about the older fighters.

http://www.genetunney.org/

barry · Post by **barry** » 13 Mar 2006, 02:26

I have a newspaper clip about his daughter supposedly killing someone, which was in an earlier IBRO Journal, but no one ever followed up on it.

Trent · Post by **Trent** » 13 Mar 2006, 02:27

Jake lamotta took alot of punishment, how is he doing in his old age? does he still have his marbles?

barry · Post by **barry** » 13 Mar 2006, 02:31

The last time I seen LaMotta, he looked pretty good...about as good as anyone could at his age, which is pretty amazing considering some of the punishment that he did take against some of the heaviest-handed fighters to ever lace up a glove!

barry · Post by **barry** » 13 Mar 2006, 02:34

I have always been curious about Simmie Black. Being that he was never anything more than a punching bag in his career no one evers writes about him, but I would love to know how he is mentally...he was knocked out right at 100 times and lost like 160, or 170 total bouts. I have always wondered what his mind is like today.

tonyevs · Post by **tonyevs** » 17 Mar 2006, 19:24

The Gene Tunney problems I reffered to were a little thing I read awhile ago.

It was something like his daughter married an older english guy, of aristocracy or something and she murdered him, at the trial she got sent to a mental hospital because she was suffering from some mental problem and this was given as the reason Gene Tunney hit the bottle and ended up a bad way...I could have this all arse backwards

it was awhile ago.

Can anybody fill in the Graziano bit though?? love to hear he ended his last years in a dignified manner.

So sad to hear of Floyd patterson though, it seemed to come on him so quickly, the last interview I saw of his he looked so young and healthy..

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 17 Mar 2006, 20:12

..graziano died of alzheimers, although i have no idea how long a siege it was. i hope it wasn't a long one.

Expug · Post by **Expug** » 17 Mar 2006, 20:15

Rocky was very popular after his career in showbiz, appearing on the Martha Raye show regularly. He was quite the celebrity.

barry · Post by **barry** » 17 Mar 2006, 20:45

Graziano's first auto biography is really good.

Expug · Post by **Expug** » 17 Mar 2006, 22:22

Just remembering something about that book , Rocky said he got pissed off at Jackie Gleason because he was poking fun at Rocky for one reason or another. Rocky stretched him for the count. Those were really differint times. :P

tonyevs · Post by **tonyevs** » 18 Mar 2006, 11:22

Jaclem wrote:..graziano died of alzheimers, although i have no idea how long a siege it was. i hope it wasn't a long one.

Sad to hear of that, his last auto was about 5yrs before he died and he wrote (ghost written obviously)it as if he was full of vitality.

Alzheimers does seem to be the scourge of the old brigade :(

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 18 Mar 2006, 11:41

tonyevs wrote:Maybe it’s a coincidence and law of averages but I’d like to know if any of the big names saw out their last days in a dignified way.

Max Schmeling lived a long, productive and healthy life.

Expug · Post by **Expug** » 18 Mar 2006, 18:22

I always heard that Jack Sharkey lived a long life too. Was an accomplished Fly fisherman in his later years.

KO Artist · Post by **KO Artist** » 18 Mar 2006, 18:49

Tunneys daughter married an Englishman and lived in England.

She killed him and spent the rest of her life in a mental institution in Chesham, Bucks. About 8 miles from Watford.

Jaclem · Post by **Jaclem** » 19 Mar 2006, 03:13

..sharkey and schmeling were a near tie for years as the two oldest heavyweight champs. sharkey had a decline into dementia in his very latest years as i understand it was brief and he didn't suffer badly....it was never diagnosed as far as i know as the more insidious alzheimers. as mentioned, he spent many many years as a fisherman and going to events that fishermen go to.....i was never sure just what those were but when i met him he was involved in one.

Roll With The Punches · Post by **Roll With The Punches** » 19 Mar 2006, 05:35

Lamotta seems to be doing great

clear speech and still smoking cigars

KOJOE90 · Post by **KOJOE90** » 19 Mar 2006, 07:09

KO Artist wrote:Tunneys daughter married an Englishman and lived in England.

She killed him and spent the rest of her life in a mental institution in Chesham, Bucks. About 8 miles from Watford.

I mentioned this fact on this forum about a year ago and nobody believed me.

JC · Post by JC » 19 Mar 2006, 07:42

Trent wrote:Jake lamotta took alot of punishment, how is he doing in his old age? does he still have his marbles?

Last I heard (a couple of years ago) he was engaged to a woman about 40 his junior! So it must not just be his brain that's still in working order.

-KOKid- · Post by **-KOKid-** » 21 Mar 2006, 06:29

KOJOE90 wrote:
KO Artist wrote:Tunneys daughter married an Englishman and lived in England.

She killed him and spent the rest of her life in a mental institution in Chesham, Bucks. About 8 miles from Watford.
I mentioned this fact on this forum about a year ago and nobody believed me.

Don't see why someone wouldn't believe that, it was never a secret that Tunney's daughter killed her husband

Tunney did not handle it very well and took to heavy drinking. He was an alcholic for the last years of his life.

The book "Gene Tunney: The Golden Guy Who Licked Jack Dempsey Twice" by John Jarrett, is an excellent bio of Tunney despite it's dorky title. I have recommended it here before and will gladly do it again. They have it at Amazon.com/.co.uk.

-KOKid-

Chuck1052 · Post by **Chuck1052** » 21 Mar 2006, 15:14

Even if Gene Tunney had problems with alcohol towards
the end of his life, it doesn't mean that he had brain damage
at the time. By the way, Tunney had a son, John, who
became a U.S. Congressman and then a U.S. Senator
from California.

Jimmy McLarnin seemed to be doing very well in his
old age, but did suffer from dementia during the
last few years of his life, dying in a nursing home
in his late nineties.

It seems that so many former fighters suffered from
some form of dementia when they became older. Yes,
a number of the said fighters apparently did quite
well for a number of decades after their respective
careers ended, but suffered from a very noticable
form of dementia towards the end of their lives.
Maxie Rosenbloom, Mickey Walker, and Dave
Shade should be added to the long list of ex-fighters
who suffered from some sort of dementia in
they became older.

- Chuck Johnston

Boxing related damage.

Boxing related damage.

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