Gene fullmer

He had a hell of a chin. SRR cracked it before anyone.

 

One of the toughest fighters to date. Kept fighting against Wilf Greaves after getting his jaw broken and won the decision. Greaves was on a winning streak too.

 

I remember in an old Ring Magazine article that Mickey Walker said that Gene Fullmer would have done well in any era. Pretty heady stuff coming from an ATG like Walker.

 

Tiger stopped him as well. Fullmer was pretty fortunate to get a draw in their middle fight. To be fair Fullmer was really at the end of the road by then after a lot of bruising fights, but Tiger was special.

 

He's got to be a great, and he's a perfect example of how film often lies when it comes to picking H2H winners. You've got a guy who is practically zero flash, but the names on his resume say it all. Had they never fought in reality, nobody would be picking him to have a winning record over Sugar over 4 fights. There's depth beyond those obvious top-end wins, too.

The beating a past-prime Fullmer put on Paret, unfortunately, also played a part in the Kid's tragic outcome with Griffith IMO.

 

Watch his fight with Lausse. He got cracked for sure.

 

A very good fighter, just below the very best.

But still very sharp in later life. I had a video in the 80s in which he talks about the 'perfect punch', and he said he never felt a thing. All he remembers is sitting in his corner seeing SRR running around and saying to his trainer how energetic Robinson was, and it was only when his trainer told him the fight was over he realised what had happened.

 

I believe Fullmer gave harding hitting Florentino Fernandez a shot at his title.....and basically just out boxed Fernandez..surprising the fans with that type of performance.

 

Paret was heading for doom over 5 fights in 13 months....fighting Gaspar Ortega (L), Griffith (L), Griffith (W), Fullmer (L), Griffith (L). The fights were 2-5 months apart....like they showed for home TV back in the old days.

Fullmer said later he really beat up Paret bad (for a MW title version).

(I watched that fight on TV myself)

 

No wonder fighters paid a price given their schedule and how long bouts were permitted to continue.

 

That whole family was nails!