Who Was The Hardest Middleweight Puncher?

GREAT shouts! Lausse had a titanic left hook.

Cyclone Hart
Bennie Briscoe
John Mugabi
Sam Langford
Bob Fitz
George Chip (the hardest punching MW between Ketchel and Steele, imo)
Al Hostak
Steele
Oscar Rankins
Ruben Carter

 

Merry Christmas :smoke:
http://www.ibroresearch.com/?p=3707

 

great list and Surf might I ask; you of all people know about McAvoy, Why does he always get forgotten among the middles, he was Top 10 MW & L-HW simultamously very few others enjoyed such ranking and when it comes to Steele, Apostili & Hostak his mane is ALWAYS forgotten.

understandable among those not overly familiar with that period or him, but he is always left out... it just makes no sense. He was FAMOUS for KO power and stoppages, and denied a crack at the World's middleweight Title, because of his blow out of Risko and wins over a few others including the L-HW cum HW Al McCoy.

apart from the previously mentioned uncertainty and worse an obvious National Pride - Yanks verse the UK, why does Mac get forgotten by those in the know?

just asking, :good.

 

That's a good (and fair) question. I think a large part of the reason was because Jock was fighting so far away for so many years while chaos reigned supreme over the MW division as a whole. There were so many beautiful boxers and deadly punchers clamoring for the middleweight diadem that is was easy to overlook a fighter who was plying his trade thousands of miles away and against fairly unknown fighters. When McAvoy did pop his head into the spotlight, it was usually pretty brief (albeit often spectacular). IMO, Jock should have been over here in the thick of it. He would have made great money, gotten terrific exposure and probably would have been more remembered today.

Here's something to consider regarding the era. Look at Teddy Yarosz' record. It's outstanding. Yet when the question of "greatest MW boxers" comes up his name often doesn't make the cut. Ditto Al Hostak and the MW punchers list (though it was slipped in here). For years Freddie Steele was overlooked horribly. It is only in recent years that he is finally getting his due! Keep in mind that these are all Americans fighting right here in the limelight. That era was replete with great fighters, mass confusion and all with a backdrop of the Great Depression. I think Jock McAvoy was a classic case of an top notch pug coming along in the wrong era. Hard to shine when the lights around you are so bright and the seas so rocky.

Though there is a "national pride" argument that can be brought forth, I can't fully embrace that. First off, because there are too many non-American fighters on the list. Secondly, because Americans don't really give a hoot where a fighter is from. If you're good and you're exciting, then you're going to be liked over here. In all my years of being a boxing fan, I cannot recall one single occasion in which I heard a fellow fight-watcher say that he was rooting for a certain boxer because he was the "American".

A good example of that is Chavez vs Whitaker. Julio was a Mexican fighting an American in America. Yet who was the crowd wild for? Who did they boo? History has plenty of examples of this in America. Speaking for myself, I never cared a bit. When I was at a party watching Hagler-Mugabi I recall clearly that a solid half of the room was for the Ugandan. When Duran fought SRL, about 75% of the room I was in was for the Panamanian. Americans really don't care. I haven't experienced the National pride or jingoism that I see in other countries when a foreigner fights on their soil.

 

Julian Jackson. Just watch his KO of Herol Graham and you'll know what I mean!

 

The ones that come to mind for me are Florentino Fernandez, Lausse for sure, Jackson and McLellan.

 

@ Surfbat

Agreed and Thanks,

I too route for fighters I like or appreciate regardless where they come from, I agree further yet that Americans and many others too from my understanding are 'imparcial' but having lived on both sides of the water it saddens me to see the level of partisanship that is a blight on the British landscape. Doesn't have to be either but it is stinking of it. Four years of research and thousands of reports exposes it 'openly' too.

but as for McAvoy the stats and reports and fight facts are there, and Dempsey called him the greatest Britisher in 20 years to land on these shores, and that included Harvey, Berg and Kid Lewis and a good few little men too that did win a world title... so great reports for Mac but still relatively forgotten, Shame.

apart from a shot at the world middleweight title I always thought him and Steele would have made one of the greatest fights in the divsion. Oh well maybe in Paradise, see you at Ringside. :good

 

Just out of curiosity, why didn't he come to America and throw himself into the mix more often? I'm sure he would have gotten the fights with the big names. He would have made great money and I can't imagine that he didn't have someone willing to sponsor him here. Was he just more content fighting over in Europe? What does your research show?

 

Are you for real?

Would you like to run us through with how Americans in general, and all the American ( Don FVCKING KING ) lickspittles tried everything in their respective powers to deny Lennox Lewis his destiny?

So if you want to talk partisanship, Britain doesn't even come close, once America enters the fray.

 

:good

 

Baddest left hook in the business !

 

Some really great shouts to some overlooked greats in this thread! To add to the soup here are a couple more hidden in a list that usually make my list of very hard hitters between 154-168

Stanley Ketchel
Julian Jackson
Rocky Graziano
Rubin Carter
John Mugabi
Sam Langford
Nigel Benn
Bob Fltzsimmons
Marcel Cerdan
Al Hostak
Carlos Monzon

at 147 Tommy Hearns was frightingly powerful and I don't hink he lost much at 160...