There always seems to be tendency to discredit fighters of that era, no real film and all but those guys were BRUTAL! Ray Arcel once said he thought Dempsey would be all over a guy named Cassius Clay. Ketchel would brutalize some champs of the last 100 years, not all of course but no one could beat everyone
Five feet nine for a man of 160lbs is not short.I proved this by giving 20 examples of middleweight champions whose height is shorter! You asked for examples of ATG middles whose reach was under 70 inches I gave you three , Add another Cerdan,thats 4!" Now how many ATG middles do you think there have been? Oh and while you are at it, how about a certain undefeated heavyweight champion with only a 68" reach? Serious question ,do you enjoy being humiliated like this? Because if you do it would take some of the pleasure away from it for me.
And yet, by all contemporary accounts, Ketchel was more likely 5-10, and had a reach in the 72" range. WTF is he even thinking? If you want to attack Ketchel's rep as being overblown, there are plenty of more viable avenues for one to pursue besides the one which is easily disproved...
By disparaging Ketchel he hopes to attack Johnson.In the same way in reverse he says 37 years old alcoholic and tubercular Peter Jackson was looking good before Jeffries smashed him ,despite Jeffries himself stating he was a shell.Build up his idol Jeffries opponents to boost Jeffries,tear down Johnson's to deprecate him. Predictable and sublimely stupid tactics from our resident Johnson hater. To address your original question ,there does not seem to be a quality biography out there, strange as his life would seem to lend itself to a great book!
Mendoza' issue with Johnson was the rumor he beat his wife. At least this was what he posted some time back. Those days lots of women were in the same boat. More common than you would think back then.
Does he have issues with. Bobby Chacon Ray Robinson Diego Coralles Jim Corbett Sam Langford Joe Louis Floyd Mayweather To name just a few who hit wives/women. His problem with Johnson is deep,skin deep. Don't kid yourself.
Whats this about Ketchel being crude and sloppy? Convention is so overrated in boxing. The farther away you are from James Toney stylistically, the less technical you are considered. And even worse, when people call you crude, they usually mean it in a bad way. As in you don't possess the knowledge and abilities to compete with guys who have better technique. Lol. Besides loading up on one jab too much, Ketchels skills look great in there. Papke is turning it into a spoiler by closing the distance in fear constantly. You know who had awesome technique? Cliff Anderson.
I want everyone who calls Ketchel crude, unskilled, or sloppy to try this in front of a mirror https://streamable.com/gb6lb
I always give Tyson a pass on Givens. That skank was vile and in my opinion he probably showed restraint in the way he dealt with her. He could have knocked out her teeth and her mothers and would have been justified.
Bravo. Whatever is effective for your physical attributes is what to go with. At the end of the day, it's a game of hitting and not getting hit. And on a profound level, that's about it.
If it's racial, ie. based on skin, then there's a few guys there he'd dislike too. As far as I can tell, some are same skin colour as Johnson. Yeah, I think Mendoza might have issues with Joe Louis sometimes. At least he tends to pick holes in Louis's career at bit more than others do .... although I guess people say I do that with various fighters too ! ( .... I like to think I back up my arguments a little bit better than he does, even when up against bitter opposition.)