Extremely good. I rank him #8 all time at MW. At one point he was 45-0-1 in fights at & around MW and 120-2-11 in total career fights. Fred Apostoli broke his breastbone in his next fight & he ended his career 3-3, retiring age 25 (with a 1 x fight losing comeback 3 years later), with a final ledger of 123-5-11. He beat Gus Lesnevich, Vince Dundee, Ken Overlin, Gorilla Jones x 2, an inexperienced Fred Apostoli, Babe Risko x 3, Solly Krieger, Swede Berglund, Allen Matthews, Frank Battaglia and Johnny Romero. He had 2-handed power and was a beautifully balanced boxer. He looks pretty good to me on film too - This content is protected Here he looks on a completely different level to a Vince Dundee who had only lost 18 of 149 fights - This content is protected
Steele looks like a badass on film. He's one of those guys that has a huge record AND passes the eye test. I think a guy like him would be at the top or very near the top in any era. He looks kind of wild at times but notice how he's often moving and bobbing around and hw he has an excellent sense of timing and distance. I'd love to have a guy like him around today
He was very good he also never did the old tired roadwork instead he did sprints and I agree pounding the pavement is some old school thinking that needs to go.
I used to mention him all the time but there is limited film and seemed to be limited interest in that era of middleweight. I have him between #6 and #8 anytime I do middleweight list.
Same here. I typically rank the top 5 MWs as SRR, Greb, Monzon, Hagler, & Hopkins, in that approximate order. Steele could rank anyplace behind them IMO. IMO, the only reason Steele isn't remembered today in the same lofty company as Monzon or Hagler is b/c his title reign (& career as a whole) ended in such a sudden & anticlimactic fashion (generally attributed to either a recurring sternum injury &/or the sudden death of his longtime manager/mentor). He had everything else that could be expected of an ATG - a ton of talent, a great numerical record (only 2 losses over his 1st 100-plus fights), and an impressive resume. Consider his list of victims: Gus Lesnevich (future LHW champ & HW title challenger) Ceferino Garcia x2 (future 2-time WW title challenger & MW champ) Fred Apostoli (HoFer & future MW champ) William Gorilla Jones (hofer, former MW champ) Vince Dundee (former MW champ) Babe Risko x3 (reigning MW champ) Ken Overlin (hofer & future MW champ) Solly Kreiger (future MW champ) & that's just the HLs - he also beat other standout contenders of his day like Frank Battaglia & Paul Pirrone. H2H, I think Steele from '36-37 (just prior to his sternum injury) has no worse than a 50-50 chance vs. nearly any MW in history. His blowout of Lesnevich ranks among the best wins by anyone under 160 lbs IMO. This content is protected
He looks so good there. A little bit of a penchant for getting nailed with counter rights but that hook and that jab, that footwork, and he employed a nice lead right. There's a lot of special about that guy on film.
