I'd include him in the fabled "white murderer's row", although he wasn't the best of the bunch and came at the tail end of it. White Freddie Steele and Caucasian Fred Apostoli were better, as was the white contender/champion Ken Overlin I believe, perhaps snow white Billy Soose too, not the mention white dynamite Teddy Yarosz and young Billy Conn, the white Irish phenomenon. Also, I'd like to add that Zale was white, which is the second-best thing a 1930s-'40s middleweight can be, only surpassed by being black. He did get beat up once or twice by black fighter though, which usually makes a white fighter almost black in excellence. (although recent research suggest Zale might have been part Jap, still not 100% proven. ) I don't think we even have to mention race though, since Zale was just a great fighter, who happened to be white.
I liked that Dutch contender too.Van Illa:good I'm still disappointed to have learned that Arnold Cream was not actually Caucasian.:-(i
Arnold Cream started out white. That's when he was losing to Al Ettore and Abe Simon. Then he hooked up with the New Jersey mob and they pulled some strings, changed his name, and he became slick and black and took the name of a legendary black old-timer. He starting winning more then. They did the same thing for Count Basie, who started out a a mediocre white hillbilly banjo player. The mob was all powerful in those days.
It was his second choice ,originally he picked the moniker " Whitey Walcott" but for some reason it didn't stick.:think
Yeah the mob was the original Murderers Row and EVERYONE avoided them, not just Polish/American middleweights. I remember Basie when he was only black down one side, his right, he couldn't play piano with his left hand, nor swim with that side of his body, just used to keep revolving in the pool.:-(
It's refreshing to have an intelligent discussion about Zale without SuzieQ turning up and making it all about race. :good
Anything you want to know about that era just ask . ! Not me, I don't know what the f*ck I'm talking about!
It's easy. Just remember 1. Everyone who held the title or got a shot at the title was overrated fraud. 2. Everyone who never got a shot at the title was great. Generally, to make it easier, things were colour-coded.
Things were not that black and white were they? I know the Zebra Kid could have been great but he was very inconsistent. Great one night the next p*ss poor.:-(