Max Schmeling vs. Sonny Liston

Stribling, Risko, Walker, Hamas 2, Louis 1 ... those were good stoppages.

 

I don't see why Louis should be taken out, and I think any kind of stoppage over the best heavyweight in the world from the mid-thirties to the end of the forties is quite a feat. And Schmeling is the only one to do it.

As for others

Young Stribling--rated at the top of the light-heavyweight and heavyweight divisions for years. Schmeling is the only one to stop Stribling in 291 listed fights!!!

Steve Hamas--#1 contender when Schmeling knocked him out, and Schmeling is the only one to stop Hamas in 41 fights.

Johnny Risko--fought them all, and was stopped three times--once when young on an apparent foul which was ruled a KO defeat when his handlers would not let him resume the fight after a 25 minute rest (off boxrec) and in his last fight at 38 years old. In his prime, his only stoppage was to Schmeling. Risko went the distance with Tunney, Sharkey, Berlenbach, Delaney, Stribling, Baer, Uzcudun, Godfrey, Retzlaff, etc.

Frankly, Schmeling's record looks a lot better under scrutiny. He stopped the guys no one else did.

Williams is not nearly this impressive,

and DeJohn is so far out of the running that it is hard to understand how anyone thinks he could be compared to Schmeling at all.

 

I would give Schmeling a chance against anyone, to be honest.

He was a real out of the box thinker, and the more you boxed by the book, the more he hit you round the head with the book.

It was difficult to prepare for him effectively, which is why I value Liston's ability to think on his toes highly!

 

I lean to the idea that DeJohn probably hit harder, but so what?

You might be able to find a journeyman who hit harder than either of them.

 

DeJohn?

I don't understand the big play this fellow is getting as a top puncher.

He has three name KO victims,

Alex Miteff--this is the most impressive. Miteff was undefeated at 12-0, if inexperienced. DeJohn stopped him in one. Over his career, Miteff was KO'd 8 times in 39 fights.

Charlie Powell--had bounced into the ratings by stopping old Nino Valdes in 8 (Valdes is listed as weighing a grossly overweight 244, but I don't know if that can be accurate), and then lost to Alonzo Johnson before facing DeJohn. Powell had already been stopped 3 times. DeJohn got him in less than a minute. Over his career Powell was stopped 8 times in 39 fights.

Billy Hunter might have been the most durable name fighter DeJohn stopped. He was KO'd five times in 32 fights and DeJohn got him when he was on a 4 KO defeat in 5 fight end of career collapse.

So DeJohn never stopped a reasonably durable contender in his career.

How does this fellow get rated over Schmeling as a puncher?

 

okay, but I am having a bit of a problem figuring out what these sort of lines mean

"DeJohn probably hit harder"

"DeJohn . . . may have more pure power"

I don't see what evidence one could use to go in this direction,

even with the "probably" and "may"

What the claim seems to me to be is that because Schmeling needed a lot of punches to stop Louis, and DeJohn blew out Powell early, DeJohn had the harder punch.

But Louis' and Powell's chins are not remotely comparable.

 

Louis was floored10 times.

 

So?

Dempsey was knocked down more than that and he has been generally credited with having a good chin.

Louis fought just about everyone. Eight of his knockdowns were against heavyweight champions. The other two to Buddy Baer and Tony Galento, by rep big punchers.

If Powell had fought Louis' opposition, I think he would probably have been knocked out thirty or more times.

 

The bulk of Dempsey's kd's were when he was a middleweight teenager.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_s1ohwBbJA

 

Max did well and he KO'd Quality, the other guys did not prove in the ring that they were even close

 

I actually saw that one back in 1959,

but like I said, I don't think knocking out Powell proves much.

"Dempsey"

Fair enough, but he has nothing like the top level fights Louis had,

and Flynn was certainly not a bigger puncher than quite a few of the guys Louis fought.

By the way, two of Schmeling's stoppages were as a teenager.

He and Liston were both stopped three times after they turned twenty.