Rudyard Kipling: "They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind, so I left them sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

I have read several places that for a fighter to be "punch drunk" was not known during the bareknuckle days. It makes sense that the heavy gloves allow a man to hit his opponent harder in the head than he could otherwise. One proponent of this opinion was Louis L'Amour. Better known for being a great western writer, he also had a long and successful career as a heavy-weight fighter.