Karl Mildenberger 1966 vs Axel Schulz 1995

Not even close, Karl was in with a prime Ali while Schulz was fighting the fossilized remains of George Foreman and lost a close fight.

 

Mildenberger was better

 

Karl Mildenberger began his pro boxing career in 1958. During his boxing career he defeated Von Clay in 1963 and Eddie Machen on Feb 3 1966. Karl was tall and awkward for a southpaw, gave defending Champion Muhammad Ali a competitive title bout on Sept 10 1966 until being being stopped in round 12. Later in the WBA Tournament in Oct 1967, he was dropped and decisioned by Oscar Bonavena. Mildenbeger's last fight was a disqualification loss to Henry Cooper in a European Heavyweight Title bout in Sept 1968. Axel Schultz fought against Champion George Foreman on April 22 1995, but lost by majority decision. On Sept 25 1999, Schultz was defeated by Wladimer Klitchko. Axel is the speedier of the two hypothetical combatants, but Karl's competition is slightly better, Mildenberger on points.

 

Karl by decision.

 

I'm actually one of the few people who thought Foreman beat Schulz, maybe I'll watch it again sometime. But I don't think it's quite the robbery everyone makes it out to be, and I know stats are useless at times. But according to punch stats Foreman actually outlanded Schulz.

 

So if you ‘Get in there’ with Ali that automatically makes you better than Axel Schulz?

 

The question was, after all, who is the second-best German Heavyweight boxer after Max Schmeling (who is undoubtedly the best). I think it's a very interesting question, which is not that easy to answer. I myself care less about a possible "H2H comparison" here.

1. It's just too speculative and not provable (therefore somehow an untenable assertion).
2. It might even be unfair to compare different eras (different circumstances, nutrition, PEDs?)
3. "Styles make fights" means that Fighter A could be better than Fighter B in general, even if he loses to Fighter B (also depends on other opponents)
4. There is little or no footage of many old boxers

Thus, for me the interesting question is: Who was the best/strongest in his respective time?

In addition to Karl Mildenberger and Axel Schulz, I think Walter Neusel and Heinz Neuhaus stand out too.


A short overview:

Karl Mildenberger
The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: #8 (1963), #7 (1964), #4 (1965), #5 (1966), #9 (1967)
- European Champion: 1964-1968 with 6 title defenses
- The courageous southpaw gave Muhammad Ali perhaps his toughest title fight since Sonny Liston. He had beaten an older Eddie Machen + arguably a controversial draw against Zora Folley. He has defeated some good boxers (maybe nearly fringe contenders) like: Wayne Bethea, Joe Erskine, Santo Amonti, Gerhard Zech, Billy Daniels and other…
I think his record has more depth than e.g., Axel Schulz’s

Axel Schulz
He is not ranked by The Ring Magazine's Annual Rating. To be fair he would probably have been ranked if he had been given the decision over Foreman. I think he deserved to win against Frans Botha too. His draw against Henry Akinwande was flattering tough.
All in all, he had 3 Championship fights which is quite amazing but he has almost no notable wins. Perhaps his most remarkable win was against Kevin McBride via TKO in round 9.

Walter Neusel
Walter Neusel, alias "The Blonde Tiger" was almost considered the new Max Schmeling. He was particularly on the rise in 1934 when he defeated King Levinsky and Tommy Loughran close on points in Madison Square Garden. His monthly rating would be interesting at this point. However, later that year he suffered a devastating loss to Max Schmeling. The fight took place in Hamburg. Depending on the source, there were at least 75,000 or even over 100,000 attendances. I think that's the largest attendance at a boxing match in Europe till today.
The strong pressure fighter had some other notable wins as well like against the strong black fighter Larry Gains or Jack Petersen (3x), Ben Foord, Maurice Strickland…
- The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: #8 (1932), #7 (1933)
Btw, he's rated higher by BoxRec's Annual Ratings.

Heinz Neuhaus
- European Champion from 52 to 55 with 4 defenses
- The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: #8 (1952), #6 (1954) (# 4 in November 1954)
- He defeated Dan Bucceroni (allegedly #3 Ring Mag for a short time), Karel Sys, Brian London, Franco Cavicchi, Johnny Williams, Hein Ten Hoff, Joe Bygraves and washed up Rex Layne/Joey Maxim...

Honerable mentions: Hein ten Hoff (European Champion + SD loss to Jersey Joe Walcott) and the more well-known Luan Krasniqi.

Bottom line, I think Karl Mildenberger had the second-best career (after Schmeling). But I'm not sure about the second strongest peak. A case could be made for Walter Neusel here.

 

Schulz wasn’t a bad fighter but I really think Mildenberger was more proven

 

Karl looked better against Ali than Axel did against that aging oil tanker that George was.

 

I’m gonna go with Schulz I really feel he was robbed against George. I also Thought he nicked past Botha too. If he had scored those two wins officially his resume wouldn’t be so bad. He was also fairly competitive in a SD loss to Michael Moorer. He was durable and quick, if not a heavy hitter.

 

I still remember watching that fight live on ABC's Wide World Of Sports, I was chomping on a Clark candy bar and drinking a Dr. Pepper.