Ken Overlin Appreciation Thread

[Seamus]

Here's some segments of his fight with tough Aussie Fred Henneberry. Overlin was a real cutie. Dancing, using his opponent's momentum, funky leads. He lost the hometown decision in this one. Take into consideration he often had to train while aboard ship with the Merchant Marine and the Navy. And he liked his hootch, too. Still he's a great fighter and this clip gives a hint at his style and abilities. (He's in the darker shorts)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC9Q3fl5AWE[/ame]

[Vysotsky]

In his own time they called Overlin the poor mans Harry Greb.

135-19

Ezzard Charles
Apostoli
Hostak
Garcia
Belloise
Brown
Matthews
Balsamo
Seelig

2 Soose losses that both sound like a robbery

Losses to Yarosz, Steele, Marshall, Dundee are nothing to be ashamed of. There are quite a few guys rated in the top 20 MW all time that Overlin should be ahead of. Arguably some that are routinely rated in the top 10. The fact that guys like Overlin are largely forgotten just shows how insanely deep the 30-40's were. Best MW era ever imo

[young griffo]

I like how it was a "hometown decision" based on 83 seconds of heavily edited footage.

That said I am surprised Fiery Fred managed to last that long without getting himself disqualified.

[Flea Man]

Quality fighter. Shame there's not more footage.

[thistle1]

Originally Posted by vysotsky

in his own time they called overlin the poor mans harry greb.

135-19

ezzard charles
apostoli
hostak
garcia
belloise
brown
matthews
balsamo
seelig

2 soose losses that both sound like a robbery

losses to yarosz, steele, marshall, dundee are nothing to be ashamed of. There are quite a few guys rated in the top 20 mw all time that overlin should be ahead of. Arguably some that are routinely rated in the top 10. The fact that guys like overlin are largely forgotten just shows how insanely deep the 30-40's were.

best mw era ever imo

Yes!

[Seamus]

Originally Posted by young griffo

I like how it was a "hometown decision" based on 83 seconds of heavily edited footage.

That said I am surprised Fiery Fred managed to last that long without getting himself disqualified.

Sorry, I only meant that it was in Henneberry's backyard, not that there was home-cooking involved. Most of Overlin's fights were in port towns due to his job, many in Norfolk where he was based for a long time.

[SLAKKA]

Billy Conn from Slibberty would be seething if this thread didn't mention,

Ken Overlin Victor Over Rankins In Fast Fight .‎
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Aug 31, 1936
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[Seamus]

On second thought, the idea of "home cooking" is not far fetched...

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[Seamus]

Yup, sounds like home cooking to me...

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[PowerPuncher]

I like the look of him but he makes Naseem Hamed look technically sound with some of the stuff he pulls

Interesting with his style been likened to Greb, with his boxer mover style, which makes sense to me as I don't a brawler would be as successful as Greb was

[young griffo]

Originally Posted by Seamus

Yup, sounds like home cooking to me...

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Very good find there.

Bizarre hometown scoring isn't exactly unknown here (look at the Rose-Rudkin scorecards for a classic example) but it does sound like a close fight either way.

Henneberry was a very good fighter when he kept his temper in check and dropping a possible hometown verdict is no knock on Overlin whatsoever.

[Bugger]

A sleepless night had me reading some articles on this fight when the thread was started. There was certainly no love lost between the two, there was a bit of a slinging match there. When Overlin got back to the states he told reporters that he thought Fred had used plaster of paris in his gloves.

Overlin went into Henneberry's dressing room before the fight and requested they wrap their hands in front of each other. Fred simply told him to get the hell out of his dressing room

Fred hit back saying the allegations were ridiculous and said when Overlin's gloves were removed a fine white powder trickled from the gloves. Henneberry accused Ken of sprinkling plaster of paris into his wraps intending for his sweat to activate the powder.

A Stadiums Ltd rep (cant remember who) said both alegations were completely false... that both opponents were witnessed by both opposing reps and police.

[young griffo]

Originally Posted by Bugger

A sleepless night had me reading some articles on this fight when the thread was started. There was certainly no love lost between the two, there was a bit of a slinging match there. When Overlin got back to the states he told reporters that he thought Fred had used plaster of paris in his gloves.

Overlin went into Henneberry's dressing room before the fight and requested they wrap their hands in front of each other. Fred simply told him to get the hell out of his dressing room

Fred hit back saying the allegations were ridiculous and said when Overlin's gloves were removed a fine white powder trickled from the gloves. Henneberry accused Ken of sprinkling plaster of paris into his wraps intending for his sweat to activate the powder.

A Stadiums Ltd rep (cant remember who) said both alegations were completely false... that both opponents were witnessed by both opposing reps and police.

Fred was an angry man come fight time and I'm not surprised he bristled at Overlin requesting to see him wrap his hands.

Apparently out of the ring Fred was one of natures gentlemen but in the ring he was a headcase. He fought the great Ron Richards 10 times winning 3 but getting himself DQ'd 5 times out of a career total of 8 disqualification losses!

He was gutsy and wasn't shy of facing the best Australia and the world had to offer meeting top notchers like Richards, Ambrose Palmer and Jack Carroll multiple times and also getting stopped by the all time great Archie Moore but Fred had a red hot dip at all of them.