Ketchel v Langford: 1910 20 rounds for the MW title.

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by lufcrazy, Aug 3, 2012.


  1. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    what I'm saying is, I don't believe it to beyond the realm of possibility that ketchel (had he not been murdered) could have returned to top form hence proved a match for langford at 160.
     
  2. mcvey

    mcvey VIP Member Full Member

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    Do you then concede he was slipping ,as I originally stated?

    I think he may have come back, though by 1910 Mizner was continually looking for and finding him drunk in brothels.
    I doubt strongly that he could have recovered his form, he was a poor trainer at the best of times.
    I think Sam would beat him in an honest fight.
     
  3. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    This is becoming an issue of semantics here.

    I don't disagree with anything you've said though.

    The only I disagree with is the notion that it's a foregone conclusion that his slip would continue and thus should be the deciding factor when considering this matchup.
     
  4. he grant

    he grant Historian/Film Maker

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    The best Langford , fighting w handcuffs off, crushes the best Ketchel early.
     
  5. burt bienstock

    burt bienstock Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    It must be remembered thar when Ketchel fought Langford in April, 191o, Stanley Ketchel weighed about 12 pounds LESS than Langford did... and that is a lot of weight to
    spot a 172 pound immortal like Langford...A nd Ketchel was a shot fighter by this time,
    on opium and drinking dissipation, so much so he was forced to try to 'recuperate' by a friend's ranch in Missouri, where he met his tragic end shot in the back by a jealous
    farmhand Walter Dipley, just 6 months after his fight with Sam Langford...
    So, would the 160 pound version of Langford beat the prime Ketchel of 1908 when
    Stanislaus was the terror of the MW division ? I have Ketchel a 7-5 favorite over a 160 pound Langford at 160 or less...But P4P I have the much bigger framed Boston Tar Baby...
     
  6. LittleRed

    LittleRed Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    Wasn't middleweight 158 in that era?
     
  7. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    Tantalisingly close.

    It would almost certainly have happened had Ketchel not been murdered.
     
  8. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    And what do you think the odds were of stan sorting himself out and returning back to form?

    Given 8 month and a warm up fight against papke I think he could have got back to peak.
     
  9. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    Hard to say. Some scholars of Ketchel think that he was on the cusp of a very steep decline, but he clearly still had big ambitions.

    He was looking at a fight with Sam McVea amongst other things.

    It is a tragedy of history, that one of the key fighters who was willing to give black contenders a chance, was taken from us early.
     
  10. lufcrazy

    lufcrazy requiescat in pace Full Member

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    I'm not sure we'll ever know the truth on this matter ya know.