Boxing Quotes
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"From now on, match me with one guy at a time."
- Harry Greb to his manager after a bout with Mike Gibbons
_______________________________________________________________________
 
Mike: "Let's dance around for the first couple of rounds then in the 3rd round I'll let you knock me down."
Tom: "Sounds good Mike. When do you get to knock me down?"
Mike: "Anytime I feel like it."
-Mike and Tom Gibbons at a boxing exhibition. Story from members of the Gibbons family.
_______________________________________________________________________
 
George Barton, veteran manager, referee, and newspaperman said, "No question about it, Mike Gibbons was just the greatest boxer who ever lived. He might have been a great wrestler, or great in any sport, but boxing was his game. I never expect to see another as good. One had to see Mike in action to fully appreciate his skill and understand why he was called the Phantom. He was the personification of perfection in boxing and punching technique, graceful motion, and ring generalship."
-From Blair, George D. Mike Gibbons: The St. Paul Phantom
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"I think Mike Gibbons was probably the greatest boxer that ever put a glove on. They called him The Wizard, The Phantom of the ring and he was that. I boxed with Mike about ten years and I never really hit him a hard punch during the time. Repeating again, Mike was one of the great boxers of the age."
-Tom Gibbons in a radio interview in 1949.
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"For many years I was known merely as Mike's younger brother.   It wasn't until Mike retired temporarily along about 1919 that I really became known as Tommy Gibbons, heavyweight contender.  For a long time we both were middleweights and Mike was regarded as the uncrowned king of the division.
However, that was all right with me.  I don't think anybody ever lived who knew more about boxing than Mike did, or still does, for that matter.  He began where the average boxer left off.  He was to boxing what Einstein was to science.  Even after I learned what the game was all about and thought I knew most of the answers, Mike used to amaze me with some new trick he'd developed."
-Tom Gibbons in the 1943 Fight Stories article "How I Fought The Champs"
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"My brother, Mike."
-Tom Gibbons when asked who was the best boxer that he ever fought.
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"Gene Tunney called Gibbons 'the perfect boxer.' Gene said he learned more about the technique of boxing and punching from watching Mike training in New York gymnasiums and in actual fights in Gotham than he learned from any other individual associated with the fistic sport.
Moreover, Tunney has told me it was Gibbons' clean-cut victory over Jack Dillon, the mighty light heavyweight from Indianapolis, that inspired in him the belief he could whip Jack Dempsey."
-Barton, George A. My Lifetime In Sports. Minneapolis: The Olympic Press, 1957
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"For the first and only time, I was more worried about getting hurt by the crowd than by the guy I was fighting. I got a pretty good blast when introduced. The crowd was hollering and raising hell. I looked around for my bodyguard, a colorful New York character named Wild Bill Lyons, who packed two pearl-handled pistols and used to talk a lot about his days in the West. Wild Bill was under the ring, hiding."
- Jack Dempsey about being introduced to the crowd at the Dempsey/Gibbons fight in Shelby, Montana July 4, 1923
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"Nailing him was like trying to thread a needle in a high wind."
- Jack Dempsey about Tommy Gibbons bout in 1923
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"Dempsey hits people only slightly harder than a bus…"
- 'Twas the Fight before Christmas by Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly
Posted on CNNSI.COM: Tuesday December 21, 1999 05:34 PM  Issue date: December 27, 1999
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"Dempsey could beat anybody he could hit. The only reason that he couldn't do anything with fellows like Tunney or Greb or myself was he couldn't hit us."
- Tom Gibbons in a radio interview in 1949
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"I've seen Dempsey fight and I was impressed with his lack of knowledge."
- Gene Tunney before out pointing Jack Dempsey in 1926
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"Honey, I just forgot to duck."
- Jack Dempsey to his wife Estelle after losing his World Heavyweight title in 1926
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"No matter what nationality or color is champion, we Irish like to say that we have a heavyweight champion, Gene Tunney retired, who can come back and take the title at any time."
-Tom Gibbons in a 1949 Radio Interview
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"When I was growing up, there was always somebody who wanted to pick a fight with me. I'd say, I'm not a famous boxer, my father is. If you want to fight somebody, go fight my Dad."
-Richard Gibbons about growing up the son of Tom Gibbons.
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"Dempsey himself said you only spend so much time in the spotlight before they change the bulb. He had a very clever way with words."
- Roger Kahn author of  A Flame of Pure Fire : Jack Dempsey and the Roaring 20's
-In a review by Caple, Jim. St. Paul Pioneer Press Staff Writer. Published: Monday, November 1, 1999
_______________________________________________________________________
 
Virginia Gibbons Schweitz, a secretary in the jail in 1935 for Sheriff Tommy Gibbons, her uncle, recalled the excitement as the nation's public enemies were brought to jail in handcuffs; "It was a romantic time", said Schweitz the gangsters "were like celebrities Every time they came down the jail steps to go to federal court ... shackled with FBI agents, oh, God newsmen all over". -- Virginia Gibbons Schweitz interveiw with author 12/30/1992.
-From the book John Dillinger Slept Here -- "A Crooks Tour of Crime & Corruption in Saint Paul" -- 1920 - 1936. By Paul Maccabee -- MHS Press
_______________________________________________________________________
 
Doc Barker volunteered to teach Ramsey County Sheriff Tommy Gibbons how to load and fire the new (Thompson) machine guns supplied to guard the Baker - Karpis gang, but the Sheriff declined the offer. Dispatch Pioneer Press -- 1935.
-From the book John Dillinger Slept Here -- "A Crooks Tour of Crime & Corruption in Saint Paul" -- 1920 - 1936. By Paul Maccabee -- MHS Press
_______________________________________________________________________
 
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my bedroom and was in bed before the room was dark."
-Muhammad Ali
_______________________________________________________________________

 

Home
 
Tommy & Mike Gibbons Preservation Society Page All Rights Reserved
Web Host: 1&1 Internet .com