Which old timer HOF fighters are you least/most impressed with after watching footage

who from this era of fighters does or doesn't impress you from watching footage of them?
http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/oldtimer.html

least impressed
bob fitzsimmons
jack johnson, still one of the greats at heavy
sam mcvey

most impressed
sam langford
benny leonard
gene tunney

 

Jack Johnson was so underwhelming. I read 'Unforgiveable Blackness' and really wanted to give Johnson a chance to reinforce his record with solid ability on film, and he completly did not impress.

 

I agree with that, except that I wasn't terribly impressed by Langford. Would definitely add Corbett to the "least impressed" category.

 

Most impressed: Joe Gans
Least impressed: Jack Johnson

 

im not very impressed with the posters in this thread.

 

corbett for sure. i feel langford was a great stalking, offensive fighter from what i've seen and he was almost always the smaller man. pacquiao is sort of doing the same thing today but not near on the scale that langford did.

 

i came here to post jack johnson and was terrified for the pantsing and wet willies i'd receive as a result...thankfully a couple of cats i respect posted him first

i echo bojak: sam langford didn't woo me

honourable mention to charley burley

 

of the guys we have decent footage of, or a lot of? I'll try not to repeat any of the topic post's

Least:
Sam McVey
Stanley Ketchel(doesn't look the destroyer his record indicates at all)
Jim Jeffries

Most:
Joe Gans
Packey McFarland
Tommy Gibbons
Tommy Ryan(in that sparring clip)

Corbett looks great in the Tunney sparring footage.

 

good call on gans. meant to put him in the original post.

 

Nice from you to mention Ryan, he get´s so overlooked even on here. :thumbsup

 

Johnson has never impressed me on film but looks spectacular compared to McVea and Jeanette.

Leonard and Gans look great. Tunney looks thoroughly modern and scientific, but then he was at the doorstep of boxing's greatest few decades.

 

I'm not sure if that clip is actually him though. The IMDB of the only filmed footage of ryan is 1899 and this clip is Jeffries training for Ruhlin in 1901. So I may actually be wrong. Which makes me wonder who that is sparring with Jeffries.

Also: The footage we do have of Wills is pretty... Uninspiring. Although it's understandable given how old he was.

Mickey Walker, Ted Kid Lewis, and Freddie Welsh look pretty good to me as well.

 

Yeah, Gans looked good in what I've seen of him. Leonard looked better imo, but he also came a bit later.

 

There is clearly an issue of film quality in many of these cases, and the availbale fights might not do the fighters credit in some cases.

Having said that.

I was not impressed by the film of Stanley Ketchel, a fighter I have to rate verry highly based on resume.

For contrast, I was verry impresed by what I saw of Tommy Burns.

Given that Ketchel did better vs common opponents, this is interesting to say the least.

 

No love for SRR?