First Man Standing - Fightland story on 19th c. wrestling

[milosz]

I've been enjoying the shit out of Vice's Fightland MMA blog. Good stories that move past the usual UFC gossip.

http://fightland.vice.com/blog/first-ma ... art-1-of-3
Evan "The Strangler" Lewis makes me want to find a book on that era of combat sports.

[DikTracy6000]

Bob Hoffman used to write about Strangler Lewis. Some of the pics shown must have been from the latter part of his career. I'm sure it was same guy, except BHOF used to call him Ed Strangler Lewis. Evidently, Bob didn't know him that well.

[milosz]

Apparently a different guy who got the Strangler nickname for a resemblance to this cat.

[Fat Cat]

Two different guys.

Strangler Evans:



Strangler Lewis:



Evans was active in the post-Civil War era and was a legit wrestler. Lewis was active in the post-WWI era, and basically ushered in kayfabe "fake" wrestling. Interestingly, Lewis was also the better wrestler of the two, and considered by some the best ever. Lost like 13 out of 6,000+ matches, real and fake, because nobody could make him go over if he didn't want to. He was also protected by police men like this guy, John "Tigerman" Pesek:



Who was basically known for fucking people up.

[DikTracy6000]

Good find FC. Since you have a lot of the old York Barbell courses IIRC, wasn't Strangler Lewis used to demo some of the routines? I really regret not having these anymore.

[Fat Cat]

Not that I'm aware of. Lewis was not a physical specimen by the late 40s and 50s. He was a very heavy drinker. But then, so was Hoffman.

[TomFurman]

Uncle Bill DeThouars told me that he knew and trained with Gene LeBell's mentor... a "Dutch ?" something or other. He said he was "crazy"...

I love stories about these guys.

[ledfistaco]

Great column.