I've been doing as usual quite a bit of reading as of late and multiple opponents referencing how hard Savold and Brennan hit ... you rarely see them mentioned in any discussions about hard punching heavyweights .. thoughts ?
I once or twice had conversations with Bob Jackson, who grew up in Minnesota and fought as an amateur based out of Albert Lea in the early 1940s. Bob worked out at a gym either there or in the Minneapolis area and was a friend of Jackie Graves and Vince Foster, and saw quite a bit of Lee Savold in training. After he moved to Tacoma in the 1950s, he trained Pat McMurtry and middleweight George Wright for a while. Jackson told me Savold had a wicked left hand, both as a jab or a hook. Specifically, Bob said Lee had a ripping left jab that could bust a guy up with just one punch if it landed right. Jackson said he had never seen a jab like it since. If you look at Boxrec, Savold had a lot of TKOs so maybe Jackson's observations had some merit. Savold's record is pretty spotty. In my opinion that came from his upbringing as a St. Paul-style fighter. He was taught to feint and counter-punch, so if the other guy didn't come forward, his fights could be a bit on the boring side. Consequently, he lost quite a few decisions, but if the other guy would tango, Lee could look pretty impressive. He has always fascinated me because he grew up in the same town as my father's family and was in the same grade-school class as the uncle who was my godfather. I know there are four of his fights on film, his two fights against Bruce Woodcock and the Louis and Marciano fights. He looks pretty good against Woodcock in both bouts, and he busts Bruce up just like Jackson described. The Louis and Marciano fights were Lee's last two fights. Looking at the film of the Louis fight, Joe looks huge compared to Savold, so I think Lee would have been too small to give Louis much trouble at any time in their careers. Against Marciano, Savold makes Rocky miss a lot of punches, but his reflexes are too shot for him to take advantage of the openings. If Lee were six or eight years younger, their fight might have been a pretty good tussle. By the way, according to one of my uncles, folks in Lee's hometown of Canby, MN pronounced his surname as 'Say-vuld with a long "a" and an "o" sounding like a short "u" and with the accent on the first syllable. When he first turned pro people called him "Lee Savoldi" after the then famous Notre Dame football player/later pro wrestler Joe Savoldi. After a short while, people dropped the "i" and finally shortened Lee's surname back to its original spelling of "Savold", but changed its pronunciation to Sa-'vold with a short "a" and a long"o" and with the accent on the second vowel. In other words, boxing fans ended up pronouncing Lee's surname the same way they pronounced the first two vowels of Joe Savoldi's surname.
Bill Brennan record--77 wins, 18 losses, 8 draws, 49 KOs (KO percentage of 47.5%) (best KO victims--Boer Rodel, Joe Cox, Soldier Kearns, Tom McMahon, Tony Ross) Lee Savold record--104 wins, 46 losses, 4 draws, 1 NC, 72 KO's (KO percentage of 46.8%) (best KO victimes--Lou Nova, Lem Franklin, Bruce Woodcock, Eddie Blunt, Nate Bolden, Johnny Flynn, Maurice Strickland, Buddy Walker, Buddy Knox) Both men lost to the best men they faced consistently. As punchers, Savold has the edge because he was able to knock out a lot more name fighters, if generally second-tier guys. He comes off as a gatekeeper type who was not a threat to the top men but dangerous to the next level and capable of pulling off wins over such as Nova and Baksi. Brennan's big win was a decision over Battling Levinsky, whom he fought several times. His rep rests heavily on the tough fight he gave Dempsey in 1920. Savold's overall statistical record looks more mediocre than it was because of a very slow start over his first four years. Through 1937 he was 34-23-2 with only 18 KO's. From 1938 on he was 70-21-2 with 54 KO's. Savold's strong suit was his longevity. He was rated from late 1939 to the summer of 1951. In comparison, Eddie Machen was rated from October of 1956 to October of 1965, and Zora Folley from January of 1957 to March of 1967. Savold was a rated contender longer than Brennan's entire career. I would be interested in any feedback on these two as punchers.
